Profile Text
Sanger in 1922, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division, LC-USZ62-29808 , Underwood & Underwood
Birth Name: Margaret Louise Higgins
Date of Birth: September 14, 1879
Place of Birth: Corning, New York, U.S.
Date of Death: September 6, 1966
Place of Death: Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Ethnicity: Irish
Margaret Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator, nurse, and writer. She popularized the term “birth control,” as well as opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. She established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
She is the daughter of Anne and Michael Hennessey Higgins, a stonemason/stonecutter, who had been a drummer in the Civil War. Her father was an Irish emigrant, from Galway. Her maternal grandparents were also Irish. Her sister was Progressive Era radical feminist Ethel Byrne. Her niece, Olive Byrne, Ethel’s daughter, lived with psychologist William Moulton Marston and attorney and psychologist Elizabeth Holloway Marston; and at least partially inspired William’s creation Wonder Woman.
Margaret was married to James Noah H. Slee, until his death. She had three children with her former husband, architect and artist William Sanger. William was a German Jewish emigrant, born in Berlin.
Margaret’s maternal grandfather was named Joseph Purcell. Joseph was from Cork.
Margaret’s maternal grandmother was named Johana/Johanna Dugan/Duggin.
Source: Genealogy of Margaret Sanger (focusing on her mother’s side) – https://www.geni.com