Joe has discovered that as a young woman her great-great-grandmother salomé
Schuch worked as a maid in the north of Paris
to find out more she has arranged to meet historian and writer Marlo Johnston
are you Marlo I am Joe how'd you do this is number 19 we're close oh well you're
great this is the first floor and this document shows everyone who rents know
the building each floor had several starts the
biggest would be that one facing the street there's people who lived there
with more prosperous and there was a lady on this floor called
Dumars mm all right but she had two flats on this floor right which is
unusual now she would need to mate the people in the tiny flats wouldn't need
to make a concierge downstairs would do any bits that they needed
so if suddenly it was the maid what sort of duties would you expect her to have
performed if she was the only maid she would be doing cooking cleaning she
would just have to fetch and carry coal fetch and carry water the hard physical
work it would certainly be hard work it's just the strangest feeling to think
she walked these stairs yes yes this is where she would live one two three four
they were tiny these rooms they would hold a bed and perhaps a little
washstand and no more she would come down in the morning to do her work and
she would go up at night to go to bed that would be it it was just a bed to
sleep in it was nothing else
domestic maids like Salome were near the bottom of the economic and social scale
in late 19th century Paris as well as earning less than other working women
they were often forced to work longer hours and had little protection from
abuse of employers by 1880 domestics also accounted for more illegitimate
births in the city than any other profession if a maid fell pregnant I'm
assuming that wouldn't be something she'd want to advertise to her boys she
would consider it if she felt she had to say or if it was particularly obvious
the chances are she would be dismissed but in this building she was pregnant
and she was going up and down stairs and she obviously kept it up as long as she
possibly could Oh Salome what a life Marla has been
researching what happened to Salome after she gave birth to Louie in 1877
and has uncovered some documents she wants to show Joan
18 months later she's moved along the road from the closer to Crewe Milton and
she has poor gap here gap here another son gap near his own in December of 1878
right oh the name valo has appeared for the first time because this is the son
of Pierre Boulle that's right normally they weren't married but they were
living together and he's happy to acknowledge the child as his own because
he's more because he said he said he has said he's the father so I'm liking clear
quite a lot at this point oh salamé isn't a maid anymore
she is a cotillion she is she's a dressmaker
so she's gained a man and a profession yes within 18 months yes Cooper Salome
yes three she's married that's right this is
the marriage certificate now if you read down this is the crucial sentence by the
fact of their marriage they recognize immediately and legitimize four children
of the masculine sex for sons she had yes point but when you legitimize them
then they can inherit they couldn't otherwise know be legitimate child could
inherit but I do also notice that Louie alone is listed as Louie shoosh but the
others have all been given the name for long yes so I'm just wondering whether
this Pierre wasn't a very decent man who fell another salami and said I will
assume responsibility for a pre-existing job it is possible and such things
happened I like Pierre Volant very much decent man did the right thing I'm quite
fond of him now and so Salome came from bloom at where
is prom at it's in I was as close to the German border and shoosh isn't a
typically French name no it's a Germanic name yeah and as Iceland was always a
mixture because it moved constantly between France and Germany so she was
born on the border with Germany that's right
I found out that my great-great grandmother was at one point in really
really dire straits and if there's one thing that's quite clear this was a
woman who was a survivor she wasn't going to go under
there is a definite parallel here 20 years ago I was teaching and writing in
my spare time and was very skint and then not long after that because my
daughter's nearly 18 I became a single mom so I feel the connection there
in the early 1930s Louie left England and his family for good retiring to the
J.K. Rowling Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts 2