Labour
A " 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks " theme caught me eye this week - "Labor" (or as we prefer to spell it in Australia - labour). How did my ancestors make a living? Have I found an unusual occupation in my family tree? What about the often unsung labour of females ancestors? One of the things I enjoy about researching my family tree is seeing how our lives have changed so dramatically within a few generations. From the advent of gas and electricity in houses, the number of kids we have, and our occupations. And I was watching Further Back in Time for Dinner on the ABC , where a modern-day family lives through the early 1900s - and I was again struck by how different our very recent ancestors lived to us. And the women, in particular, seemed to just have lots of kids, cook (often very different meat and food), clean (with no appliances), wash (the hard way) - and there was no prospect of anything else. That's all there was to look forward to. Cecelia, Celie, Susanna...