Widow

A widow is a woman who has lost her husband by death. Webster's 1828 dictionary gives exactly that sense. Once she remarried she was no longer a widow, and records then use her new married name.

Wills, deeds and estate papers name a widow because she kept rights in her husband's estate (see Dower). A census entry of Wd (widowed) usually means her husband had died before census day, though a deserted wife sometimes called herself a widow (see Grass widow).