I have recently found the maiden names of two of my female ancestors both on my maternal grandmother’s maternal lines. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this because oftentimes, women’s entire identities were wiped away when they got married. The first one is my 4th great-grandmother Martha Cypress nee Blizzard. Here she is on my My Heritage tree, which I have not yet updated.

I found this birth record for Noah Cypress, born December 12, 1865, in Surry County, Virginia. Noah was a brother of my 3rd great-grandfather James Cypress. The parents are listed as Doila Cypress and Martha Blizzard.

On the 1860 Census, I see Dolley and Martha Cypress were neighbors with Wilson and Martha Blizzard. While I believe these are probably Martha Cypress’ parents, I will look for a marriage record to verify.

I did update my Ancestry tree.

Since they are on the 1860 Census, they were free before the end of the Civil War. I look forward to exploring this line.