I’ve been writing a historical-fantasy novel set in 1866 Bavaria, and I’m having the WORST time finding out mundane details about day-to-day life. In fact, I’ve run into this same problem on many writing projects.
What are your go-to resources for researching day-to-day life in the past? I welcome all suggestions, regardless of which specific historical period(s) they apply to.
ETA: At the moment, my problem is that I have some members of the Bavarian nobility among my characters, and I’m struggling to figure out English-language equivalents for forms of address, whether they’re talking among themselves or their servants are talking to/about them. I know (most of) these characters’ titles or at least their positions in society:
A count (Graf, would be addressed as Ehrlaucht in German) whose title goes back to the Holy Roman Empire Character 1’s younger brother, who I think would also be a Graf because that my research suggests that title was inherited by all the sons of a Graf, not just the oldest son An unmarried granddaughter of a different Graf whose title only goes back a few decades. Her dad (the Graf’s younger son) is dead and her granddad dies partway through the book, so her title might change in the middle. An adopted son and legal heir of Character 2’s uncle (the Graf’s older son). The uncle/stepdad is also dead.
The most common English translation of Ehrlaucht is apparently “Your Illustrious Highness,” but man, that’s a mouthful. And two of these characters slowly fall in love, so is there some intermediate level of formality between using “Your Illustrious Highness” and being on a first-name basis?
submitted by /u/TheStoryEngineer
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