MAMIDDLE-L Archives

Archiver > MAMIDDLE > 2007-10 > 1192532742


From: "Betty" <>
Subject: Re: [MAMiddle] Twelve silver spoons c1900
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:05:42 -0400
References: <d1ea6c980710151205k2d07b602k8bb1cbbe4042b027@mail.gmail.com>


Hi Susan,

The thought which occurs to me this morning is that the spoons might have
been a gift from her employer - possibly while she was working for them !

My husband's grandmother came over from the Azores ~1905. She was 12 and
came over to be an "indentured servant" for a family on Beacon Hill in
Boston. I don't recall anyone in his family mentioning any "expensive
gifts" coming down to the children of his grandmother.

If she worked for a family on Beacon Hill for 7 years, however, they
possibly did give her gifts.

Betty (near Lowell, MA)




----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Daily" <>
To: "" <>; <>;
<>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 3:05 PM
Subject: [MAMiddle] Twelve silver spoons c1900


>I have a question about the time period circa 1900. I have an Irish
> immigrant (distant cousin) who immigrated to Boston, MA in 1895, and
> worked as a domestic servant until her marriage in 1902. (She had some
> Cambridge, MA relatives, too.) When she died, twelve silver teaspoons
> were handed down to a niece. These spoons were monogrammed with her
> maiden name initials.
>
> Would she have purchased them herself? Would she have been given them
> as a wedding gift, even if the initials weren't her married name?
> There wasn't much money in the family, although I heard that one
> maiden cousin who died in 1908 had saved a lot of money working as a
> servant.
>
> I'm trying to figure out what the provenance would be for these
> spoons, and adding it to my family history book (of Middlesex and
> Suffolk county relatives).
>
> If there is a better place to ask, please let me know.
>
> Thank you,
> Susan Daily
>
>

This thread: