Let's Hear It for the Low Life.....

pinkshoes · Post by **pinkshoes** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:06 am

I'm fascinated to read the other thread about High Up People. I'm afraid I don't have any such ancestors, but I'm proud of my background of miners - coal, ironstone, shale - whatever had to be howked out. I'm proud of the farm labourers and general labourers and railway workers and iron dressers (whatever they did) and domestic servants and general servants and all the other general lowly characters. Their stories move me to tears - of laughter and sadness - and every day since I started my family history I say thank God for each and every one of them, because if just one piece in the jigsaw had been different I'd not be here, and neither would my lovely wee lassie who recently graduated with an Honours Degree in Law. I think the miners and labourers and servants who could only make their mark, would have been proud to have helped make her.

Best wishes
Soppy Pinkshoes

Post by **Liz Turner** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:15 am

Hi Pinkshoes

Good idea for a post!

I have to agree with you. I have nobody famous in my family - most of them are the workers and labourers who kept things going. I've got gardeners, ag labs, bleach field workers, railway labourers, domestic servants, and seamstresses to name but a few. Plus immigrants from Ireland and emigrants to Canada when times were tough...

Like I said in the other post, it's the way these people lived their lives in very different times to ours that I love reading and learning about.

Liz

julie d · Post by **julie d** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:19 am

Well said Pinkshoes, I too am proud of my ancesters, one side of my mams family were farmers, back to 1851 in England, it must have been very hard work, as were lots of jobs in those days, I would love to be able to be transported back to see how they lived.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:04 am

Whenever I'm asked the question of whether or not I have aristocratic ancestors, my answer is "Yes, I come from a long line of aristocrats, - the ploughmen of the Mearns!"

David

Post by **joette** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:52 am

I have the usual Ag Labs etc in mine but the majority were Blacksmiths(three out of four Great-Grandfathers),Stonemasons & Weavers-silk& cotton.Not forgetting the Muirkirk Brown's who were mainly Coalminers.So I reckon they must have been strong,artistic,logical & resourceful people-so why am I completely lacking in any of those traits bar the resourceful one?Did the times breed the traits?
I know that most of them were literate infact only three so far who were not inasfar as they could sign their names.I know many fought for the right to Vote & for the seperation of Church & State.I know that many died in the name of Freedom.I would like to know the little things like did they like vegs?did they travel at all?did they bite their nails?.
Congrats to your daughter on her degree.

ninatoo · Post by **ninatoo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:17 pm

I am also extremely proud of my family's meagre beginnings, and have often listed strength, courage, fortitude and persistence as traits they must surely have had. Not just my family, but anyone living in those times who struggled through life in one roomed houses, not enough clothes, food or money and certainly no prospect of a decent education. And the appalling living conditions and health situation that were just a part of life back then...we would never be able to do what they must have done on a daily basis!

My lot worked in the steelworks, iron forges, coal mines, the mills, the canals, the shipyards, the roads, the houses of the wealthy, butchers, and were also shoemakers, fishermen, hammermen, masons, dressmakers. Where would everyone else have been if not for the workers in the ordinary jobs?

But through the adversities and the great sadnesses that must have been part of every family, they carried on, and on, until we were born and could appreciate them for what they really were....the backbone of the countries in which they lived.

Nina

Post by **paddyscar** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:35 pm

julie d wrote: ... I would love to be able to be transported back to see how they lived.

Will that be 'roundtrip' or 'single' ticket?

As I find records, images of the lifestyles portrayed in all the historic books and biographies I've read, flood to mind. The week before I found my Great grandfather's records, I'd just finished a book about a girl growing up in the Gorbals whose sisters were 'Drapery hawkers'... so, it turns out was John who lived in the Gorbals!

What a rush!

Amazing that any of us are here

Frances

rdem · Post by **rdem** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:57 am

David W W!!!! Ye huv the red dirt o' the Mearns in yer viens as well.. I keep a bottle of Old Fettercairn in my hutch in honour ma plooman gggrandfather Charles Stewart who ploughed at Luthermuir and elsewhere b. Strachan died Marykirk 1894

PS I don't know how many times I have read Scots Quair, since other gggrandfather crofted Hareden just below Bloomfield, boyhood home of Leslie Mitchell.(Lewis Grassic Gibbon)

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:56 am

rdem wrote:David W W!!!! Ye huv the red dirt o' the Mearns in yer viens as well.. I keep a bottle of Old Fettercairn in my hutch in honour ma plooman gggrandfather Charles Stewart who ploughed at Luthermuir and elsewhere b. Strachan died Marykirk 1894

PS I don't know how many times I have read Scots Quair, since other gggrandfather crofted Hareden just below Bloomfield, boyhood home of Leslie Mitchell.(Lewis Grassic Gibbon)

Two lines, actually, one in N Angus/S Kincardineshire, - the other not quite The Mearns, but NW Aiberdeenshire, but ploomen in both cases.

One ancestor then came south to Embra, - not quite sure why, - could have been service in the Aberdeenshire Militia with a period being stationed nearby, and I'm not quite sure what happened to his siblings and their descendants.

The Mearns mannie and his siblings did what so many did in the late 1800s/early 1900s, - transferring their horse handling skills to carting.

David

momat · Post by **momat** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:37 am

While this is not directly in line to the question ,just thought I would say that while searching one of my lot I came across a retired SHAREBROKER aged 25.

We should all be that lucky to retire at 25

Cheers,