Speaker for the Dead: A Genealogy Blog
LGBTQ Genealogy – Part 20
Putting it all together
Throughout this blog series, I’ve written about finding clues in the genealogical record that might raise a rainbow flag. Remember the confirmed bachelor or spinster aunt was not by default unlucky in finding a spouse. Perhaps they did have long-term partners but there was no legal record […]
LGBTQ Genealogy – Part 19
LGBTQ Archives
Perhaps an LGBTQ ancestor left behind a collection of love letters like Willa Cather or Charity Bryant. Or maybe there is an existing dairy confessing details of their love life. An ancestor may have been mentioned in a queer organization’s newsletter. […]
Taphophilia
Taphophilia
I love cemeteries.
I am a taphophile. And maybe you are too.
Taphophilia is “a love of funerals, cemeteries and the rituals of death.” [1] You might also call me a Tombstone Tourist but I like the term taphophile best.
Cemeteries are art, history, genealogy, class, religion all rolled into one. A grave allows a tangible […]
LGBTQ Genealogy – Part 18
Long Before Gay Marriage
LGBTQ folk have lived in committed relationships for centuries and many scholars have written about historic queer relationships. As a young gay man, my introduction to gay history came from reading Judy Grahn’s book, Another Mother Tongue (1984, Beacon Press). In this book, […]
LGBTQ Genealogy – Part 17
From Domestic Partnership to Marriage
In August 1979, gay rights activist Tom Brougham proposed a new category of relationship called “domestic partnership” to address the inequality of job benefits only extending to heterosexually married couples. Tom and a group of dedicated LGBTQ activists, which included my husband Leland Traiman, brought the […]
Antonia MARTÍNEZ Estrada
Profile – Antonia MARTÍNEZ Estrada
May is for mother’s day, so I am deviating from my LGBTQ Genealogy series this month to share some of my own genealogical writing. This is a profile of my maternal great grandmother, Antonia. I was lucky to meet her a couple of times. Once when […]
LGBTQ Genealogy – Part 16
Gay Professions
There is a reason for the stereotype of the gay hairdresser. Not only is it a profession some men gravitate towards, but it is also practical for survival. Homosexuals that are discovered risk losing their employment or being blackballed from their professions. This is still true today in parts […]
LGBTQ Genealogy – Part 15
Gayborhoods
The first gay pride marches happened in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago in 1970, one year after the Stonewall Riots. Why in those cities? Because they had the largest LGBTQ populations at the time. Military Blue and Dishonorable discharges created concentrations of queer folk in these major […]
Deadname
Writing about Transgender People
Recently, a reader of this LBGTQ Genealogy blog series asked me how to properly document trans family members. That is an excellent question, worthy of its own genealogy education blog post.
In genealogy, there is precedent to document women with their maiden names, not their married names. This […]
