This week in "Along Those Lines ...", I'd like to talk about our ancestors' everyday lives.

Asking Questions
When I was a child, my parents often let me spend the night with my Grandmother Morgan and my aunt, Mary Allen Morgan. At that time, my grandmother was close to ninety. She was born in 1873 when Ulysses S. Grant was President, and lived during the administrations of 19 presidents. She reveled in the fact that she had lived through wagon travel, train travel, the invention of the automobile and the airplane, the radio, the telephone, the phonograph and television. She lived through the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and saw little sense in U.S. involvement in Vietnam. She remembered the sinking of the Maine, the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Bismarck and other famous vessels. Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Eddie Rickenbacker were more than names to her; they were real people whose careers she had followed. She remembered them all.

One of the delights I took in these visits to my aunt and grandmother was sitting with them at night before bedtime and listening to them talk. My frequent request was, "Tell me about when you were little girls." We'd turn off the lights, one or the other would begin speaking, and I was transported to another time and place. In these magical evenings, I learned about my ancestors and they came to life for me. I learned about the Civil War as my grandmother had learned about it at the knees of her uncles, men who had fought the battles. I learned about the lives of the women of the family. These family stories and traditions fell on the ears of an eager listener, one whose thirst for more information soon became the quest of a lifetime.

I realize that not everyone is so fortunate as I was. Circumstances made it impossible for many people to enjoy such a treasured relationship with another relative, one who knew so much and was willing to share. While it is impossible to turn back the clock and make time for such discussions with all of our ancestors, it is possible to learn about our ancestors' everyday lives.

Learning About Our Ancestors' Lives
I've tried to stress the importance of studying the history of the times and places in which our ancestors lived. Only through an understanding of these historical periods can we understand the factors that influenced our ancestors' decisions and actions. Understanding these factors often helps us second-guess our ancestors' actions.

Local histories, essays, diaries, letters, and period novels can provide a picture for us of everyday life for our ancestors. While not precisely the life of our specific ancestors, studying these resources provides insight into the way people lived at the time.

George Francis Dow's book, Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog/
product.asp?pf%5Fid=15746&dept%5Fid=10202000, is one of the best resources around describing the houses, occupations, clothing, manners, customs, trade and manufacturing, sports, games, money and other day-to-day items of the 17th century in that area.

J.B. Alexander's book, The History of Mecklenburg County (NC) 1740-1900, is a classic, detailed historical description of a specific area. While covering noted personages and historical events, it also details such day-to-day events as meal preparations, farming practices, recreation (including fox hunting!) and social practices of these times.

Perhaps you've "lost" an ancestor in the 1840s and don't know where to look. Perhaps it's time to look on the other side of the continent. In the 1840s, thousands of people uprooted themselves and their families to travel westward in search of good land and a new life. Some rushed to California in search of gold; some made their way to Texas and other Midwestern or mid-South states to start ranching. The Mormons made their way to Utah in search of religious freedom. Still others traveled to Oregon and the promise of a wonderful new region for agricultural settlement. What do you think the trip was like? Never fear; there are several excellent books available. Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters From the Western Trails, 1840-1849, Volumes 1 & 2, edited and compiled by Kenneth L. Holmes, and Lillian Schlissel's Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey are excellent collections of materials describing life before, during and after the westward migration by wagon.

If you are researching your African American ancestry, there are two outstanding new books covering the earlier period of slavery. The first is Ira Berlin's Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. The second is Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery, written by Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith, and the WGBH Series Research Team. Mr. Berlin's book is a compelling study of the evolution of the institution of slavery, and what the experience was like from the perspectives of both the slaves and the masters. The latter book is the companion to the PBS series of the same name that has been telecast across the country this week. Both of these are "must reading" for a clearer understanding of slavery and its impact on the people who lived at the time and the country as a whole.

The books listed above (bibliography follows at the end of the column) all provide excellent starting points for your historical research into the everyday lives of your ancestors.

Conclusion
Hearing stories of events from people who lived through them is an exciting experience. It helps bring otherwise dry material and dead ancestors to life. I encourage you to talk with your older relatives and gain a better understanding of the past. Listen to their stories and their perspectives, their hopes and dreams, their disappointments, the stories of their parents and siblings, the things they lived through. These people have wonderful stories to recount of people and events emblazoned in their memories. The stories are part of your family tradition and, as genealogists and family historians, it is our honor and duty to help perpetuate them.

Neither my aunt nor my grandmother lived to see a man land on the moon, though they both longed to be part of the experience. I wonder what they would think of our computers, the online services and the Internet. These are part of our everyday experiences. How will we communicate details of our everyday lives to future generations?

Happy hunting

George

Bibliography:
Alexander, J.B. The History of Mecklenburg County (NC) 1740-1900. 1902. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1996.
(Note: This book was originally published by The Observer Press, Charlotte, NC, in 1902.)

Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge, MA: The Belknapp Press of Harvard University Press, 1998.

Dow, George Francis. Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1988.
(Note: This book is available in soft cover. It was originally published in 1935.)

Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters From the Western Trails, 1840-1849, Volumes 1 & 2. Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

Johnson, Charles et. al. Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1998.

Schlissel, Lillian. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey. New York: Schocken Books, 1992.

This column originally appeared in the Genealogy Forum on America Online.

You may send E-mail alonglines@aol.com. George Morgan would like to hear from you but, because of the volume of E-mail, is unable to personally respond to each letter individually. He also regrets that he cannot assist you with your personal genealogical research.

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