The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2016 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. The theme I chose is Genealogy Tips. At the end I will give a related post from my blog Genealogy: Beyond the BMD.
P is for Prices
Even if you are not writing that your ancestor went in to town and at the general store or grocers paid 11¢ for a sack of sugar, it is still fun to know what prices were like in the 1800's and before.
On the shipping pages of some newspapers they noted what ships were coming in carrying what products and what the market price was to be.
Aberdeen
Herald and General Advertiser 22 April 1848
George Taytt in 1570 belonged to the Perth Guild of Bowyers. A bower was paid one Shilling for his work. It cost him about 2d for a pint of ale.
There are prices of foods and grains, hides, textiles, animals, etc. The newspapers also carry prices of passage, carting, coach, etc. Take a look at the 2 links below.
Related Posts: History of Prices
What's the Beef
Ledgers & Account Books
Fashionably Early
It IS fun to see prices of groceries and other things way back when. My grandparents ran a grocery store back in the 1930s-40s, and we have some receipts from customers. I am currently indexing the Day Book of a tailor in Greene County, Virginia 1856-1870, and customers could get a vest for about $1.50 and a whole suit for $9.00
ReplyDeleteVisiting from AtoZ
Wendy
Jollett Etc.
Nice you still have some receipts. My parents had an antique store and burned everything when they sold out *gasp* Gosh I wish my family were hoarders!
DeleteYour comments made me think to add the links for Ledgers and for Catalogues to my post.
So says the person that moved out west with hardly anything:D
ReplyDeleteI'm a saved and have some receipts going back to our wedding in 1964. Unbelievable what we could do back then. We bought a kitchen table, four chairs a sofa and arm chair, a fake leather chair. a sewing machine a five piece bedroom set and a mattress for $100
Ha ha got me there! I am the opposite of a hoarder. Use it or lose it!
DeleteI come from a family of hoarders so have lots of interesting bits. Just need more time to write about them.
ReplyDeleteOh you're lucky! Both sets of grandparents lived in rather small rented flats and had no room to hoard, so I guess my parents took after them, as did I. My Dad only kept things that may later be worth money as an investment.
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