How did so many people sleep in a small apartment? What did people like to do besides work, work, work?

First-person memoirs, journals, and letters all offer clues as to how people really lived. But what about immigrants, many of whom didn’t leave written materials behind?

One of the best ways to learn about cultural history is to talk to people who lived it. Through conversations with the Rogarshevskys' descendents (pictured left), we know that Fannie & Abraham slept in the bedroom, while their 2 daughters shared a bed in the kitchen and their 4 sons created a make-shift bed out of a sofa and 3 chairs. Because of this story, there is a small bed in the Rogarshevsky kitchen.

We also know that 1 son wanted to be a boxer, which led Pamela Keech to hang weights in the restored parlor.