Food for the Family

Woman are the heartbeat of a family.  Woman are a huge part of creating the environment in which their family either flourish or sadly fade.  One way to enrich that environment is through food.  

No U.S. Census is going to tell you what your Great-Grandmother's go to meal was on a Friday night, but her recipe box that is in your mother's attic might.  Thinking out of the box to mold your female ancestor's lives is key, since much of their lives was not documented like they male counterparts.  

If you know your female ancestor had a signature dish, you may be able to research the origins of where the meal was created that may point you into area where you have family roots.  Or it may just give you a glimpse into their daily lives.  

My mother remembers her grandmother (Elsie May Miller nee Burton) making her silver dollar sized pancakes and sausage for breakfast and they would dress it with either sugar or maple syrup from the sugar maple trees they family had on their property.  All the children would boast about how many pancakes they were able to eat, a sort of contest between siblings.  

Other the other hand, my Grandmother on my paternal line (Elizabeth Jane Ferraro nee Welsh) taught me how to make ravioli.  Now the trickier part is, that she was not from Italy.  She was actually both Irish and German, but she married a man from Calabria, Italy.  Therefore she learned and passed down all the family recipes that she had learned from her mother-in-law.  

I will end with one of my favorite recipe cards that I found with my maternal grandmother's (Julia May Youngman nee Miller) recipe box.  It is a recipe for a Butter-less, Egg-less, Milk-less Cake.  Notice, the reasoning for such extreme lack of basic ingredients.  (Rationing for WW II.)

The Woman I Would Ask 1,000 Questions

My maternal grandmother died when I was a sophomore in college.  I had known her all my life, but I grew up 8 hours from her, so I only spent a few days with her 2 or 3 times a year.  Though our time together was short, I adored her.

Two years after I graduated from college I got married to my sweet husband, and at that point, we decided that we would begin looking into our family history.  

I took the lead, and I soon realized that I had missed such a huge opportunity to learn so much from my grandmother.  Remember that cheesy conversation starter:  "If you could talk to one person in history either alive or dead, who would it be?"  Julia May Miller is my answer.  

First off, I would introduce her to my husband and then place her great-granddaughter in her arms.  I would ask her about growing up in rural Clarion county, Pennsylvania during the Depression.  I would ask her about graduating from high school.  I would ask her what she wrote in her journal the day she met my grandfather.  I would ask her how she carried on while my grandfather was in France during the War.  I would ask her what her reaction was when she found out she was pregnant for the first time.  I would show her pictures of my wedding day, and pictures of our family since she left us.  We would talk for hours, we would laugh, we would cry...it would be perfect day.  I miss her.