You’re getting a really intimate sense not just of who you’re researching, but also of their community due to the bartering nature of it.
Diane L. Richard: I did some research for the TV show Who Do You Think You Are?, in which a celebrity — with help from a genealogist — looks into their family history. I’d exhausted what the archives had, and I ended up finding a late-1700s, early-1800s ledger that aligned with the right place and time. I have found out people’s shoe sizes and what kind of clothing they wore by looking through those. You’re getting a really intimate sense not just of who you’re researching, but also of their community due to the bartering nature of it. “This person works for this person who then pays their bill at this business” — it’s different than a census record that just gives you name and age.