52 Ancestors Week 46: This Ancestor Went to Market

Question

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 46

The theme for Week 46 is "This Ancestor Went to Market." There are all kinds of way to interpret this theme! A few that come to mind are farmers (who had to take their crops and livestock to market), storekeepers, ancestors who liked to shop -- be creative!

As you wind through the streets
At the fabled bazaars
With the cardamom-cluttered stalls
You can smell every spice
While you haggle the price
Of the silks and the satin shawls....

Comments

Italians and markets go together like wine and pasta, https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2023/11/52-ancestors-week-46-this-ancestor-went.html

Answer 1

When the little piggy went to market, he never came home.

He was butchered and sold.

Answer 2

When I was young, going to the market was quite different than today. Sometimes we went to the butcher shop where I would write my name in the saw dust on the floor as we waited in line to place an order. Maybe a roadside stand that had cheaper, fresher produce in larger variety, or maybe a neighbor who sold from their garden. Then there was the OK Food Mart, an old wood floor building no more than 1,000 sq ft. I always assumed that the vacant lot next door was where the OK Corral was.

I didn't know at the time but, the most notable experience was going to the Thriftway Store located in the Plaza. Not JC Nichols Plaza but the Raytown Plaza. My memories would be all but forgotten if not immortalized by Vicki Lawrence's "Mama's Family". Locals that knew her, speculated that the name of her fictious "Raytown" and her place of employment "Thriftway" were none other than store everyone in town frequented. This factoid is stated in the Wikipedia page for Mama's Family.

Comments

Thanks for a wonderful trip down memory lane.  But what you describe is almost a thriving metropolis--what with a Thriftway store and plaza!

---

Same store my dad, grandfather and great grandfather shopped and far from a thriving metropolis.

Answer 3

My 14th great grandfather, John Battiscombe (abt. 1400 - 1475) ( Battiscombe-13) was MP in 1425, 29, 34, and 37 (Lyme Regis and Bridport, Dorset).

There is a letter to him from Alice Montfort asking him, while he was in Westminister for Parliament, to "bye for me ... gynger, the best that you would gyte ...1 yerde of blak alye (a kind of fabric)."

So he was being asked to "go to market" for her.

Answer 4

My 5th GGF Johann Heinrich Schlegel (who also went by the first names Friedrich Wilhelm as well as Georg) hailed from Hundeshagen in the "Eichsfeld", a famous Catholic enclave in Northern Germany. Hundeshagen is particularly known for its musicians who traveled from market to market. Whether my ancestor was one of them is not yet known. However, by 1811, he turned up at Bothenheilingen, 30 miles southeast of his native village, where he worked for the local Lutheran minister and impregnated a servant girl whom he was forced to marry. He came to moderate wealth and good social standing, even owning a horse which, presumably, he often rode to market.

Answer 5

How about a person who controlled the market/business?

My 3x GGF Joseph Ross born 1820 died 1907, he was always called Joseph ‘Fogger’ Ross. And no one knew why. Some time ago I decided to find out, I knew he was involved in the metal manufacturing trade in Staffordshire England. I think I googled Fogger metal trade.

We would think he wasn’t very nice, or perhaps he was personally nice, but his job involved managing/controlling the local people who made nails, or chains usually at their homes. 

He bought the iron that was used for nail or chain making from a supplier, delivered the metal to local workers, who were paid in company money/funny money which could only be used at the company store. There are many sources of information about Foggers. If anyone is interested I can provide the sources.

I always wondered why the family situation changed drastically from being just workers to business owners, by the late 1800s they owned a shop, after looking it up I realised why the family moved quite quickly up the economic scale. For Pics of Joseph and his family https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ross-20039

Answer 6

My brothers were quite a bit older than me so I only have a handful of hazy memories from when we all lived at home. One is from the only time I remember the three of us being at my maternal grandparents home. We were walking together down the dirt road hauling cartons of empty glass Coke bottles back when you returned them for redemption. One of them threatened to push me over the side of the road into the creek. 

I got safely to Mr Felix’s store though. Probably one of the last General stores left in the area in the 1960s. There was a chest freezer type Coke machine on the porch where you could buy individual drinks. Inside was dark and cool. Ceiling fans stirring the air. A long dark wood counter on your right as you came in the door where you’d ask for what you wanted and paid for your purchases.  It’s one of my favorite memories. Wish I could go back for a day or two. 

Here’s Mr. Felix who was also a 3rd cousin. 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harbor-84

Comments

Evocative of the time period, Donna, which I remember well. Only the cold frig chest was inside the store/lunch counter, filled with soda pop like Lime Rickey, Cherry Smash, Orange Crush, Grapefruit Fizz, along with the Coke.

---

Lime Rickey sounds like something I’d try.

Answer 7

Since I had this year already the name "Merchant", I opted for "Kaufmann" (the German version) this time. I started with Henry Kaufmann whose profile in FamilySearch shows a bunch of children. There has to be a LNAB from the children-in-law that is connectable. I tried to connect him via the granddaughter-in-law who was already there, but Audrey Fearon refused to be connected. With Theodor Roosevelt's wife I had more luck. Her granddad Abraham Tate was already in the database and connected.

Answer 8

My 3rd great grandfather Joseph Wood had a 23O acre farm in 1851 in Northern Yorkshire, England, located near the Market Town of Kirkbymoorside, where he likely brought produce.  His son took over the farm.  His daughter married and emigrated to Canada.  Her husband was a Miller by trade whose daughter married a man named Miller so that's why I'm in Canada with the surname Miller and love hearing about Northern Yorkshire.

Answer 9

My grandfather was a farmer, and my uncle is still farming. I remember them raising pigs to take to the market (oh, the smell).Their seed company is still functioning, even though my uncle is in his 80's.

I also have my grandparents to thank for my love of vegetables because of the ways they kept my parents from getting everything from the market. We'd regularly drive from Baltimore County, MD to the farm on the Eastern Shore. Each time, we were sent back home with canned tomatoes and vegetables from the farm. They tasted delicious and were a tangible expression of family love.

Answer 10

This little piggy had none, so he stole 2lbs of sugar from a lady's  basket (to swap for a lamb) and ended up with a one way ticket to Van Dieman's land

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Satchell-81

Comments

After reading his profile, I had to check connection to make sure I wasn't his probation officer.- No relation.