• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

You are born 100 years earlier, but in the same place; what do you do with your life?

Oh no, I'm an atheist.

An atheist of European descent?

The username comes from an Ottoboo phrase I was going through at the time. Suleiman was, as you suggest, the inspiration, but I misspelled it when I created my account at the Other Place, and It's become part of my wider online brand.

Gotcha.

You're not the first person to ask me that btw.

I'm really not surprised. :)

I'd be born to middle class or poor Irish farmers but all had their own farms so not dirt poor but certainly hard living.

I'd turn 18 in 1914 and I've been pretty political and interested in all things warty as long as I remember.

So I'd get a wide variety of options of being shot at by Germans, Brits or Other Irishmen depending on my exact persuasion.
*Shudders* :(
 
Last edited:
Well, assuming that I avoid the various medical complications of my early childhood, I'm born in Gateshead in 1887, moving to Jarrow shortly afterwards.

The kneejerk answer is that I end up working at Palmer's shipyard, or a colliery such as Hebburn or Boldon. Or possibly the railways. However, if family circumstances remain similar, then Dad is a librarian or archivist, quite possibly in industry, a club such as the Newcastle Lit & Phil or a grammar school, as metropolitan libraries were much rarer beasts back then. As the bookish son of a librarian, I expect that if I did end up in Palmers, I wouldn't be a riveter. There's probably a fairly decent chance, providing the opportunity presents itself, that I end up in teaching, much like I am today.

Of course, there's the unpleasantness of 14-18 looming over the second half of my twenties. If I'm working at the shipyard, or a colliery, then I might be in a reserved occupation, but it rather depends on the specific role I'm working in. Teaching was a reserved occupation, too. Societal pressure, though is different. If I did join, I've no idea what I'd end up doing. Outside of work, I'd probably still be in the Salvation Army, as Mam's side were members pretty much from the off in Jarrow. I'd still be playing a cornet, but I'd be forbidden from doing so for any 'outside' bands, unless I was a military bandsman. Unless I drifted away, which I've sort of done in OTL, but not officially. I suspect it would depend on if I was still in Jarrow. Ending up in Hampshire as I am now is very unlikely, though.

The other thing that would develop from about 1915 onwards or so is some unpleasant gastric issues (complete with more subtle, but more severe, side effects). Unfortunately, the link between these problems and consumption of wheat in coeliacs wasn't recognised until the Dutch Hunger Winter of '44-45, so that's a bugger.
 
I would note for all those assuming being in the trenches and dying in the trenches of WW1 that the two phrases are not synonymous. Depending on details of deployment and timing and which national army you are with, you've an upper limit of around 25% death chance. You're not all going to die there.

Edit. Some of you will live to write dreadful poetry about it.

Looking at the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, I think I really have to hope I'm in the second battalion rather the first. Neuve Chapelle would be a bit of a tight spot, but I think a few years fighting in Basra, Mesopotamia and Palestine gives me higher survival odds than the Somme.
 
Weren't the 1st and 2nd battalions Regular Army? Unless you were already in uniform at the start of the unpleasantness, wouldn't you be more likely to be in one of the subsequently raised battalions?
Sometimes, that led to oddities. The 1st Battalion of the DLI spent the whole of the kerfuffle in India, while several of the later battalions spent quite a bit of time on the Western Front.

One of those battalions included my great-granda, but we can't work out which one. He never spoke about it (hardly rare), and the surname Hall is rather common in that neck of the woods. Turns out that there are a significant number of Thomas Halls. I think Dad narrowed it down to about three or four, but got no further. I wonder whether he asked the DLI Museum for assistance? Either way, he was wounded, but the colliery he had worked in gave him a job for life above ground, which might have helped his health in the longer run. Either way, there's some irony in the idea that he might have been safer for the duration as a regular than somebody who volunteered later.
 
Weren't the 1st and 2nd battalions Regular Army? Unless you were already in uniform at the start of the unpleasantness, wouldn't you be more likely to be in one of the subsequently raised battalions?

I must admit it's really not an area of expertise for me.

Probably makes the western front more likely.
 
Making a few assumptions:
Not in the Regular Army at start of the northern France holiday tours.
Joining the Royal Leicestershire Regiment as a volunteer early, rather than waiting for conscription.
No major health issues that might cloud the issue of deployment.

That puts you into one of the 6th to 9th Battalions, all of which started life off as Service Battalions on the Western Front. Those trenches don't dig themselves, you know. Neither does the barbed wire in No-Man's Land appear by magic. Nor the railroads and so on. The mines don't get dug by wishful thinking. They're pioneer units.

It's a risky posting, although the risks are different to those of the usual line units. Line units, outside of big pushes, are subject to long periods of steady losses without any big spikes - snipers and trench mortars and night raids and so on. Pioneers tended to be in either secure (ish) places, developing reserve trenches and doing stuff that can be done in the rear areas prior to it getting sent forward. Or in very insecure places (laying wire in No-Man's Land wasn't a barrel of fun), and these operations tended to have high casualties.

As for the history of the 6th-9th, nothing much happens until 14 July 1916.

14 July 1916 sees High Wood, Somme. Fighting to and fro for control of High Wood lasts 14 July to 15 September. Sometimes its British attacking to take German-held positions, sometimes Germans attacking to take British-held positions. British infantry units get recycled. There's a shortage of pioneers to shore up recently taken positions to defend against the inevitable counter-attacks that will come in, so the 6th-9th pretty much stay there the entire time. Over this period, they took around 25% dead, 50% wounded.

You'll be pleased to know that because of High Wood, the German Army had to make decisions between sending reinforcements to counter-attacks on High Wood, or to attack Verdun.

Assuming survival at High Wood, there's a high chance of shell shock, and if that's avoided, the survivors are consolidated into the 9th, and nothing much happens until 26 September 1917. The Battle of Polygon Wood. This is actually a significant British victory, carefully prepared. Essentially, it involves bite and hold, taking a small section in a location that can be defended against the inevitable counter-attacks. The German counter-attacks are observed building up and advancing, and were, in the words of numerous witnesses, torn apart. British losses were around 5000, German losses around 20-25,000.

Thereafter, the 9th are withdrawn from the front lines, return to England to develop training to help with tanks. They return to France in November 1918, but never reach the front line.

As comprehensive as I'd expect from you, and more promising than I'd thought.
 
This is kind of an interesting one because
A) Where I was born was still pretty much the frontier 100 years before I was born. It was settled to some degree but there weren't small farms, which is what my family did.
B) Neither side of my family was in the U.S. 100 years before I was born.

So yes, I could come up with a scenario in which people something like my family were where I was born in the 19th century, or I could say I was born somewhere else, but it would be very contrived.

Very UK (or at least Old World) centric question.

If I'd been born on a small farm somewhere in the West (let's say Nebraska or the Dakotas) to a family something like mine, I most likely would have taken up farming myself and been a cranky middle aged man when automobiles and radios became ubiquitous. Since I would have been educated before WWI on the Great Plains, I very likely would have gone to school in German, Norwegian, or Swedish and never spoken English until I was well into adulthood. The Dust Bowl would likely wipe me out and if I were lucky, I could move my family to a city like Omaha or Minneapolis and get a job in a factory. My sons would fight in WWII and my grandchildren would be completely assimilated suburban white Americans.
 
1888 for me...Hmm. Just shy of Dad's side of the family coming over from Naples (early 1890s is the best guess right now), and Mom's was scattered all over Ohio, Pennsylvania and the Midwest, but I'll give this a try from some different angles.

Assuming born in the same place and to the same parents, without family-specific careers: Maybe working in a Milwaukee factory or brewery; perhaps changing over to war production in 1917 and 1941 with the former, assuming it's a lifetime gig. Don't think I'd be conscripted at 29 in WWI, but might volunteer; not sure where I'd end up in Europe, if so, or what my chances of coming back would be. Might end up doing union work, if the war and the "sewer socialism" of the city pushed me in that direction, not to mention the Depression. :)

Assuming same place and parents, with family careers: With Dad being a college prof and Mom a French language major and technical writer (or an early 1900s equivalent of the latter), I'd be upper class, or higher part of the middle. Maybe go into academia as well, possibly mixed with politics given the Wisconsin Idea; might get involved in Progressivism or MKE "sewer socialism" and run for city, state, or even national office. This might also lead to me to speak out against the draft and the Espionage Act, which wouldn't go over too well... :D

Assuming just mother's side: Maybe farming or factory work in any of the three aforementioned regions, with perhaps eventual promotion to manager or some other office slot in the latter case. Might end up drinking like a fish, too, given the times, family lore, and the work, be it blue- or white-collar. God knows what the Depression would bring on for me in either type of job.

Assuming just father's side: Still in Naples until early 1890s, then Brooklyn or Queens after immigrating. Might work in and maybe inherit the family jewelry store (which my grandfather's father opened in real history), or work in a factory or some other heavy labor job. Probably would get a fair amount of crap thrown my way (figuratively AND literally) from a lot of quarters for being Italian and Catholic, most of it in the 1890s-1930s. It's a stereotype, but the Depression might force me to the organized crime way of life, or I might already "know some people" from an early age in the USA or back in the "old country", and thus find a niche in the Five Families, maybe even a leadership slot. Of course, that would bring me to Hoover's notice, and bring threats of potential hits from Family rivals.... :D
 
Last edited:
I feel like I have 2 options depending on exactly what path we are going on; if its more of a my families position 100 years ago. I end up in the RGLI where i either die or sit out the rest of the war after the battle of Cambrai in 1917, if im 'lucky' i would get to the Battle of the Lys where i would have died.


If i did the other route, i would have either joined a fairly random regiment just before or at the start of the war as an officer and i feel like David has prob covered those chances up thread.
 
Pretty similar I'd think, which is the joy of being descended from untold generations of farmers/farm labourers/or labourers. Or a brewer.
Being a youngest son I also might end up as a lawyer/priest/minister.

End up in in South Africa with the NZ contingent, like my great great grandfather. Probably end up joining the *territorials and serve in WW1.

Would likely be a Liberal given that, as I'd hope I wasn't a Presbyterian supremecist Orangeman Reform Party man.
 
Let's just assume I keep a very similar outlook on life as I do in the real world.

Born in 1894 in Tennessee, I'd probably live a rather poor life up in the mountains until I was able to go to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. There is a non-zero chance I'd be sent to France in 1918 and die. Before then, if I had a similar revelation to what I did irl, I would have tried to be part of any anti-war movement, so much as it would have existed in that time and place. From then on, should I live through the war, I think I'd be inclined to move to Nashville or some other nearby urban center to be a teacher. The South in the 1920s (and in particular the Appalachian South) was a rough place to live with few opportunities -- many places wouldn't even be electrified until the arrival of the TVA in the 1930s.

With the coming of the Great Depression, I imagine work as a teacher wouldn't be swell. I know that school budgets fell, class sizes rose, and students who could attend had a lot of issues holding back their educational attainment. If I didn't lose my job, I imagine much of my organizing on the side would focus on getting food and resources to kids in my area.

Anything beyond there I wouldn't be sure. Between WW2 and the Civil Rights Movement, I think I'd find myself in a lot of turbulence as a teacher in the South, but I couldn't say what that would specifically entail for me.
 
So born in Prague, 1901. I'd be 18 in 1919 so I'd have avoided WW1 and be an adult just as Czechoslovakia becomes independent then assuming similar political beliefs, I'd become a centre-right National Democrat voter, from there I'd probably be an upper middle class worker in Prague, voting Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and National Democracy in the 20's and 30's. Luckily, Prague and most of Czechoslovakia survived the Great Depression, mostly intact. Initially the hostility of communists to the Czechoslovak state and the Bolshevik revolution would veer me right but later the rise of Hitler and failed fascist coup would likely similarly veer me left so would mainly remain centre-right. I'd then be part of the Czechoslovak army reserves and likely be called up in 1938 before the Munich Betrayal and succeeding abandonment which would likely make me hostile to the west. I'd then likely at least tacitly support the Czechoslovak resistance and if I was a soldier before, join it and oppose the Nazis and collaborators but more likely just try to get by and maybe do some minor civilian resistance.

In the Prague uprising, I'd like to think I'd join it but who knows. I'd probably initially see the soviets as liberators and given the previous western betrayal, I'd likely vote the nominally left-wing and pro-soviet Zenkl's Czechoslovak National Social Party which despite its name isn't anything like the Nazis but be angered by the latter coup and likely assassination of Jan Masaryk, opposing them privately and support the Prague spring and then lurch back to the centre-right and be anti-Kremlin following the invasion, either escaping to the western bloc or staying there after, maybe being imprisoned for a year or two for supporting the Prague spring if my support was more public. Then I'd support the Velvet Revolution and come back form exile if I was there and then support the democratic anti-communist Havel and likely then die soon after the Velvet Revolution, maybe seeing the velvet divorce, being opposed to it due to the lack of referenda and polls at the time showing most didn't really support it but by then would be in my 80's and be dead if not before the divorce but ideally would see an independent democratic Czechoslovakia, having then seen everything from WW1 to WW2 to the Cold War, seeing the end of Austria-Hungary, the first republic, Munich Dictate, Communist regime, Prague spring, Velvet Revolution and maybe the velvet divorce.
 
Blue baby and then prone to chest infections so probably would have died at birth (Belfast 1868) or contacted TB early in life. Dad was a reasonably prosperous green grocer until the Troubles wrecked his business so probably would have got a nice Victorian marble cherub on my youthful tomb.
 
I'm born in June 1891 in the sleepy town of San Francisco del Monte, in what was then the Philippines, Spanish East Indies. Assuming I don't die in childhood of asthma or some other childhood disease, I'd still be a child at the time of the Revolution, and would have had relatives fight in the Philippine-American War during my childhood. If we assume my parents are of roughly the same economic class, I'd probably, after being educated semi-formally by the parish priest in reading, writing and arithmetic and the catechism (though my dad, being mildly anticlerical, might not think much of the fourth one) send me to a Colegio or one of those newfangled American high schools (who mostly taught in English). While there's a good chance I'd be one of the lucky few to go on to university (either the new University of the Philippines or probably the University of Santo Tomas) there's an equally good chance I wouldn't, as even a lot of middle class folks at the time did not go to university. I'd probably spend the 1920s working in the family businesses, maybe becoming a manager just as the Great Depression hits. Luckily my grandfather has sufficient property that we'd probably survive on his inheritance, but it would be tough going. My hometown eventually becomes part of Quezon City, and it starts becoming culturally part of Greater Manila. Americans would call my neighborhood a suburb.

Now the fucked up part is WWII. In 1941 I'd have just turned 50, probably a father of a family (married local of course) when the War comes to us and the Japanese start bombing. There's some chance I get conscripted as a last ditch measure, which means I either end up dying in a place called Bataan, or I end up in the infamous death march. If not, I get to live under the Japanese occupation in an urban area, complete with chances of my wife or daughters getting raped, and/or all of us being targeted by the Japanese/Japanese puppets/Resistance. Oh, and hyperinflation. Can't forget about that.

If I somehow survive the War, the 50s and 60s are boom times, though by this time I'm probably in my declining years, though probably still working at the shop (partly due to practicaities, partly because I'm probably that damn stubborn). Probably would die either just before Martial Law, or during the early years, where there's a good chance I'd be a Marcos supporter.
 
I will note that while an upper middle class boy like my dad marrying a peasant girl isn't too implausible, my mother is from another part of the Philippines.

Assuming my mom's side, I'm born in Baccara, Ilocos, in 1891, to farmers that are poor but not dirt poor. Unlike most Filipino peasants, my mother's family actually owned their own land, so that gives us some leverage, though not enough to be actually that prosperous. In that scenario my alternate dad is probably a local fellow peasant (there's actually a good chance he would be Protestant in this scenario, or convert at an early age - the Ilocos area is historically a disproportionately Protestant region - so a mixed marriage, which might draw the disapproval of the parish priest, but in the world of peasant relationships, pragmatism is pragmatism), and I'm likely not an only child. The crop in the area is tobacco, though given my grandfather's farming abilities, the main source of income would be livestock of some sort. Carabao if I'm lucky, but more likely pigs and goats.

I probably do learn to read from the parish priest, though I probably get to be educated by the Thomasites when I'm not helping on the farm. Unlikely to go to high school in this case. Probably a life of back breaking hard labor to eke out a living on the land, or to join the Constabulary like my grandpa did OTL. When the Japanese come, I'm probably a collaborator (my mother's hometown was treated relatively leniently by the Japanese, and collaborationism did have the kick of Philippine nationalism). That probably means it won't go well for me after the war though, at least until I get amnestied when it becomes clear to the Powers that Be that the Communists are the new threat of the 1950s, and so what's a little protofascism among neighbors? Probably die in the late 50s due to backbreaking work taking its toll.
 
Take level: well, yes.

Threads like this really do bring home that life 100 years ago may not have been much fun for many, but being a relatively healthy white, straight, cis, male in the west would have insulated one from the very worst, and most of the very bad, too.

In turn, that helps me realise that it's still a massive boon for such t this day.
 
Die from lack of oxygen within 3 minutes as the same place 100 years would mean that I was born out in space somewhere 100 years of solar orbit away from Earth.
If you aren't a lawyer or politician already, you should think about it! You have a knack for finding loopholes through strict construction.
 
Back
Top