General Chat

I would like to do a mini social history on each genaration on my family tree. Has anybody done this and how can I get a run down on what was going on at the time. For instance the birth in 1801 marriage 1822 and so on. Elaine

Not sure what you mean, exactly? From 1841 onwards, you can get a mini-picture of what was happening by looking at your ancestor's village or town on the census. You can get a general idea of living conditions from the different occupations etc. 1901 census tells you how many rooms, if less than 4, people were living in. Before 1841 you can look at parish records. Googling might be useful. nell

Do you mean like a timeline Elaine?

Well this probably won't be at all helpful Elaine, and is probably something you have already thought of, and as I'm pretty new to genealogy anyway, I think the only thing I would be able to think of was perhaps trying to find something relevant in the local library. So if you get more replies to your question Elaine, I too would be interested to know. I think other members have/are doing this, so it should be interesting to see what they can advise. Good luck with it. Jen

Try reading history books for a general background ie living conditions.

If you look at some Sociology / Social History books you would get an idea of their lives and, putting that together with your facts, you can get a pretty clear picture. Go for newer books as the older ones tend to give a distorted view of what life was really like. :-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I haven't done this myself, but it sounds an interesting way of bringing your ancestors to life by finding out the events which took place in their lifetimes. The bbc website has a 'timelines' section with notable dates on it - http://www(.)bbc(.)co(.)uk/history/timelines (remove brackets) Rachel

What I mean is what was going on locally and what wars, and also wider issues eg parlaiment. Interesting points of what the world was like in their lifetime.Elaine.

Rachel. that is exactly what I want to do. Not just names but putting the flesh on the bones. Elaine.

Elaine - I've just nudged 2 recent threads on the tips board, which I'm sure you will find interesting. Rachel

Thanks Rachel I will perouse, think thats how you spell look at them. Elaine.

There is lots of time line stuff to google, for instance some of my ancestors lived in Morley in west yorkshire and I found a fascinating site called Morley Wap about the area and conditions there is also books, have a brilliant one of photos for edwardian Belfast, where more of them came from, I often get very sidetracked by all that kind of info...................Barbara

There's tons of stuff on the internet, plus local library will have various social history books. You will probably find that you can follow general historical trends doing your family tree. For example, 1840s most of my family were agricultural labourers, living in or very close to their birthplace village throughout their lives. Gradually through 19th century, they moved further away from birthplace and worked in industry. By the end of the century, they were marrying people from further afield (not just the same, or adjacent counties) and were having what we would think of as a career rather than just a job. Average size of my family groups pre-1840 was about 10. Gradually this got smaller. nell

Another thought - although our ancestors might be concerned with the great issues of the day, they were probably more concerned with scratching a living. Most of the threads on this board are about people's personal/family concerns, rather than debates about what's going on in the world. nell