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Archiver > PA-OLD-CHESTER > 2003-11 > 1067881227


From: "Sandra Ferguson" <>
Subject: [PaOldC] chores
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 12:40:27 -0500
References: <14.1b888161.2cd6db52@aol.com> <4a8801c3a190$3fa3ae40$2b6b0cd8@D67ZVQ11> <1105.12.163.118.98.1067879102.squirrel@webmail01.c2i2.com>


Absolutely right.....as a spinner I became interested in the historical
aspects of the process and a little research netted the information that,
while the spinning was usually done by the unmarried young women of the
family (the word spinster comes from this fact), one of the basic aspects
of the spinning process was the carding of wool fibers into
cylinders.....and, this chore was often done by children no older than 3!
EVERYONE, and I mean everyone had their tasks to perform, regardless of age,
which sure kept everyone busy.....spare time is not necessarily a 'good
thing'!
One always wonders how the children of wife #1 got along with Wife #2
and, in many cases wife #3...the way women died in childbirth, so MANY
families had multiple 'mothers'. I'm sure all depended, as it does today,
on what sort of a person these women were as individuals, if they looked
upon the children as THEIR children, or just steps, etc....I'm afraid the
fairy stories we all grew up with, like Snow White and Cinderella have
colored the way we all think of 'stepmothers', and one can only hope they
were in the minority. The same problems also existed with step fathers, for
all the money and land, etc left by husband #1 instantly came to husband #2
at the marriage......and, many children NEVER received any of the
wherewithal left by their own father. I have an ancestor, a John
Washington, son of Laurence Washington, one of the original Washington
emigrants, who complained in a letter to his 1/2 sister in England, that he
received only a few books that had belonged to his father, at the death of
his step father.....who, had gone through the whole fortune he got when he
married John's mother!

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [PaOldC] women who remarry


> Fascinating - and a clue to when children "disappear" from a family. I
> have been totally fascinated by the number of "blended" families that
> occur in the very early times due to the death and remarriage of one
> partner or another. Pundits are always trying to pin all our current
> social ills (or at least most of them) on divorce but I sure see
> similarities in the early families that had "mixed" children. Could it
> possibly be that those children had no time to complain because they were
> helping make the family a viable economic unit? Nadine
>
> > I remember posting, from early court records, the entry of a mother who
> > came to court to ask them to 'place' her 3 very young children ....one,
> > if memory serves was only 3years old. She wished to remarry and the new
> > husband wouldn't take these children, so she asked to court to place
> > them as indentures. Can you imagine? Having your babies 'given' to
> > complete strangers, for their entire life to about age 18, to have God
> > only knows what sort of a home? Boggles the mind, doesn't it.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <>
> > To: <>
> > Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 5:12 PM
> > Subject: [PaOldC] Re: PA-OLD-CHESTER-D Digest V03 #418
> >
> >
> >> An also think about the woman who sent her 14 year old son, alone, to
> >> his uncle in Philadelphia.....boy, what a decision to make! What
> > circumstances would
> >> make this the 'thing to do'?
> >>
> >> Sandra,
> >> For interesting reading on circumstances for immigration, you could
> >> refer
> > to
> >> the "Mayflower Bastard", the story of Richard More, who was sent to
> >> the colonies by his father on the Mayflower. Richard's mother had an
> >> affair
> > while her
> >> husband was out of town, and had several children by the other man.
> > Richard's
> >> father was embarrassed by the situation & shipped him out of sight,
> >> out of mind. Don't know the fate of the other "illegitimate"
> >> children, his
> > siblings.
> >> Have only read extracts from the book, but it should be interesting
> > reading,
> >> not just for Mayflower descendants.
> >> Jean in CA
> >>
> >>
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> >>
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> >>
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> >
> >
> > ==== PA-OLD-CHESTER Mailing List ====
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> > helpful URLs and lots of county information
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> >
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>
>
>
> ==== PA-OLD-CHESTER Mailing List ====
> please visit the Chester Co rootsweb site...it is full of area photos,
helpful URLs and lots of county information
> http://www.pa-roots.com/~chester/
>
> NO VIRUS WARNINGS ...if you post them you will be unsubscribed if
concerned email me
>
> Visit the archives for this list to view old postings
> http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=PA-OLD-CHESTER
>
> If you have ANY problems, do not send them to the list
> contact me personally....list manager
>
> ==============================
> To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records,
go to:
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237
>
>

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