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Friedrich August Cosel

1712–1770

Born
17 Aug 1712, Pillnitz
Country of birth
Germany
Died
15 Oct 1770, Zabór
facts
7
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Pillnitz

    Birth, Pillnitz

  2. Died · Zabór

    Death, Zabór

What was it like?

The world around Pillnitz, 1712: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

For ordinary people, clothing was strictly divided into everyday wear and Sunday best, as a person's wardrobe was very limited three hundred years ago.

Fashion

Limited Wardrobes and Sunday Best

For ordinary people, clothing was strictly divided into everyday wear and Sunday best, as a person's wardrobe was very limited three hundred years ago.

Practical Working Clothing and Headwear

Maids wore practical working clothes like shorter skirts, loose bodices, and aprons to move freely while doing heavy chores, while women of all statuses typically wore hair caps for protection and fashion.

Music

Fiddlers earned Nickelgrosken at village celebrations

Fiddlers were central to village life and were paid for their services at weddings and parties with small coins known as Nickelgrosken.

The cornett was a popular civic instrument

Town musicians used the versatile cornett, a wooden instrument with finger holes, for both church services and celebratory civic events.

Getting around

River Travel by Ordinari Boats

Water transport was often more cost-effective; for example, the Ordinari boat from Regensburg to Vienna took at least a week to cover about 450 kilometers. Passengers often spent their nights on land during these boat journeys.

Slow Pace of Mail Coach Travel

Travel by mail coach was slow, moving at a walking pace of about 4-5 km/h. A journey from Nuremberg to Leipzig covered roughly 70 hours, and to Regensburg about 20 hours.

Daily life

Lighting, Cooking, and Water Access

Lighting was limited to pine torches, tallow candles, or oil lamps, while cooking was done over an open fire or in masonry hearths with a wide chimney hood to collect smoke. Water was typically obtained from community pump wells.

Limited Schooling for Children

Children often attended only winter schools because their labor was required for farming and tending livestock the rest of the year. Teachers were frequently untrained, such as former soldiers or craftsmen, and religious instruction was the main priority.

Food

Simple meals of porridge, soup, and stew

Ordinary families commonly consumed grain-based porridges and soups for breakfast and dinner, while a hearty stew served as the main midday meal. Meat was expensive, so many households reserved it for special occasions like a Sunday roast.

Work

Common jobs and daily routines

Most people worked as farmers, often laboring on narrow strips of land or as seasonal laborers; others engaged in cottage industries like spinning and weaving. Their day began at sunrise and continued until dark, often including heavy manual labor with simple tools like scythes and flails.

News and letters

Communication Costs and Delivery Times

Ordinary people increasingly used postal services as costs declined, although for many, information still relied on slow, expensive transport alongside passengers and goods. A letter could still take weeks to reach distant major cities like Venice.

During their lifetime

  1. 1717

    Christmas flood kills 11,000 people

    A major storm surge on Christmas claimed over 11,000 lives along the German North Sea coast.

  2. 1717

    Compulsory education introduced in Prussia

    Prussia introduced compulsory education for children between the ages of five and twelve.

  3. 1717

    Silent Sejm of 1717

    The 1717 Silent Sejm limited the Commonwealth's army to 24,000 troops, marking the formal beginning of long-term Russian political supremacy over the Polish-Lithuanian state.

  4. 1723

    New Warsaw trading house, 1723

    A major trading house was established in Warsaw by French Huguenots in 1723, marking an early sign of economic recovery and industrial development.

  5. 1731

    Guild autonomy abolished by law

    The Imperial Diet passed a law that ended the autonomy of craft guilds, making it easier for people to enter trades.

  6. 1756

    Seven Years' War casualties and destruction

    During the Seven Years' War, some 160,000 Prussian soldiers died in battle or from disease, devastating the population.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.