welcome to the ancestral findings podcast this is episode 250 did you know that old
newspaper advertisements can tell you a wealth of information about what your ancestors childhoods
were probably like or what they may have been like as parents this is valuable information
you won't find anywhere else join me today to find out what old advertisements can reveal
as genealogists we love to collect all kinds of information about our ancestors any little
scrap of information will do it satisfies our need to know about the people who came
before us who helped contribute to us being us it does not matter how insignificant the
information may seem to others to us any little bit of knowledge is another piece in the puzzle
that is a picture of our ancestors lives some of the most interesting information about our
ancestors and some of the hardest to come by is what their lives were like as children also what
they were like as parents to their own children is equally as interesting and equally as challenging
to find unless you happen to be lucky enough to know someone with first-hand knowledge who
can tell you the fact is children and the raising of children usually left behind very few records
as it was all considered common sense and matters of the family and not news there might be a legal
record of something extraordinary occurred such as adoption or outrageous abuse there is a legal
record from the 1650s of my own genealogy from the Massachusetts Bay Colony that indicates custody of
an infant was awarded to its maternal grandparents due to unusual abuse from its stepfather in a time
when harsh discipline of children was the norm and expected the abuse the infant suffered at the
hands of its stepfather had to be truly unusual for the Puritan government to give the baby to
its grandparents for its own safety however in most instances you will not find much information
on the childhoods of your ancestors or their experiences as parents you can however locate
information that will tell you how their lives were probably lived as children or as parents
where is this information it is in old newspaper advertisements if you can find old newspapers
from the time and place where your ancestor was a child or when he or she was apparent you can
derive a lot of probable information about how they lived their lives based on those
advertisements in every generation parents have by and large done their best to provide the best for
their children every parent usually wants their children to have the best of everything and a
better childhood than they themselves had there are therefore advertisements in old newspapers
usually ones dating from the 1800's and early 1900s that are targeted towards parents and how
they should be raising their children from these advertisements you can glean a lot of
likely information on how your ancestors spent their childhoods and how they acted as parents
toward their own children take school for example by 1918 every state in the United States had made
an elementary school education mandatory for every child if a parent wanted to educate their
children beyond the elementary school years that the government provided for free they
had to use tutors and private schools sometimes even boarding schools these schools and tutors
advertised in both local and national newspapers you can get an idea of what type of educational
opportunities beyond elementary school that were available to your ancestors by looking at these
advertisements there were also advertisements for vocational schools for those parents who wished
their children to learn a trade after elementary school and those trade schools could cover a
variety of interests for example there was once an international school of photoplay training in
Portland Oregon that taught acting this was at a time when movies were a new technology and people
were attracted by the high salaries early stars like Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin commanded
there were also ads for children's clothing while most families made their own children's clothing
by hand until World War two those who had the money could afford to buy premade clothes off
the rack at department stores and those stores advertised what parent wouldn't want their child
to wear the best clothing money could buy and what parent wouldn't save up to afford at least
one good piece for their child at a time when just two or three dollars was considered a lot
of money you can learn a lot about children's fashions and how much your ancestors might have
paid for store-bought clothing or how likely your ancestor was as a child to have it of course the
health of children was always and continues to be a primary concern for parents if you want to know
what types of medicine your ancestors were given or gave their own children for various ailments
or what health giving tonics they were given to keep them well look no farther than the local
newspaper advertisements of their times you may find some truly horrifying things being
advertised for children such as cocaine syrup to eASIC off or laudanum to help baby sleep so the
parents could - you might also find some amusing things such as magnetic wave treatments in the
early 1900's to help short children get taller you might even find advertisements for children's toys
manufactured children's toys weren't really a thing until the Industrial Revolution of the
mid 1800s and only the very rich could afford them until the mid 1900s but those advertisements are
interesting to look at maybe your non wealthy ancestors saved up just to get their children
one special manufactured toy for a birthday Christmas or other holiday the ads from the
newspapers of your ancestors area and time will tell you what that toy might have been as you can
see old newspaper advertisements can tell us much about the mysterious childhoods of our ancestors
or what they were like as parents have a look around and be amazed will you discover him down
DNA testing is exciting you can find out so much about yourself and your heritage by having it
done but you can also find out information that can be disconcerting or even upsetting next time
I'll give you some common things you may find in your DNA that may shake you and emotional
coping techniques for dealing with them thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time on
the ancestral findings podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings com