Ancestors and Anecdotes: July 2007

Cassie sent this to me and I thought it a wonderful read here.

THE 1500'SThe next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.Here are some interesting facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath inMay,and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, So brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water,then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children, Last of all the babies.By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up a nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over thetop afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floortohelp keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight andthen start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that hadbeen therefor quite a while. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. "Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off alittle to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so,tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of theloaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "uppercrust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When re opening these coffins, 1 outof 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string onthe wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."And that's the truth.. Now, whoever said that History was boring ! ! !

Pabodie/Peabody family.
This family is related to the LOWE/BARKER line. Peabody is a Mayflower line and married into ALDEN of John Alden whose daughter Elizabeth ALDEN married William PEABODY/PABODIE, 6th GGrand Uncle of Fannie PEABODY who married John Edwin BARKER. But the history of this line has been easy to trace and wonderfully full of stories.

The new discovery was finding ancestral photos in the UC Libraries: California Digital Library of Henry Adams PEABODY and his wife Sallie Ann BRADY in there that I had never seen. (Fannie Peabodies parents) I am lucky enough to have some copies of photos of them through Judy Barker and Tom Lowe.
Here is what I found:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Henry Adams Peabody

Sallie Ann (Brady) Peabody.

The following picture is of their daughter Fannie Peabody Barker that I have a copy of:

Here is her husband John Edwin Barker:

Their daughter (my grandmother) Josephine Barker Lowe:

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These were the only photos I had seen of Henry & Sallie (I have copies) which are much older:

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There were other land and house photographs donated to this library under the search of 'Peabody' but not much information to go with it-but if you are curious follow this link. And if you discover more please let me know.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt2000092c/?layout=metadata&brand=calisphere