Posts in February 8, 2016

I still have room on my research trips coming up later this year. If you’ve been thinking of making a trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake or the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, consider joining us: Family History Library 2016 Trip–May 2016 Allen County Public Library 2016 Trip–August 2016

While reading Staking Her Claim: Women Homesteading the West, by Marcia Meredith Hensley, I came across a reference to a woman referring to a single neighbor man as a “grass widow” in a letter written by Julia Erickson in Winnett, Montana, in 1911 (page 111). Doing a little research, I discovered that men could be referred to as “grass widowers” just in the same way as women could be referred to as “grass widows.” The reason was the same: the spouse was “gone.” Of course, gone can mean quite a few things from temporarily away, to separated, to divorced. But use of the adjective “grass” was not limited to women. It could apply to men as well.