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Just read Miss Fluffy's great article. LOVED it.
I can and can't relate. Yes the part about my grandmothers sitting on the porch I remember. One in particular lived in a house right by the road so yes lots of conversations with passerby. She really didn't speak patois though. I don't remember hearing her speak it. Her sister was a different story.
I don't remember her working in the garden or the yard but she must have at some point. I do remember chickens in the yard when I was really young before we had electricity and indoor plumbing. She would get up every morning, read her Bible, sing hymns, and clean the house from top to bottom. Did hand laundry till the end. She didn't want a washing machine. She used an old time stove too even though she had a modern one. She cooked until the last year or so when we got a cousin to bring her her dinner.
Her mother was a housewife, hard working, Christian, Bible reading, strict but warm.
The other grandmother lived at the top of a hill so not so much interaction in terms of people passing by but she ventured out more than the speaky-spoke grandmother.
She was more roots. She died when I was in my teens and, by then, she was too old to do work on the property. I don't remember ever seeing her do gardening either. She helped raise a lot of children for relatives though.....NUFF.
Her mother lived in the hills and would take the family produce to market in Kingston. I have been corrected..she did not do higglaring....just marketing of what the family grew. She was married and had a lot of kids...7 survived to be adults. Went to church read her Bible. She was very warm from what I have been told.
I am just learning about the 3rd great grandmother (paternal) who lived in Kingston for most of her life.
I don't know how I would have related to her. I guess as a child I would have been fine but clearly her values and lifestyle were not in sync with mine. To have 1 child out of wedlock okay it happens but at least 6. She eventually got married and moved to country and had two more. The ironic part is I finally saw her death certificate. She died of complications after having a hysterectomy because of fibroids. I wonder if having all those children did mash her up. I guess I'll never know. Other than that she clearly worked hard as all the birth certificates of her various children show her as a washerwoman, laundress, domestic servant, or "common labourer"...yes that is what it says. She definitely was not a lay about but she could not even sign her name. 
Why all those children. It's ridiculous. What was she thinking? I am still getting over the shock.
I know nothing about the 4th one, not even her name.
Anyway, thanks for the article Miss Fluffy. It has come at a time where I am learning more about the women from whom I am descended. Some of them are nothing like me so go figure.
I can and can't relate. Yes the part about my grandmothers sitting on the porch I remember. One in particular lived in a house right by the road so yes lots of conversations with passerby. She really didn't speak patois though. I don't remember hearing her speak it. Her sister was a different story.
I don't remember her working in the garden or the yard but she must have at some point. I do remember chickens in the yard when I was really young before we had electricity and indoor plumbing. She would get up every morning, read her Bible, sing hymns, and clean the house from top to bottom. Did hand laundry till the end. She didn't want a washing machine. She used an old time stove too even though she had a modern one. She cooked until the last year or so when we got a cousin to bring her her dinner.Her mother was a housewife, hard working, Christian, Bible reading, strict but warm.
The other grandmother lived at the top of a hill so not so much interaction in terms of people passing by but she ventured out more than the speaky-spoke grandmother.
She was more roots. She died when I was in my teens and, by then, she was too old to do work on the property. I don't remember ever seeing her do gardening either. She helped raise a lot of children for relatives though.....NUFF.Her mother lived in the hills and would take the family produce to market in Kingston. I have been corrected..she did not do higglaring....just marketing of what the family grew. She was married and had a lot of kids...7 survived to be adults. Went to church read her Bible. She was very warm from what I have been told.
I am just learning about the 3rd great grandmother (paternal) who lived in Kingston for most of her life.
I don't know how I would have related to her. I guess as a child I would have been fine but clearly her values and lifestyle were not in sync with mine. To have 1 child out of wedlock okay it happens but at least 6.
She eventually got married and moved to country and had two more. The ironic part is I finally saw her death certificate. She died of complications after having a hysterectomy because of fibroids. I wonder if having all those children did mash her up. I guess I'll never know. Other than that she clearly worked hard as all the birth certificates of her various children show her as a washerwoman, laundress, domestic servant, or "common labourer"...yes that is what it says. She definitely was not a lay about but she could not even sign her name. Why all those children. It's ridiculous. What was she thinking? I am still getting over the shock.I know nothing about the 4th one, not even her name.
Anyway, thanks for the article Miss Fluffy. It has come at a time where I am learning more about the women from whom I am descended. Some of them are nothing like me so go figure.
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