Sep 29
Now many of you and your ancestors grew up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My husband at age 72 still will eat at lunch four days a week P & J. You everyone can relate to this food item. But here is how it all started. In the early 1900s, peanut butter was a new food that was considered quite elegant. Tearooms in Manhattan, NY se...
Sep 27
Here is a common item seen all the time in cities, towns and even rural areas. Yet it is a more recent item for our ancestors. Its history does not go back to the turn of the 20th century. Automobiles only just started appearing on roads at the beginning of 1900. Thinking about stop signs, traffic lights and even yield signs would be years in the ...
Sep 25
Many individuals may have inherited from their father, uncle, grandfather, etc., a pair or several pairs of men's cufflinks wore at the end of their shirts by their wrists to close the opening. These pair of men's clothing fasteners have been popular for many years with all types of styles. Check with relatives to see if they have any ancestors' c...
Sep 23
Your ancestors may have lived on a farm. Most farms also had a barn, and those barns may have been painted red. But why? It started hundreds of years ago that barns were painted red. In the 1700s blood from slaughtered animals was used as the paint. When it dried it turned a dark, burnt red. Later farmers used linseed oil to help seal the barn ...
Sep 21
You find an old newspaper clipping someone in the family saved years ago. They may have been kept in a book, in a drawer, or a notebook, but now it needs preserving. Newspapers are acidic and crumb if handled too much. Start first by scanning it, making a digital copy. There are desktop scanning machines or even now you can use your I-Phone which ...
Sep 19
Anyone placed in a prison for whatever reason had poor care and an uncomfortable place to live. Not only poor food was available but they usually had to do manual labor. This intense work could include doing laundry, pumping water, digging ditches or even useless labor just to keep the prisoner busy. Many prisoners were fed a diet that was some...
Sep 15
The boom of the 1920s saw many new items on the market to make life more convenient and offer more leisure time. Many of the new inventions of the 1920s when your grandparents or parents lived are still used by you today. They may look different today and be more efficient but they began in the 1920s. Having frozen food such as a frozen bag of ...
Sep 13
One hundred years sounds like a lifetime, but that was the Roaring Twenties and more than likely when your grandparents and great grandparents lived. So what was the cost of items 100 years ago? But keep in mind, wages were much lower. The average household income in the United States in 1920 was about $3,269 a year. So starting with a nice goo...
Sep 9
It is very interesting to see changes in styles over the different decades of your ancestors. This can be seen in photos. Some changes came from the early 1900s into the 1910s. There would even be a bit of a fashion limbo, where hemline started to rise slowly. Appearances were long, vertical lines and no fitted curves. What was added were speci...
Sep 7
Jobs or occupations done by your parents, grandparents or great grandparents may not be done in the workforce any long – plenty of professions have vanished over the years as society has changed and technology has progressed. A noticeable one is Switchboard Operators – those 'hello girls' who connected your phone calls. Not done anymore. ...