What Your Ancestors Ate

because food history is family history

Jun 10, 2025

Have you ever wondered what your great-great-grandmother served for dinner on an ordinary Tuesday? From hardtack to homegrown produce, your ancestors' diets tell a rich story about class, region, and survival. The foods they ate—or couldn't eat—shaped their daily lives in profound ways. In this post, I'll explore how to research historical food patterns and what these culinary clues reveal about your ancestors' lives, challenges, and social standing.

I am a genealogist and researcher dedicated to uncovering family and social history. I help people connect with their heritage and explore the narratives that shape their identities, and I assist my clients in crafting engaging nonfiction and historical stories about their ancestors. To learn more about this Substack and my love of history, family history, and genealogy — head here, and to learn more about the From Research To Novel webinar and Substack — head here.

Why Food History Matters

Food history isn't just for culinary enthusiasts—it's essential context for family historians. The foods our ancestors ate were often brought from the “old country.” They are filled with tradition and ancestry, and they help us to define:

Diet shaped your ancestors' health, longevity, and quality of life
Food traditions reveal cultural identity and migration patterns
Cooking methods and ingredients reflect economic circumstances
Meals structured daily life and preserved family connections across generations

So, let’s get started!

Understanding Diet by Era

To reconstruct what your ancestors ate, you need to understand how diet varied dramatically across different time periods.

Colonial and frontier diets were shaped by scarcity and preservation needs. Your 18th-century ancestors likely relied heavily on foods that could be dried, smoked, or salted. Daily meals might have consisted of cornmeal mush, salt pork, and foraged foods—with meat as an occasional luxury rather than a daily staple. Regional variations were stark: coastal ancestors enjoyed seafood while inland families relied more heavily on game and preserved foods.

The Industrial Revolution transformed eating habits as commercially produced foods became available. Canned foods are an example of this transformation, as are packaged breads, and even bottled milk. By the late 19th century, your ancestors may have introduced store-bought crackers, canned goods, and eventually processed foods into their diets, though the degree of consumption will depend heavily on their economic status and location. Locating old family recipes during this era that include such things would be a good indication they were living in a class that allowed them the means and access to such foods.

Urban and rural diets diverged significantly during this period. While urban diets involved greater diversity and increased access to processed and packaged foods, they also included more animal protein and simple sugars. While, during the same time period, those living in rural areas remained consuming more plant-based meals derived from local agriculture. People from rural areas ate less processed and packaged foods, but they also had higher chances of malnutrition contingent on whether or not local crops failed.

During the Great Migration (1880 - 1920) a majority of our immigrant roots arrived in the United States. With them they brought traditions and recipes carried over from the “old world.” These recipes would have directly affected how they cooked, what ingredients they used, and how they adapted traditional recipes by incorporating available ingredients found locally in their new homeland. Dishes like pasta, pickled vegetables, sausages, borscht, challah and pierogies were brought with them, introducing their countries' foods and costumes on an ever growing United States.

All of this must also be combined with the historical moments our ancestors endured and lived through.

World events like the Great Depression when soups and stews took center stage and both World Wars which dramatically altered family eating patterns in ways we still feel today. Through World War II our ancestors learned to embrace Victory gardens (home gardens designed to help supplement through food shortages), rationing (which led to foods like sugar, meat, cooking oil, canned goods, cheese, canned milk, and fats being limited during war time), and food substitutions became part of daily life (like margarine, powered eggs and milk, and roasted acorns to replace coffee).

These experiences often shaped food values that were passed down through generations. Recipes for items like molasses cookies, adding fillers to meatloaf (breadcrumbs, beans, vegetables), and egg salad are all part of our daily lives but all originate from the experiences our ancestors lived through during World War II.

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Research Methods for Food History

Discovering what your ancestors ate requires creative research approaches and contextual thinking, especially if you were not fortunate enough to inherit a handwritten family cookbook.

Even though one solid book or binder didn’t fall in your lap, remember that family documents may provide direct evidence—look for preserved printed recipe books, household account ledgers, or mentions of meals in letters and diaries. Even take the time to think about what your family ate when you were a child, especially at holidays and family gatherings.Family stories about traditional dishes or food memories will offer valuable clues even when written records are scarce.

Another approach are community cookbooks from your ancestors' locations and the eras they lived in. These provide insight into regional eating patterns. Agricultural census data reveals what crops your farming ancestors grew. Newspaper advertisements show what foods were available commercially in their area and some even have recipes listed. Did your ancestor submit a recipe to their local newspaper for Thanksgiving? It’s worth the research time to find out! Finally, don’t forget to look for historical cookbooks from the appropriate time period of your family history. They can help to add socioeconomic context and offer realistic glimpses of everyday meals.

Remember, when researching it is important to consider your ancestors' economic status, ethnicity, religion, and location. Each one of these profoundly shaped what appeared on their table and the choices they made when it came to food decisions.

A wealthy urban family in 1890s New York City or Chicago ate very differently than tenant farmers in rural Georgia or sharecroppers in Oklahoma during the same period.

Transforming your Research into Real Understanding

Moving beyond facts to truly understand your ancestors' food experiences brings their world to life.

There are multiple ways to do this. First, study historical cooking methods and equipment—open hearth cooking required different techniques than wood stoves or early gas ranges. Understanding food preservation methods explains seasonal eating patterns and winter dietary limitations. Food storage challenges influenced meal planning in ways we can barely comprehend today. Sites like History in the Making and Harvard’s Culinary and Food History e-Resource can help you learn and better understand how your ancestor ate, cooked, and more.

Don’t be afraid to make these recipes! While it won’t be exactly how your ancestor’s cooked, it will still give you a physical experience tasting the foods of their days.

How to Get Started

Ready to explore your family's food heritage? Here's how:

Collect food memories and recipes from your oldest living relatives (if you are your oldest living relative, move to number 2)
Research typical diets from the regions and eras where your ancestors lived
Study historical context (economic depressions, wars, migrations) that would have affected their food access
Most of all, consider recreating historical family recipes to connect tangibly with your heritage

Like everything else in the realm of family history research, the key is consistency. Even researching one ancestral recipe or one family food tradition can open a window into your family's past experiences–therefore–expanding your personal experience.

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Food Research FAQs

How can I know what my ancestors ate if no family recipes survived? Research the typical diet of their time period, location, economic class, and ethnic background. Local historical societies often have information about regional food traditions, and historical cookbooks can provide context for everyday meals. Utilize the Research Wiki on the FamilySearch Website to find local archives, libraries, and societies you can reach out to.

Were there significant differences between rural and urban diets historically? Absolutely! Rural families typically ate more homegrown and preserved foods, with seasonal abundance followed by leaner periods. Urban dwellers had more access to commercial foods and imports but might have struggled with food quality and adulteration issues, particularly before food safety regulations.

How did immigrant ancestors adapt their traditional foods to American ingredients? This process of adaptation created some of our most interesting food traditions. Immigrants often substituted available ingredients for unavailable ones, gradually creating hybrid cuisines that reflected both their heritage and new homeland. Religious dietary laws and cultural food traditions were often maintained even when other customs faded.

Remember, reconstructing your ancestors' diets gives you insight into one of the most fundamental aspects of their daily lives. Food wasn't just sustenance. It represented culture, status, ethnicity, religion, and family traditions. By understanding what they ate, how they prepared it, and the circumstances surrounding their meals, you begin to develop a more nuanced understanding of who they were as people.

What family food traditions have been passed down in your family? Share your culinary heritage stories in the comments below!