Which Ancestors Could You Comfortable Lifeswap With?

[ThrelfallYorky]

I'd certainly not wish to swap at all with any of my female ancestors!!
And the males all seemed to work until they dropped, as cabinet makers, ships' carpenters, joiners, painters and decorators, shoemakers, millers, farmers, and loads of other jobs needing skills but not making fortunes. A very few may have seemed to have excitement, border reivers, etc, according to family legend, but.... that wouldn't suit me. Too law-abiding by nature. Some were travellers to "distant lands" in past centuries ... but no, I don't like travelling even modern ways. I could get sea-sick holding a sponge.
Perhaps if I'd found a very wealthy and happy noble ancestor,swanning around her stately home, I might have been a little bit tempted, for a few hours???
-But no. I'd not be as comfortable as being me. That'll do me.

[Greensleeves]

What fascinating stories everyone has to tell, I am thoroughly enjoying reading them all.  I can imagine a collection of such tales, put into order historically, would make a most excellent book.  Sounds like someone needs  to set up The Rootschat Publishing Company 

[IgorStrav]

My ancestors were either general labourers, agricultural labourers, seamen, or wives of the same.

My grandmother was the only one, I think, who was a servant - a cook, before her marriage.

I have the greatest admiration for them all, but I think what I would feel worst about in 'swapping' with any of them is being a working class and therefore second class citizen.

You have only to read a few books of the earlier period of the 20th century to see how working people were regarded with some disdain by some of their 'betters'.

Would I have accepted my lot, or would I have got very angry at it all?  I know what my parents felt, and I would probably be the same.

[Greensleeves]

I can understand your feelings Igor.  My father, when he left technical college,  was apprenticed as a marine engineer in one of the northern shipyards where his father was a ship-plate rivetter.  Come the Great Depression of the 1930s, his father lost his job and thus was on the dole.  When my father's apprenticeship finished, he too was sacked.  But in those days only one person in a household could claim the dole.  So the only way he could get the dole was to live rough and claim a small daily allowance, so he and his friends slept on park benches when they couldn't find anyone to give them shelter.

Realising that there was nothing for him in that town any more, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1935, and never looked back.  All his life he felt really bitter about the way he and his generation had been treated, which is hardly surprising really.

[River Tyne Lass]

I must say, I am enjoying reading everybody's stories on here, too Greensleeves.

I agree Igor that it seems that the working class were viewed as second class citizens.  I read recently in a book about the Great War that cases of shell shock amongst the working class were not taken seriously until it was found that large numbers of the middle classs were also experiencing this.  Until then this was often perceived as malingering or weakness almost due to being of an inferior class in society.  In this same book, (the title escapes me but I remember it was by an author called Penny Starns) I read of the of the treatment given to such men.  Apparently, one therapist gave electric shock treatment whilst shouting at the person to be a hero.  Outrageous to think that these people had given and suffered so much and then to  be subject to such barbarity!

I am so glad that so many people have fought down the years to improve the lot of the working class.  My impression is that most people back then just had to accept bad conditions as par for the course. 

[ThrelfallYorky]

I remember an older relative on one line stating with pride that none of them had ever been "in service", when I was a child, and hardly knew what it meant. Having since then researched, she seems to have been right. Not surprised, most of the family seem to have been unlikely to tug anyone's forelock from choice, certainly not their own. The nearest seems to have been those who worked as farm labourer / agricultural labourer, and that was usually for their parents.
But none of mine ever seem to have had any really interesting stories like so many on here have. Very boring but steady!
TY

[iluleah]

I must say, I am enjoying reading everybody's stories on here, too Greensleeves.

I agree Igor that it seems that the working class were viewed as second class citizens.  I read recently in a book about the Great War that cases of shell shock amongst the working class were not taken seriously until it was found that large numbers of the middle classs were also experiencing this.  Until then this was often perceived as malingering or weakness almost due to being of an inferior class in society.  In this same book, (the title escapes me but I remember it was by an author called Penny Starns) I read of the of the treatment given to such men.  Apparently, one therapist gave electric shock treatment whilst shouting at the person to be a hero.  Outrageous to think that these people had given and suffered so much and then to  be subject to such barbarity!

I am so glad that so many people have fought down the years to improve the lot of the working class.  My impression is that most people back then just had to accept bad conditions as par for the course.

......... and of course many were shot for cowardice.
Years ago ( decades ago) my in laws were moving house and I went round to help sort/pack and found her sitting in the bedroom with a box and reading a letter which she passed to me to read, it was from her dad sent while fighting in WW1, it was 'strange' reading and she went on to tell me  her mum had told her he was never the same man when he returned after the war and lived in a lone world of his own. My MiL always said he was a cold man and never took on the role of a dad or husband, he was just there, she didn't know him before WW1 but that letter explained a lot and my guess is many suffered exactly the same 'feelings' the horrors, the fear, past events and expected to just get on with life 'normally' afterwards without any help or support

[Viktoria]

 That was very common,no one who had not served at the front could never  know what those who had, had gone through.
Many writers recount how they longed for leave but  the sense of complete isolation when home ,among people without any real understanding  of the turmoil soldiers on leave felt often caused a sense of estrangement.
My Dad was one such.
He was never really close to his  father,younger brother and young sister again.
His Mum died just as he was called up.
When during  WW2his Dad   was very badly burnt after his house  was bombed I know my Dad did not visit him in hospital.
Granted the hospital was a very long way away in pre car days    Dad was at Avro`s and on shift work.It was December 23 and 24 1940and my parent`s priority was to evacuate my sister and myself to Shropshire,where  grandmother came from.
That was the 1940 Christmas blitz on Manchester.
At hisfuneral Dad didn't   go to the  service but was in the background at his interment.
I did ask Mum why the estrangement but all she sais washe was very badly hurt and upset after the last war.
So there we are.What a shame ,Dad did not st0p me from visiting they were not far away at all.

I am back on my laptop after a long stay away at the computer hospital
. It is rubbish,every other letter is a mistake!
Don`t look at me!-it is not me .
Vilktoria.

[LizzieW]

If only for a short time, I'd like to swap with my g.gran.  She and her "husband" had a Sweet and Tobacconist shop.  I wouldn't mind a free supply of chocolates, but not the cigarettes but the reason I'd really like to swap is so I could ask my g.grandfather where he was really born and who is parents were.

I'd also like to swap with my dad's eldest sister after their mother (my gran died) just so that I wouldn't be so mean as to throw away all the photographs and paperwork which would have told me who my g.grandfather was.  Instead, she destroyed the lot, telling her siblings "We don't need to know about that!".  Of course, now I do need to know about that, he is my brick wall.