The history of womankind can only be properly explored by looking at the writings of women themselves. Because of this, family archives are essential to reconstruct women’s biographies historically, which frequently are unknown. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how family archives, and especially biographical writing, make it possible to learn more about the universe of women, in particular in nineteenth-century Portugal. Since most of the examples available concern the aristocracy of the time, some characteristics can be detected that define this writing and the social group it belongs to.

Palavras-chave:
women’s writing; family archives; aristocracy; history of women; history of nineteenth-century Portugal

Sobre o livro:
O objectivo da obra é o de apresentar arquivos muito pouco conhecidos, ou mesmo desconhecidos, interrogá-los e analisá-los à luz de novas perspectivas históricas e arquivísticas, descobrir as “vozes” de quem os produziu – e formular, assim, novas questões de investigação. Divide-se em três partes: “Recovering, reconstructing and (re)discovering family and personal archives”; “From a social, political and cultural history of the families to a social history of the archives”; “Public preservation and promotion of family and personal archives”.

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