[Just mythoughts]

Taking a man’s last name is not treating a woman as “chattel.” It is the woman honoring the man’s position in the house. If my wife would not take my name, I wouldn’t have married her. I would view that as extreme disrespect. I feel the same way about hyphenated names. ‘Pod.

I do NOT intend to dismiss the notion of taking of the man's name. BUT because of my ancestry searches I keep hitting dead ends because the woman's lineage disappears unless there is special care to record her family.

[sauropod]

...because of my ancestry searches I keep hitting dead ends because the woman's lineage disappears unless there is special care to record her family.

The main problem I have found in cases like this is the timeframe of the records you are looking at. I have run into this with an ancestor that died in 1867. I don't know her maiden name, but her husband was a pioneer settler in Ohio in the early 1800s. He had a very common first name for the time period and I am left trying to sort out who is who without good records.

So I think I am understanding what you are saying.