Domestic staff of stately homes

[grast]

Hi everyone

It's my first post so be gentle if this is in the wrong place.  It might be a long shot anyway, but I figure everything's on the internet if you know where to look.

I was wondering if there is a list of positions occupied by women in stately homes/castles in the 1800's anywhere? (and what they actually did)

One of my female ancestors worked in a castle and although at the moment I'm not sure what her occupation was, I want to know more about her daily life.

Grast

[suttontrust]

Don't take this amiss, but not everything's on the internet.  It strikes me that your best bet would be a good book - perhaps a school history textbook.  Or the guidebook to a castle.

[Arranroots]

Hi Grast and welcome to Rootschat!

You don't say where you are in the world, but I have found staff at local record offices to be a great source of information.

for specific properties, if they are in the hands of the National Trust or another Heritage organisation, their staff are also very well informed and are likely to have local knowledge about the property, if not your ancestor as such.

Do you have a "job description" from census returns?  Maybe other Rootsschatters have researched the occupation she followed.

kind regards, Arranroots 

[cep]

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Houshold Management

I have paperback facsimile edition published 1968.  Original is 1861.

Pages of detail on the duties of household servants:

"Duties of the Maid-of-all-Work.

The general servant, or maid-of-all-work, is perhaps the only one of her class deserving of commiseration:
her life is a solitary one, and in some places, her work is never done.
She is also subject to rougher treatment than either the house or kitchen-maid,
especially in her earlier career:
she starts in life, probably a girl of thirteen, with some tradesman's wife as her mistress,
just a step above her in the social scale  ........  "


Regards   CP

[Hackstaple]

Hi Grast. My maternal grandmother was a cook in gentleman's household. You may like to wind your way through this site.  http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/C/countryhouse/thepeople/downstairs_staff.html

[suey]

Hi Grast

  Mrs Beeton online 

http://www.household-management.com/household/chapter41.html

Should tell you all you need to know about Servants and Staff

[Emmeline]

I wonder if this might be termed a ' stately ' home. My family link lived in Hanover Square, London  and comprised husband/wife and sister-in-law in the 1871 census.
However, they were slightly outnumbered by the staff who numbered  fifteen and were all listed as servants except for the coachmans wife. A case of more downstairs than upstairs it seems !

[grast]

Thanks for the replies and links.

Unfortunately I haven't got anywhere near the census returns bit, as my information comes from an oral family history.  I'm hoping to ask my grandmother the details soon, and it should give me much better ideas about dates and locations etc.  I was wondering just how much I might be able to find out about her life once I did have the details, as I'm more interested in how she and her son lived than the exact facts and figures stuff.

I guess wherever they were would have been a stately home, although I got the impression it was out in the country somewhere (could have been a young child's imagination filling in the gaps though as well).

One additional thing, does anyone know how long the forums are kept live?  I might not be able to start my search for a while and I want to still be able to access the links.

Grast