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Queen Margarita of Bulgaria

b. 1935

Born
6 Jan 1935, Madrid
Country of birth
Spain

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
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images and files
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Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Madrid

    Birth, Madrid

  2. Child born: Kardam, Prince of Tarnovo

    Birth, Madrid

  3. Child born: Kyril, Prince of Preslav

    Birth, Madrid

  4. Child born: Kubrat, Prince of Panagyurishte

    Birth, Madrid

  5. Child born: Konstantin-Assen, Prince of Vidin

    Birth, Madrid

  6. Child born: Princess Kalina of Bulgaria

    Birth, Madrid

What was it like?

The world around Madrid, 1935: 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.

Queen was born the same year as Elvis Presley, Woody Allen, and Alain Delon.

Born the same year

  • Elvis Presley

    American singer and actor (1935–1977)

  • Woody Allen

    American filmmaker, actor and comedian (born 1935)

  • Alain Delon

    French actor (1935–2024)

  • Brian Clough

    English football player and manager (1935–2004)

  • Tenzin Gyatso

    14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetans

  • José Mujica

    Uruguayan guerrilla fighter and politician

Fashion

San Fermín Festival Attire

The traditional San Fermín festival outfit of white clothes and red sash became popular in the 1930s. The red sash measures 2.5 meters long and 12 centimeters wide.

Around 1939–1949

Painted Stocking Seams

Women who could not afford real stockings sometimes painted a line down the back of their legs with eyeliner to simulate a seam.

Music

Christmas music and nativity traditions

Christmas celebrations featured midnight masses where people sang villancicos, and homes were decorated with elaborate nativity scenes called nacimientos instead of Christmas trees. Children received their gifts on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany, brought by the Three Kings.

Women as keepers of oral tradition

Women were the primary custodians of oral musical traditions, singing specialized songs for every life stage, including lullabies, youth courting rounds, weddings, and funeral laments. Professional female mourners were hired to sing at funerals and also went door-to-door on All Souls' Eve to collect money for masses.

Getting around

Moving livestock by train across Spain

Transhumant shepherds moved thousands of sheep by train between Babia and Cáceres, a 430-kilometer journey that took two days by rail, whereas moving them on foot would take much longer.

Railways dominated passenger travel by 1936

By 1936, the railway was the dominant mode of transport for long-distance travel, accounting for nearly 75 percent of internal land transport of passengers in Spain.

Daily life

Child labor and limited schooling access

Poorer girls often worked as domestic servants for as little as one peseta a month plus food, while others stayed home to embroider or care for younger siblings instead of attending school. Schooling was frequently interrupted by teacher changes or seasonal farm work, with some children walking over two hours to attend.

Daily chores and crowded home life

Cooking was done over wood or straw fires in small kitchens, and many children had to leave school as early as age seven to help with farm work, such as sifting straw or guarding cattle. Domestic life was often crowded, with multiple generations and up to eleven people sharing small stone houses.

Food
Around 1936–1949

Desperate sources of protein

Food shortages were so severe that some people resorted to eating animals like cats, donkeys, or dogs, which were passed off as rabbit or lamb.

Around 1936–1952

Creative substitutions for scarce food

Ordinary families survived by using culinary imagination to simulate scarce items, such as making omelets without eggs using bread and onions.

Prices and wages
Around 1938–1938

Black market prices in 1938

During the scarcity of 1938, officially priced goods were unavailable; a dozen eggs officially cost 17.50 pesetas but sold for 110 on the black market.

Around 1938–1938

Cooking oil prices in 1938

In 1938, a liter of cooking oil with an official price of 3 pesetas could reach 100 pesetas on the black market.

Work

Women's endless home-based work

Many women worked at home as seamstresses or ironers, often converting their houses into workshops to avoid neglecting family duties. This work was typically done at a piece-rate, leading to endless working days for very low pay.

Precarious life for rural day laborers

Agricultural laborers in rural Spain typically earned only 3.5 pesetas a day and could often only find work for half the year. In some cases, these laborers slept in barns and stables with livestock when working in the fields.

News and letters
Around 1936–1936

Rural mail routing in 1936

In 1936, a postal card traveled from Veganzones to Segovia and then to Turégano using motorized carriage transport. Despite the locations being only 4.5 km apart, the correspondence had to be processed through the capital's central office rather than being exchanged directly.

Around 1938–1938

Submarine mail defied military blockades

In August 1938, a submarine successfully transported two sacks of mail through a military blockade to an island. The project was incredibly profitable, generating over 11 million pesetas despite a stamp sales value of 690,000 pesetas.

During their lifetime

  1. 1950

    Tourism industry boom 1950-1970

    The annual number of tourists visiting Spain skyrocketed from less than half a million in 1950 to over 20 million by 1970.

  2. 1960

    Massive labor emigration to Europe 1960-1975

    Between 1960 and 1975, approximately three million Spaniards emigrated to European countries like Germany, France, and Switzerland to seek work.

  3. 1960

    Massive rural-to-urban migration in 1960s

    In the 1960s, approximately 3.1 million Spaniards moved from rural areas to industrial urban centers like Madrid and Barcelona.

  4. 1966

    Growth of household consumer goods in 1966

    By 1966, the rise in living standards meant that 36 percent of households owned a washing machine, 32 percent a television, and 12 percent a car.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

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.