Genealogy Chat

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Just a few interesting Trivia facts to ponder over !! Makes interesting reading!!!!! >> The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the >> water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things >> used to be. >> >> Here are some facts about the1500s: >> These are interesting... >> >> Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath >> in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were >> starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the >> body odor. >> Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. >> >> >> Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the >> house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other >> sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all >> the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose >> someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the >> Bath water.. >> >> Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood >> underneath. >> It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and >> other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it rained it >> became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the >> roof. Hence the saying It's raining cats and dogs. >> >> There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This >> posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings >> could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a >> sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy >> beds came into existence. >> >> >> The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. >> Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would >> get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on >> floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added >> more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start >> slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. >> Hence the saying a thresh hold. >> >> >> Getting quite an education, aren't you?) >> >> >> In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that >> always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added >> things to the pot. >> They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat >> the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold >> overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food >> in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas >> porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days >> old.. >> >> >> >> Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. >> When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. >> It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They >> would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around >> and chew the fat.. >> >> >> Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid >> content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead >> poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the >> next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. >> >> >> >> Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom >> of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or >> the upper crust. >> Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would >> sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone >> walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. >> They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the >> family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they >> would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake. >> >> England is old and small and the local folks started running out of >> places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take >> the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these >> coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the >> inside and they realized they had been burying people alive So they >> would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the >> coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would >> have to sit out in the graveyard all Night (the graveyard shift.) to >> listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was >> considered a ...dead ringer. >> >> >> And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! ! >> >> >> Educate someone. Share these facts with a friend

brilliant Bev, but where did it end, has the last line been chopped off. Joan

Well, I know they used to have little bell connected to the string so that people who suddenly came out of a coma or whatever could ring it. They say that the saying 'Saved by the bell' comes from that, though I always think its more likely to do with boxing when the bell was rung for the end of the round.

Heather, I had heard about the string on the wrist, but was hoping that Bev may have had some more bits to add, but reached the maximum size of single posting allowed so getting cut off in mid flow so to speak. (i don't even want to think about the origins of that saying). Joan

my Uncle sent me that in an Email quite a while ago and I sat there and thought about it and wondered if it was true, but to be honest, I think I would prefer not to know with half of them!!! It's good though isn't it?

Bev, that was really interesting. The last one gave me the shivers, how awful. Gloria :-(((((

I wouldn't be surprised if it was true and that is how alot of sayings derived, the last line was 'Dead Ringer' The poem 'Ring, O ring of roses' apparently started after the black death. Gives us a bit of insight into how people lived. Surprising what we take for granted! Bev

Another thought; I wonder how people brushed their teeth? It makes me wonder how people ever got close enough to one another to even procreate as they would have been so smelly!

Cant see how Dead Ringer would work as an explanation for that one - it means someone/thing which is exactly the same doesnt it. Its awful to think people were scrabbling to get out, isnt it. But Im not sure if people would ever have been allowed to dig up coffins and remove bodies/bones even back then. So possibly a bit of a tal story legend rather than truth, eh?

Well, it might be true. In London in the late 1800's the graveyards were becoming very over-crowded, which is why massive expanses of land on the outskirts of London were bought, hence the existance of the City of London cemetery and other's like it. I don't think people could afford to be very fussy about corpse's back then.They certainly didn't get the respect they do now. One of my Great grandmother 's was buried in a paupers grave in the early 1900's. It was, I'm told, little more than a hole in the ground, shared with stranger's and no headstone to mark the spot.

It would be interesting to look into wouldnt it. Certainly people who dug up bodies to sell for medical research back then were hanged, so I wouldnt think it was a common thing.

I've heard of cemetries being cleared in order to make way for more houses to be built. Certainly not somewhere I'd want to live!

I know that when I was studying history that the teacher told me that there are also massive burial plots in London where people were just thrown in. They were revealed when the London underground was being built and therefore, the tracks had to be built round them, I am sure that Blackheath was one of these areas. Bev

About 30 years ago, my dad had been made redundant from the docks and had become what he had always wanted to be - a professional gardener. He was doing some work for Peckham council and came home one day absolutely horrified that the graveyard he had been round to tend had been sold for housing and there were digger/dumpers just hauling the coffins out of the ground, with the skeletons falling out. It really shocked him people could be treated with such disrespect.

Um - tomatoes in the 1500s? Why do I think they are relatively modern?? Olde Crone

Oh yes Old Crone, well spotted! The tomato plant was not grown in England until the 1590s, according to Smith. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597, and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew that the tomato was eaten in both Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed that it was poisonous (tomato leaves and stems are indeed poisonous but the fruit is safe). Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and its North American colonies. By the mid 1700s, however, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain, and before the end of that century the Encyclopædia Britannica stated that the tomato was 'in daily use' in soups, broths, and as a garnish. Tomatoes were originally known as 'Love Apples', possibly based on a mistranslation of the Italian name pomo d'oro (golden apple) as pomo d'amoro.

The digging up and reusing graves bit is right. The bones were then stored in charnel houses, I think we visited a former charnel house on a visit to Northern France. Louise

Apparently soot or salt was used to clean teeth, yuck ! Kim

There is an area in Enfield, Middx, called Enfield Chase, which has a green and is quite a pleasant location. Apparently building on this spot will NEVER be allowed as it is, supposedly, the site of a mass grave where the local victims of the plague were buried!