Genealogy Chat

Familytree Forum has a Timeline section for just this purpose:

http://www.familytreeforum.com/content.php/946-timeline

What parts of Kent and Devon are you interested in? That is crucial, traditional industries varied a lot throughout the counties.
Katie

"Protracted discussion"? I must have missed that. However, I did see am interesting contribution by mgnv.

Denis - yeah, I saw that, but I couldn't decide if the claim that sea-coal formed part of the history of mining in the UK, and we'ld do better to explore cotton production in Kent was an attempt at sarcasm or else that the poster was two bricks short.

Actually, it is a bit of a problem finding how ordinary folk lived. I bet you could find half the ball-gowns worn at the ball on the eve of Waterloo before you found the clothes that one wagon driver wore taking supplies up to the troops there. Also, there's not much in the way of diaries, etc., from a largely illiterate workforce.

I really think you only get 1st person accounts from the colonies when you get literate folk forced back into the older ways when they're first setting up their homesteads. You can't put tractors or other mechanical implements onto the land until the stumps have rotted and been cleared out. I've seen the country round Robertson NSW and it really is quite "English". (It was the location for Babe, the talking pig film). I'm sure you can locate suitable accounts of the early days in places like that, and probably can separate out the Australian factors, like clearing the land.

I'm more familiar with the corresponding Canadian literature like Traill's account:
http://www.archive.org/details/cihm_34025

Settler's diary in:
http://www.archive.org/details/cihm_22860

No mgnv you missed the point. I was simply drawing attention to the importance of textiles, which were also used to clothe people domestically, in our history. By the Middle Ages wool was our most important export. One of our common surnames is thought to refer to walking on wool in those times.
By the way if you are interested in the history of mining generally and the ties between the two countries I can recommend a stay in Ballarat, S. Victoria and spending a weekend at their working museum. Excellent value for money.

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