The article concerns one settler family of Montevideo and focuses on the familial group's attitudes and strategies, and rules of coexistence and forms of adaptation. We use notarial sources, cabildo (town council) documents, list of inhabitants, books of marriage, and traveler reports. Emphasis is placed on the family's women, their everyday realities, and their perception of the environment and of their role inside the family and social circle. Their behavior is examined through analysis of marriage, procreation, and inheritance, as well as through their personal relationships with the familial group and in the community. This examination of the demographic, socioeconomic, cultural, and psychological contexts of female activities is meant to develop a model for dealing with the history of the family in marginal zones.