CG It was a dark and stormy night, and at midnight I still was looking for a lost lady. I was, buried in stacks of research notes, trying to sift through clues to learn an ancestor's maiden name. This woman was born in 1808, died in 1848, and never appeared in any census under her own name. Her tombstone gives only her married name.
Every genealogist can relate to the problem of finding information to identify female ancestors.
It probably is the most difficult problem in genealogical research. Part of the enigma is the great duplication of female given names. Polly, Molly, Libby, and Sally. So identifying which Elizabeth was the mother of your ancestor, requires more than just luck. Even finding a marriage record often does not solve the problem of determining her maiden name.