How many people as they start diving into their ancestors’
lives wish they knew what a typical day was like? What did the people do on a day-to-day
basis? What were their interests and how did they actually do certain things?
Often when visiting a living history museum such as Old
Sturbridge Village, Williamsburg or Genesee Country Museum, you will see
re-enactors going about their day. Men are doing farm or other vocational
chores. There are demonstrations of blacksmithing, gunsmithing, wheelwrights and
others. The women are gardening or in the homes cooking a meal. They are
spinning and weaving cloth. All kinds of crafts are being demonstrated by
people throughout the village in the way they would have been typically done
during that time period. The jobs were usually done by either one gender or the
other with little overlap, which is why men are typically found in some places
and women in others despite the fact that today, either gender would be likely
to be interested in and doing a particular skill.
Unfortunately, in today’s modern world, we often don’t have
time for this slower pace of doing things. Caught in the hurried shuffle of
life, we never learn these older skills that can now be done by machines, or if
we do, we push them aside and forget about them as we go about our busy days.
It would be interesting for people who are able to do these
skills to be able to present them to fellow genealogists so that we could learn
more about their ancestors. I’m not sure how this would be done. Would it be a
hands on demonstration at a meeting? A YouTube video? Maybe a booklet or
lecture talking about that craft? I’m not really sure, I was just thinking that
it would be interesting to find out more and have a chance to learn these for
yourself if you wanted to.
I have learned some of the older skills, as I’m sure most of
us have from time to time. I can cook from scratch and have done some cooking
over an open fire while camping, so am confident I could put together at least
a basic meal in that manner. I have been slowly teaching myself to can and can
now do water bath canning and am eager to learn more about pressure canning
when I get a chance. My gardening skills are somewhere in the intermediate
level and would be better if only I had more room for a garden! In the
needlework area, I do counted cross-stitch and a few embroidery stitches along
with basic sewing and mending techniques. I would love to advance into making
clothes and quilting, but need somebody to help with one-on-one instruction in
that area. I’ve also done countless crafts over the years thanks to my talented
mother.
Two skills that I would love to have, but have never been
able to learn are crochet and knitting. My mother, although usually a great
teacher, cannot teach me. Every time she has attempted over the years, she has
gotten impatient that I don’t catch on immediately. How could I not be able to
do this being her daughter? I need to have time and a patient teacher who is
not related to me to teach me those skills.
I’d also love to learn more carpentry and basic repair type
skills. Although I can do simple tasks in these departments, I cannot do
anything very complicated.
What skills and crafts would you like to learn? Did your
ancestors do them as well or would it be a completely new arena for you? Any of
the skills that I have, have been ones that my ancestors would have definitely
done. The household tasks, of course, and I know that many of my ancestors have
done crafting over the years, especially Mom. As I descend from many, many
farmers, the carpentry and repair skills are definitely there, not to mention
that my maternal grandfather was a skilled carpenter! So, I am not looking far
back to find others that have done the same type of thing. Learning these
crafts and finding how things have changed over the years can be an exciting
adventure!
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