LABOR DAY

 

This picture is attributed to Linnaea Mallette. 

I wish I knew the origin of it.

Notice that child laborers are included.

VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY : SOCIAL WELFARE HISTORY PROJECT : CHILD LABOR

Excerpt: Child Labor Defined: Historically, “child labor” is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. However, not all work done by children should be classified as child labor. Children or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays.

TO MY SWEETHEART

 

AMERICAN THANKSGIVING

Image from PublicDomainPicture.net

Thank You For Reading Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

 

THANKS!

Thanks for reading ANCESTRY WORSHIP Genealogy.  

It's my labor of love, my way to share, but it's also real nice to know that 

people are reading and finding the information I present interesting and useful!

CELEBRATE THE FOURTH

 

BONNE ANNEE

 

BIRD TREE

 

FAMILY HISTORY WRITING : QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW HOLIDAYS HAVE BEEN SPENT IN THE PAST COMPAIRED TO NOW

 A Jewish friend of mine long ago told me that her family always went out for Chinese food on Christmas. She said this was because the Chinese restaurants were the only ones open on Christmas.  Her family did not send or expect Holiday cards.

HOW DID YOUR FAMILY CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS EVE? CHRISTMAS?  NEW YEARS EVE?  NEW YEARS DAY? or HUNUKKAH (CHANUKAH) the Jewish Festival of Light?  Or perhaps you've established a KWANZAA celebration?

How did your great grandparents celebrate it?

Your grandparents?

Your parents?

Your family then?

Your family now?  

Some things to think about:

Was there a change in religion or philosophy that changed the way the holiday was celebrated or ignored?

How did having children who are now all grown up change the use of these holidays? For instance maybe your family used to stay home but now they go skiing.

Maybe your family uses these holidays for family reunions?

You used to send cards through the mail and now?

(Don't throw those cards with personal messages out!)

Did they decorate Christmas trees?  Perhaps switch one year to an artificial tree? Plant live ones?

Did they hang stockings - real socks - big or small? - or put out shoes?

What, if anything, did they tell you about Santa Claus?

At what age did you believe or not believe?

Is your family one to spend on gifts or do you just give token gifts?  Do children get individual gifts or does each person provide one gift for one person?

Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

What foods do you like to prepare for yourselves or guests?  Or do you go out to eat or order in a restaurant meal?

Do you include alcohol in your celebrations?

Did your school have crafts that were for sale for gift giving?

Where did people live? What was the climate during the holidays?  (Perhaps they lived south of the equator and the holidays were during the summer?)

This is the time to look through your archived cards, letters, and photos.

Happy Ones!

C Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

DECEMBER IS DOWN TIME FOR GENEALOGY BUT UPTIME FOR COLLECTING FAMILY STORIES : ASK YOUR GRANDPARENTS

If you see the holidays as a time to visit or gather with family, it's the best time for collecting family stories, through interviewing or at least recording conversations with family members.

How I wish I had known to do this when I was very young and still had grandparents who were alive.

It took years of genealogy research to even know what questions I should have been asking.

These questions are to spark conversations.  There might be whole conversations on any of these topics.

Here are some questions YOU might ask your grandparents.

1) When you were a child, were your birthday's celebrated?

2) How many brothers or sisters did you have? What were their names and name them from oldest to youngest?  

3) Was there a brother or sister you felt especially close to?  Why?

4) How did you learn to cook?  Was the food you learned to cook from a particular culture?

5) Was there a favorite recipe or meal that your mother or father made that you liked when you were growing up.

6) What did your mother or father do to make money?  Did they talk to their children about their finances?

7) As a child did you have a sense that you were rich or poor?  How old were you when you had this realization?

8) Were your parents religious?  What church did they go to?  Did you attend church as a family?  Were there religious differences p0layed out in your home?

9) What school(s) did you go to?  What was your favorite subject(s)?

10) Did you have a favorite teacher or coach?  Why did you like them?

11) Did you have any nicknames as a child?  Did you like that name?

12) Did you work as a child?  For money?  (Did you babysit, deliver newspapers, or mow lawns for cash, for instance?)

13) What languages did your grandparents speak?  Were you raised speaking more than one language?  Did you go to school in a certain language?

14) What games did you play with other children or alone as a child?

15) Did you like to read as a child?  What subjects did you like to read about?  Did you have favorite books or magazines?

16) What games, if any, that were physical did you play as a child, on the school yard, or in the backyard or neighborhood?  (Did you play softball, kickball, tag, tennis, badminston, cricket, or some other game?)

17) Who was your best friend growing up?  Tell me about that person.

Asking your GRANDPARENTS questions about their childhood and upbringing may help you get a feel for the values and personalities of these people who are your GREAT GRANDPARENTS.  Today people are living much longer lifespans in general and more people are having the great-grandparent experience.  But many of us never get to meet them.

If your grandparents have moved on, ask your parents what they remember about their parents.  Sometimes the questions you ask spark the memories.  

C  Ancestry Worship Genealogy  2021

HOW I WISH

 

Do you remember WISH BONES?  I can't remember a turkey wish bone but I do remember chicken. Whoever had it in their portion of the meal would discover it, announce it, have a person sitting near them take the other (greasy) end, they'd both make a wish, and somehow pull and break the bone.  Who ever got the bigger piece was supposed to have their wish granted.

Remember those who do not have this Thanksgiving! Please share!

AUTUMN BOUQUET

 

VINTAGE GLASS CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

 

These look like the ones that my parents put on their tree, along with a few that they had from their own families that were hung during World War II.  As a child I spent hours looking at the ornaments on our tree, as well as the glistening silvery tincil and big fat primary colored bulbs. 

HO HO HO and a BOTTLE OF RUM

Isn't it funny that we associate the term HO HO HO with Santa Claus, a gifter, and pirates - thieves?

I was thinking about this irony today, as I prepare for an iffy Holiday Season.  

I got into the holiday spirit a couple weeks ago.  I began to think of holiday songs and ran them in my head as I cooked and cleaned.  "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."  

I watched some Christmas shows meant for children with some wonderful animation but not holy or traditional messages; there was cartoon violence, compilated plots that are hard to accommodate.  I eliminated these as possibilities for a senior friend - her grandchildren.  Instead I chose "A Snowy Day." (Which is multicultural and about inclusion and neighborhood sharing.)

I wrapped some presents bought on an extremely low budget.

And then something went haywire with a bill I've faithfully paid for three years.  If I had sent too small an amount by error or the company had increased rates and a notice hadn't arrived, they had waited a month to tell me I owed more. They called a friend I had on as an emergency contact a couple years ago - who I'd instructed them to take off the account a year ago - a month after this.  I was startled to see her at my door after not hearing from her since before the Covid-shut downs. I'd sent a card and letter wondering if she was well and there had been no response. So, when I saw her at my door, at first I was happy. I had just purchased a Christmas card for her. But she tore into me about the phone calls she was getting from this place. I apologized and activated by putting a business letter in the mail - took it all the way into the post office - asking for an accounting and explanation.  I mentioned she was not to be called.  But they called her AGAIN.  End of friendship for sure.  Still, I feel bad.  

As I attempted to rescue the situation before ruin set in, I felt stressed out beyond reason. I felt fragile and scared. I didn't want to involve anyone or anger anyone. Whatever happened, short staffs and closures had hurt many businesses.  I didn't want to see or talk to anyone. 

I so wanted my life back.  And felt helpless to do that.

So I got up, got my dog, and took a slow three hour walk around streets that were mostly deserted, past businesses that were mostly closed.  I was careful.  Mask, Hand Spray, Doggie Bags, Social Distancing.  I did stop in here and there - standing in a doorway to say Merry Christmas to an old friend - running in to a store to see about catnip and having a key made.

I mentioned this long walk to another friend I went to visit. This morning she said if I did not agree not to talk to anyone (she meant strangers) or go into buildings, she did not want to associate with me anymore!  She is a long time antivaxxer and has regaled me in recent weeks with fears that non-organic food will give me cancer.

I'm reading everything I can about the vaccine. I'm just as likely to catch Covid as she is. It's just that when she and her husband see their children and grandchildren, some of whom are going out into the workplace, and her friends, she thinks they are all safe. She doesn't trust mine as safe.

My contacts are actually fewer. But she trusts the people she knows.

I agreed with her.  I said I would not.

But I was mad.  I knew I was going to have to do some things I don't believe in, if I wanted to maintain that relationship.  I would have to sneak, lie, or not tell her where I go and who I associate with.  Point being, I have a life and business to take care of and think she has become controlling and frankly, paranoid.  I wonder if she needs an evaluation for mental decline.

I have barely seen my friends in months. Covid-19 is stressful and I have to wonder what relationships won't be effected. My friend who got phone calls over a payment error shouldn't have but not for a moment did she consider the error was their fault.

And so it goes, on and on, this whole horrid situation we find ourselves in.

But the statistics are not fully stated.  

There are millions of people in my county.

Five percent of them have tested positive for Covid.

A small percentage of that five percent are sick enough to be hospitalized or die.  Yes the hospitals are overwrought.

I do not want to get sick or die (or make anyone else sick) either.  So I'm considering that by this spring I will take the vaccine and if I get sick (from Covid-19 or the vaccine) I will go to a motel to isolate rather than come in contact with anyone I know.  (I have a stack of unread books to eat through.)

It feels good to complain.

Psychologically, it is good for us to get out of the house and take those walks. Many of those people, who told me at the start of this plague how good they were being alone, how much they had to do alone, are now going a little crazy.  Some, a lot crazy.  

If you feel that way, you are not alone.

Seasons Greetings!

C 2020

Note: January 3, 2021

I've edited this rather miserable post for clarity. I thought maybe I should take it down but then I'm like you- part of this historic plague experience. Polls taken state that most people alive think 2020 was the worst year they've lived through.

PATRIOTIC THANKSGIVING

TIS THE COVID SEASON TO COLLECT HERITAGE RECIPES INTO A BOOK TO GIFT YOUR FAMILY

It seems that time off due to Covid-19 crisis has resulted in many of us gaining a few pounds as we try the recipes that we bookmarked in cookbooks, ripped out of magazines, and begged friends for after tasting them at parties. All well and good.

Several of my friends are attempting to make the free food they have picked up at giveaways into interesting meals.  A little this - a little that.

May I suggest that this is an excellent time to collect heritage recipes for your family history book or a special genealogy supplement.

I suggest that you ask each of your relatives for a recipe they are famous for or love and put it in a collection for distribution just among the family.  Add a photo of the person and any comments they might make such as memories of a meal that included that dish, when they first made it, or who best loves the meal.  Perhaps a traditional recipe from one's native country has been adapted to be vegetarian?

C 2020 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

VOTING IS A RIGHT and A RESPONSIBILITY

Remember to get your voice heard by voting!

GIRL QUEEN OF PATRIOTISM

HOLIDAYS A PERFECT TIME TO COLLECT WHAT WILL BE FAMILY MEMORIES

It seems to me that the American Holidays are a down time for genealogy but an up time to collect what will become family memorabilia for future generations. 

These days photographing people and things and uploading them rather than printing out photos is the way to go, though I still like to print out a copy for my files.  I also like to ask questions and do interviews, though I wish so much that I had recorded them in the past so that I could hear my relative's voices again.

The other day I was watching an old movie from the 1970's.  I knew it was old because of the telephone being used. These days few people have land lines. Remember party lines?  (A shared line meant that someone in your close neighborhood could pick up and listen to your personal conversations.) There's a history of technology in films and today the use of a cell phone is incorporated in action as are the latest in computers and other technology.  So a film can easily become dated quickly.  I still remember my dad getting really excited by Jurassic Park (the first film) when he realized that some dinosaur DNA was in the faux can of shaving creme that went down the falls.  Now millions have taken DNA tests for themselves.

Why not ask your visiting relatives to tell you about their first telephone, or television, or computer, and keep that testimonial as a memory?  Ask your grandparents when their parents first had a phone, television, or computer and what kind it was.  Did they use it for local and long distance?  Remember before Unlimited Cell Phone Use that long distance could be expensive and some families reserved calls for wishing Merry Christmas to their far away relatives?

What television shows did various family members like?  Watch together?

How about favorite films?  Actors?

These days the availability of old shows and clips from old shows makes re-watching them possible. You might find that you don't like the humor, that it makes you wince.  That's the reaction I had when watching old shows - The Honeymooners, with the threats of wife beating, and The Three Stooges, with the violence of hitting Larry around his head. The violence as funny was not to me. But these were popular shows, so what does that say about American culture when they were popular?

There is a strong argument that computer animated games have stoked violence.

I also watched some old stand up comedy on YouTube because some of my family loved the Johnny Carson Show.; you're not going to find too many comedians who weren't sexist or insulting. Yet, people also seemed more willing to understand what joking was. Those times domestically were not as violent as life is today because school yard bullies existed and there were gangs and organized crime but terrorists and mass killings of innocent people who were just in the wrong place at the right time were rare in America.  

FOURTH OF JULY

TO YOU