To find a woman's maiden name in a wedding announcement or obituary, you must at least know the approximate date of the event, the name of groom for wedding announcements or the full name of the deceased for obituaries, and the state and city or town where the event took place (or where the announcement or obituary was likely to have been published). If you do not have the minimum information to access a newspaper article, you can either:

Get help finding some of the minimum information by selecting one of the following items,

Name

Marriage date

Marriage place

Death date

Place of death

click the Back button on your browser to return to the list of other places where you can find maiden names, or

read the paragraphs below for a few additional tips.

Finding maiden names

You can look to a woman's children's names for clues to her maiden name. Do any of them have unusual first names or middle names? Unusual middle names may be the woman's maiden name.

Make sure to check photo albums, scrapbooks, diaries, and family Bibles at home. See the topic Finding information at home for more information. Also check for local histories. See the topic Finding previous research.

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