We all have them. They sit in our cabinet or on our shelf, pages old and worn, sometimes stained or dog eared from much use. Some are spiral bound, some are not. Some are just faded index cards in a box. Many of these books came from church, or a women’s group, a school fundraiser, or a special Christmas present that Cousin so and so put together for everyone. Some belonged to a family member and were passed down. Whatever the case these special items may be a treasure trove of information… They are Cookbooks!
There is something special about these cookbooks! I have a cookbook that a cousin put together, and she had everyone contribute their favorite family recipes and share stories and photos. She has it printed and bound, then sent them to everyone. So for me this cookbook has a few amazing Family History and Genealogy tidbits. It has OLD FAMILY PHOTOS, STORIES OF MY ANCESTORS, TRADITIONAL RECIPES PASSED DOWN, and NAMES OF CURRENT FAMILY MEMBERS. It is pretty amazing.
I also have an old wooden box filled with index cards of recipes my grandmother collected. It is one of my most valuable treasures. In it are old recipes my grandmother used to make. Everything is in her neat and even handwriting, and everything is well cited (e.g. Given to me by Mrs Ethel Smith Jan 1965, or Copied from the Flint Journal April 3 1947) . So now with these recipes I have names and dates of friends or family, newspaper references and more. I was lucky to know my grandmother and looking back through these cards gives me a feeling of closeness to her now that she is gone.
A lot of times the women who contributed to these cookbooks added their name (Or a married name) and city to the recipe. If you know when the cookbook was printed you are able to place your ancestor to a particular time and place! This is a great jumping off point and allows you to really start to build a sketch of this person and her life. If it is a church cookbook you know what faith she belonged to, you know where she lived, the time frame she lived, how she cooked and ate, and if you double check with the census of the time you will know her address, husband and children , as well as any occupation.
Through these cookbooks you are also able to determine her social circle and surroundings. Where did the cookbook come from? Was it a women’s social auxiliary, a charity group, or was it a church cookbook? What were the funds and proceeds of the sale going towards? What was an important cause to her and those other women who contributed to the cookbooks? In examining the recipe itself, can you determine if these were plain farmhouse type recipes, or fancy la-di-da uptown recipes? Look at the last names of all the women in the cookbook…are they predominantly English? German? Scottish? Polish? African American? After sorting through this information you now have a clearer picture of the community your ancestor came from. Faith, ethnic group of people settling in the same areas, the charity groups or projects she involved herself in. You also have a basic muster roll of everyone else in the area who went to the church or belonged to the same group. Buy putting all these pieces together you are able to build a more accurate and complete life sketch of the person you are researching. It also may lead you to other resources and community records and collections of the different ethnic groups in an area.
Sometimes these cookbooks may be one of the only references you have of an ancestor.
HOW DO YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THESE COOKBOOKS?
1. Church. Many churches keep copies of all the old cookbooks and if available the church historians will be able to point you in the right direction.
2. Check with your family. Many times someone in your family will have one already on their shelf from great grandma, or Aunt Mary.
3. Library: Local libraries and universities will often have copies of these old community cookbooks.
4, Ebay– if you know the church and time frame you may be able to find something on Ebay!
5. Thrift Stores in the local area. If great grandma came from Podunk Iowa, and you are nearby, check the local thrift shops , Goodwill, St Vincent De Paul, Habitat Re Store, Salvation Army, garage and yard sales in Podunk, many times people will donate or sell it without realizing the treasure they have!
6. Google Books. This is a great resource for vintage cookbooks.
7. genealogy websites. Some sites like Ancestry have a few vintage cookbooks on file, or someone will have uploaded copies of ancestors recipes.
KEEP IN MIND:
This is a technique that may or may not yield any fruit. This process can be time consuming and complicated. You may get lucky and find the jackpot, or you may come up empty handed. Using cookbooks will probably not yield you any slots on the BCMD chart but it can definitely help you understand who your ancestor was and help you get a bigger picture of what her life may have been like.
