Which Ancestors Could You Comfortable Lifeswap With?

[River Tyne Lass]

On a flight of fancy, I have been wondering which of my ancestors I could comfortably lifeswap with.

I know I wouldn't want to lifeswap with any of my many coal mining ancestors, as the work was very hard and dangerous and they would have lived knowing that each working day could be their last.

As much as I admire them, I do not think I could be one of the Tyne Pilots - this was another risky job and the prospect of going out to sea every day in possibly choppy or rough tides is something I would dread.

I also wouldn't be a blacksmith; doctor; soldier; licenced victualler; railway worker; coal merchant; farmer; haberdashery owner or a wheelwright - which various ancestors were.

I think I could be one of the 'dressmakers' if I was given a little training as I like hand sewing.  I think I could also see myself as a maid like my bloodline ancestor Isabella Atkinson who worked at Meldon Park, a big country house in Northumberland, before she got married to Ralph Marshall who was one of my bloodline blacksmith ancestors. I like visiting grand houses (especially those with beds with lovely patchwork quilts on) and walled gardens and I think I would derive pleasure in working in such surroundings.

I also think a lifeswap with my traveller ancestors has appeal.  Although, I have lived all my life in one area I do like gadding all over the place on an almost daily basis.  Tracing my Irish traveller ancestors' lives I can see that they regularly zig-zagged over Northumberland and Durham and I think I would like that type of lifestyle.  I like being creative and I know that they made besoms.  I think that I would like to do this type of thing and go hawking my wares as they did.

So if I had to choose I think I could be a dressmaker but my top favourite choices would be either a maid in a grand country house or a traveller.

I do wonder if the ancestors we would choose to lifeswap with are the ones we may have inherited certain temperament genes from. I wonder if this may partly influence what skills and interests we may develop?

Which of your ancestors could you comfortably lifeswap with and why?

[Ruskie]

An interesting thing to ponder TRL, however I think that being a maid in the big house would be as hard as any of the other jobs you mention. 

I will return when I have given it some more thought (but it will have to be one who didn't have many children). 

[River Tyne Lass]

True Ruskie, but being in 'Downton Abbey' like surroundings would likely take my mind off it. . I am thinking of perhaps lovely four poster beds with beautiful patchwork quilts, walled gardens .. chatting to the gardener when I go out to collect the veg.  This is a flight of fancy here I know  .. but if I had to change lives with an ancestor I think this might suit.

I sometimes do 10 and 12 hour shifts anyway so am used to hard work.  I think this might be suited to my genes too.  Grt x3 Grandmother Isabella worked in a 'big' house and my own Mother worked in service in such places.  Oh! The stories she used to tell about those times.  She once went out with the son of the manor into the orchard to collect apples.  He was younger than my Mother but she had to address him as "Master Jim".  He wanted to collect apples that day so he went up a ladder and she had to wait dutifully down below with a basket.  She also had to iron the newspapers in the morning.

[Ruskie]

Yes, I agree that the houses would have been fabulous, but I think I would rather have been a "Master Jim" than the maid. I think a lot would depend on the house and the management and how you were treated.  I think that Downton Abbey might have given viewers a bit of a rose coloured glasses view of working in service.

[oldohiohome]

I think I'm a lot like my paternal great great grandfather, so I might try swapping with him.

We grew up hearing that he was "in charge of" the Union House, a theater, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Then I found his obituary which said he was the janitor there. Next I found a picture of him holding a long pole, hanging a billboard for a coming attraction at the theater.

As someone who was college educated but spent most of my life cleaning other peoples' offices and windows, I kind of identified with him pretty quickly.

Add to that - he left his carpenter apprenticeship in Philadelphia just before its completion because of "mistreatment." He took off through Pennsylvania, and eventually worked on a riverboat on the Mississippi before eventually settling down in the Johnstown area.

More or less what I did after college, bumming rides back and forth across the US twice before deciding I had had enough and needed some stability.

[Mart 'n' Al]

Assuming the life swap comes with the appropriate law degree, I think I might have enjoyed the life of my Victorian distant for bear, who was a successful solicitor in Austin Friars in the city of London. He had a magnificent house in southeast London.

My research has shown that one branch of my family were descended from two stonemason brothers in Durham in the late 1700s. The descendants of one brother were all very successful learned men, including the aforementioned solicitor, while all the descendants of the other brother became labourers, dockers and manual workers until my bank manager father broke the mould.

Martin

[Ruskie]

I have been considering my options but I'm afraid I am struggling to think of any of my ancestors who I would be remotely happy to do a swapsies with.

[Regorian]

I don't think so. The miracles of modern medical science make now and the future as when to live. There's been a lot of long livers in my family, one 1660 to 1757 but I wouldn't want to be any one of them.

Take my avatar for instance. George and Ethel, married 1930. Good looking couple, he died of peritonitis 1935, She died 1979 I think. They had a daughter Sadie 1935 to 1998. We met her, lovely woman, died of cancer. Ethel remarried within a year much to the disgust of our family. For hecks sake she was pregnant or had a baby, who needs families.   

[dowdstree]

None of them. Mostly Fisherfolk, Weavers and Jute Mill Workers including the females.

I would love to time travel though and spend time with them and then return to the comforts of the 21th Century. Are there any vacancies on Dr Who

Dorrie