What's Wrong With Women?

In genealogy, researching women can prove challenging. Women didn't leave as many records as men, which makes them difficult to trace. They had fewer rights, so before marriage their fathers would have acted for them, and after marriage their husbands would take over that duty. I have also found that there were way too many women named Mary! 

So, what's wrong with women? Patriarchy! 

Here's to hoping I'll learn more about my biggest mystery women someday:

1. Margaret (possibly Weiss or Whyle), born about 1854 in Missouri. She had at least three common-law husbands who were Albert Friend or Freund, Joseph Guyot, and Valentine Appel. She had children with each man. She died in St. Louis on 26 December, 1932.

2. Mary Ann Ware, born about 1822 near Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England (where she was baptized). She married John Dunsford, a rope maker, in 1841 at Upton Pyne, Devon. They had four children, two sons and two daughters, and lived in Clifton, Bristol, England. They immigrated to the United States in 1851, arriving at the Port of New Orleans. Mary Ann and the two girls then disappeared, never to be located again (yet). John remarried in St. Louis before 1854.

3. Malinda Ann Hembrey, born in North Carolina in 1824. She married James Thompson in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1844. The couple moved to Tennessee before their first daughter was born in 1846. They lived in Gibson County, Tennessee, then Obion County, Tennessee. Her husband was murdered in 1864. Malinda died in June 1876 in Obion County, Tennessee.

3. Mary [unknown], married Henry Barkley before 1753. They lived in Rowan County, North Carolina. They had 6 children. Some people say her surname was Knox, but I have found no proof of that although there were several Knox families near them. They all had daughters named Mary. Henry and Mary attended Thyatira Presbyterian church. Henry was either Scottish or Scots Irish. His origins are also a mystery.