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Topic: "... just an AgLab". JUST an AgLab ?? (Read 14430 times)
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Berlin-Bob
Caretaker
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 6453
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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Ag Labs. Salt of the Earth!
Found in Liverpool Family Historian June 02
Food For Thought- He must have been an Ag Lab
"Ask yourselves whether you know the gestation period for a sheep or a cow, and you can't read or write to make a note of it. The ag lab knew when the animal would calve by observing the position of the stars and work it out from that, or from the particular religious festivals being celebrated in church at the appropriate times. Reading and writing is one thing, but it wasn't necessary, numeracy however or a limited knowledge of it was essential so as to count his or his masters livestock and his own money and to tell the time. It was no good thinking that 7 o'clock came immediately after three bells had just struck on the church clock!
There was no electricity, the lanes were bad and there was no health service. The Ag lab knew how to make his own rush lights to light his home, the shortest and driest route between 2 places and which herbs to pick as remedies for his families ailments. He knew his neighbours far better than we know ours. We isolate ourselves in our cars and in front of our television sets. He relied on neighbours with different skills from his, to help him out when the need arose. He was thrifty where we borrow on bits of plastic he and his family had to make ends meet regardless or with great shame go on the parish.
Yes he could even forecast his local weatherby watching the reactions of wildlife and plants to changing conditions. He was far better at it than any of us from our centrally heated homes and offices. He knew how to thatch and how to get straight straw for thatching whereas we send for experts to fix a cracked slate.
He was tough. He could walk for days behind a plough, pulled by a team of horses, and still walkmiles to church each sunday. A 20 mile walk laden with produce or purchases to and from market each week was also the norm for some. No fancily equipped gymnasium for him, yet he was fitter than today's health freaks who maybe should take a lesson or two from his ancestors.
Can you use a sickle or scythe from dawn to dusk, in all weathers? Can you snare a rabbit for dinner or cut beanpoles from a hedge in a manner that will promote further growth? Can you mix your own whitewash, or train a dog to hunt or round up sheep for you? Come to that can you milk a cow or slaughter and butcher a sheep or pig?
So-called ag labs were no fools. they survived and very few of us would be here to read this if they hadn't !
Leave your car at home and walk to work tomorrow, even if it is five miles, your ancestor did!"
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site A Margulies Miscellania All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Hackstaple
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3331
Family researcher
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An aglab was travelling by train and someone in the carriage said they wondered how many sheep there were in the field they were passing. after a minute or so he said "849". Astonished, his companion asked how he did that and he replied "I counted the legs and divided by four". 
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Southern or Southan [Hereford , Monmouthshire & Glos], Jenkins, Meredith and Morgan [Monmouthshire and Glos.], Murrill, Damary, Damry, Ray, Lawrence [all Middx. & London], Nethway from Kenn or Yatton. Also Riley and Lyons in South Africa and Riley from St. Helena. Any census information included in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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kmo
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 433
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The old skills haven't been lost, there are just less of us around to practise them.
I don't need to know the position of the stars to tell how far a cow is off calving. I just look at her a**e.
kmo
nnnnth generation ag lab
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Boongie Pam
Global Moderator
RootsChat Aristocrat
Posts: 2485
Pa is Scottish, Ma is Welsh, Nose is Roamin'
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One thing to note is that "Ag Lab" as a category hid a number of very skilled jobs.
One of my ancestors Thomas Cork of Clayhidon was an Ag Lab on a number of census but he was actually a wheelwright.
P
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UK Census info. Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk~~~~~~~~~~~ Dumfrieshire: Fallen, Fallon, Carruthers, Scott, Farish, Aitchison, Green, Ryecroft, Thomson, Stewart Midlothian: Linn/d, Aitken, Martin North Wales: Robins(on), Hughes, Parry, Jones Cumberland: Lowther, Young, Steward, Miller Somerset: Palmer, Cork, Greedy, Clothier CURRENTLY OFFLINE - MESSAGES ARE NOT MONITORED
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teddybear1843
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 698
glynn@norfolk-tours.co.uk
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This post just endorses my plea to people to look into their family HISTORY, not just their family TREE.
Find out how your ancestors lived, how much they were paid, how many they slept to a room (often no bed), how they travelled, what they ate, what furniture they had, what their most prized posession was, how they wiped their bottom (before newspapers), how their toilets worked, what did women use, ............................the list is endless
Teddybear
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Bear, Burrows, Burroughs, Goll, Mayes, Yull, Bacon, Harvey, Fenn, Youngman, Jary, Lake, Chesney, Yaxley, Freestone, Briggs, Carrington, Frarey, Blaxter, Bennefer, Gosman, Howard, Wildman, Woodbine, Jessop, Taylor, Walpole, etc etc all in Norfolk. Weasenham village history and families connected to the villages of Weasenham All Saints & Saint Peter in Norfolk. Happy to carry out research in Norfolk. Please PM for details. http://norfolktours.webs.com/ |
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Biker
RootsChat Honorary
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 4623
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Bob, thanks for posting that, puts things in perspective a bit.
teddybear I agree, the people and history are important. When I first started 'doing' my family, my goal was to find as many as possible but now it's more to do with trying to understand who they were a bit, as difficult as that is. I'm curious if other people experienced the same process.
Cheers
Jonathan
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