Hi, Marcia. The leather would most likely have come from the family's own cattle that had been slaughtered for food. Quite a few shoes could be made from a single hide. At one time shoe maker's were like travelling salesmen. One difference is that they would stay with the family that was getting the shoes. They didn't have fixed sizes and each person would get several pairs of shoes made at one time. I don't remember when left and right shoes came to be, but there were no right or left shoe in colonial times. John & Jodi Massachusetts Vital Records Administrators - http://MA-VitalRecords.org If you find this site of value - http://MA-VitalRecords.org/Donate.html Quoting Marcia Payne <etexgal@webtv.net>: > While I've been working on this Civil War project, I noticed many > shoemakers. Where in the world did they get so much leather? That's > alot of cow hides 'eh? > > Marcia > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

So people did all that walking and manual work in shoes that didn't fit? Yours, Dora Smith Austin, TX tiggernut24@yahoo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vital Records Project" <VitalRecords@ma-vitalrecords.org> To: "Marcia Payne" <etexgal@webtv.net> Cc: <MAWORCES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 6:32 PM Subject: Re: [MAWORCES] Shoe makers > Hi, Marcia. > The leather would most likely have come from the family's own > cattle that had been slaughtered for food. Quite a few shoes could be > made from a single hide. > > At one time shoe maker's were like travelling salesmen. One > difference is that they would stay with the family that was getting > the shoes. They didn't have fixed sizes and each person would get > several pairs of shoes made at one time. I don't remember when left > and right shoes came to be, but there were no right or left shoe in > colonial times. > > John & Jodi > Massachusetts Vital Records Administrators - http://MA-VitalRecords.org > If you find this site of value - http://MA-VitalRecords.org/Donate.html > > > Quoting Marcia Payne <etexgal@webtv.net>: > >> While I've been working on this Civil War project, I noticed many >> shoemakers. Where in the world did they get so much leather? That's >> alot of cow hides 'eh? >> >> Marcia >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >> the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

The shoe maker would custom make the shoes for each family member. I would guess there was growing room allowed for children. They may have worn some ill-fitting shoes but probably not very often. I'd think that it was just like nowadays. If the shoe maker did a poor job, he wouldn't be welcome back and word would get around to neighbors of his poor craftsmanship. John & Jodi Massachusetts Vital Records Administrators - http://MA-VitalRecords.org If you find this site of value - http://MA-VitalRecords.org/Donate.html Quoting Dora Smith <tiggernut24@yahoo.com>: > So people did all that walking and manual work in shoes that didn't fit? > > Yours, > Dora Smith > Austin, TX > tiggernut24@yahoo.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Vital Records Project" <VitalRecords@ma-vitalrecords.org> > To: "Marcia Payne" <etexgal@webtv.net> > Cc: <MAWORCES-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 6:32 PM > Subject: Re: [MAWORCES] Shoe makers > > >> Hi, Marcia. >> The leather would most likely have come from the family's own >> cattle that had been slaughtered for food. Quite a few shoes could be >> made from a single hide. >> >> At one time shoe maker's were like travelling salesmen. One >> difference is that they would stay with the family that was getting >> the shoes. They didn't have fixed sizes and each person would get >> several pairs of shoes made at one time. I don't remember when left >> and right shoes came to be, but there were no right or left shoe in >> colonial times. >> >> John & Jodi >> Massachusetts Vital Records Administrators - http://MA-VitalRecords.org >> If you find this site of value - http://MA-VitalRecords.org/Donate.html >> >> >> Quoting Marcia Payne <etexgal@webtv.net>: >> >>> While I've been working on this Civil War project, I noticed many >>> shoemakers. Where in the world did they get so much leather? That's >>> alot of cow hides 'eh? >>> >>> Marcia >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>> MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >>> the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >>> >> >> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >