If our ancestors could travel forward in time and see the lives we lead today, what would they think? What would they feel? 
No one would dispute that they led harsher lives than we do. Our ancestors struggled. But they must have had a strength to keep them going through adverse times. Not necessarily physical strength, but a mental strength that kept them going.
No large centrally seated houses with more bedrooms and bathrooms than family members. Quite the opposite - large families, sometimes even with lodgers, living in cramped sometimes unsanitary conditions.
My great grandparents John Anderson and Helen Young were living in Wishaw in 1881 in a house with two windowed rooms and seven children, ages ranging from 3 to 19.
1881 Census for Cambusnethan Parish via Scotlands People
My grandparents John McAra and Christina Walker were in similar living conditions in 1911 - plus they had another adult boarding with them!
We may complain about the NHS today, but these people had no healthcare as such. Children died from conditions we can treat nowadays. Mothers died in childbirth, attended to, if lucky, by a local woman or a family member who had gone through childbirth herself.
My grandmother Christina Walker lost her first three children - baby Jeannie to enteritis at 8 months old, baby George to measles and bronchitis just before his second birthday and their elder brother John at age 8 to a seizure. Three children lost before my grandmother was 28.
Death certificate of George McAra 1893 via Scotlands People
Women staying at home to look after ever growing families while their husbands worked long hours down the pit. Oh ... and their children were down the pit too! This entry in the 1871 census shows George Walker, my grandmother's brother was an underground worker at the age of 13! He had probably started down the pit when he was 10 or 11.
1971 Census for Shotts Parish via Scotlands People
Being a miner was a dangerous job, even for the men, never mind the children. My Uncle James and one of my mum's cousins died when tunnel roofs collapsed in on them.
And what happened to these families if the working man was injured or in some way incapacitated so he could no longer work?? No modern social care benefits for them. In Scotland, individual parishes were responsible for the care of the poor and determining whether or not they were able to work and what if any money they could be given.
In 1862, my 2 x great grandfather John Anderson (62) put in an application for poor relief. He was interviewed and found to be 'wholly disabled' due to athsma. He was living with his wife and they had one 12 year daughter still at home, the rest of their children being married/no longer living with them. He was awarded 2/6 (12 1/2p). Three years later his widow had to apply for 'Widow's relief'. Luckily she got some support. Another 2 x great grandmother of mine, Marion Sommerville, a widow, was granted poor relief at the age of 73 but she ended up having to go into the Poorhouse in Motherwell, where she died 7 years later.
Death certificate for Marion Sommerville in 1886 via Scotlands People
There would have been stigma attached to these applications or entrance to the workhouse/poorhouse too. My 2 x great grandfather Matthew Keir, died at age 38 of consumption and is described as 'Pauper' on his death certificate.
There are so many other stories like this in my tree. These stories are common. I'm not saying that these people did not live happy lives, but they lived hard lives. They had the strength to overcome a lot of adversity and that deserves to be recognised.
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