I need to find someone who will help me with my research for a modest
hourly rate or just for fun.  How do I locate a person who has the
time, is search-savvy, and is interested enough in the learning and
exploratory opportunities to be willing to work for little?  I can't
afford to keep paying big (they're big to me) fees for each separate
question when I have so many.

Myoarin, if I can keep you entertained, are you interested?  I don't
mean to put you on the spot, but I have an idea you might be.  If so,
we can find a way to work it out.

Archae0pteryx

---

Clarification of Question by archae0pteryx-ga on 17 Dec 2005 16:13 PST

By way of clarification, here is the question being asked:

How do I locate a person who has the time [to do some online
research], is search-savvy, and is interested enough in the learning
and exploratory opportunities to be willing to work for little?

Asking how to find a research helper is not unlike asking how to find
a hypnotist, a flute player, a cobbler, or a spice grower.  I am not
asking GA to be those things, just to tell me how to find one.  The
rest is explanation of the reason for my question, with a little aside
to Myoarin.

How can I help, Tryx?  I'm not allowed to communicate with you except
within the four walls of this humble textbox, but I'd be interested to
hear your Questions.

AFAIK Google Answers has no prejudice against information being freely
provided by comments posted by those who take a special interest in a
topic.  It creates, as I understand it, a body of interesting reading
for eclectic souls who wander by, born on the currents of the
Internet.


regards, mathtalk-ga

Oh, Jeez!, Tryx  (I'm squirming like Richard Burton just before he
presents the flowers to Liz Taylor in "Who is Afraid of Virginia
Woolf"),  how flattering!
You know I delight at your questions, but I am hardly search-savvy, it
takes me too long really, but the questions are just too interesting 
- for me.  I wouldn't want you to depend on me, however, 'cause I am
not very consistantly dependable (hardly worth contracting).
A counter suggestion:  Post $2.00 questions, and I will try to help,
and you will still have the access to G-A and especially to Scriptor's
immense knowledge and skills.  If he or anyone else is interested at
that price, fine, and I will try  - or will sign off.  I rather expect
that Scriptor enjoys your questions for the opportunity to use his
unique language and history knowledge, which don't get much exercise
here.
Is that an idea?

Been wondering where you've been  -and worried that one or the other
family matter has been the reason.  I certainly hope not, but perhaps
I should have browsed past this question before replying.
Last week I read that someone had paid a million or two million
dollars for one or your ilk  - the individual was stoned, of course,  
- not the silly buyer -  the archaeopteryx, naturally. :)
Best regards, Myoarin

I have to admit that I started my above comment and then went off to
watch my favorite TV show with experts commenting on "gems" or junk 
(Scriptor will be able to translate the Stabreim if he can see Bayern
3), and then I watched half of the German version of "How to be a
Millionaire", finding Mathtalk's comment on my return.
Tryx hasn't yet (I think?) had a question to test Mathtalk's special
skills, but I agree with his tactful suggestion that we are beholden
to G-A to meet here for the elucidation of all.
Cheers, Myoarin

Hi, Myoarin-ga:

True, I've not yet been able to Answer one of her Questions.  The
closest I came was apparently this:

[Q: Statue of philosopher or mathematician with egg]
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=382228

which pinkfreud-ga resolved here:

[Q: Sage contemplating an egg]
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=384737

But Hope springs Eternal!

- mt

Thanks, guys!  I am pleased to see your responses, and I thank you,
but I am not proposing to post my hundreds or thousands of questions
here, even for the minimal fee.  Sure, someone might answer for free,
but if they don't, I am legitimnately charged, and I pay 50 cents in
any case for every posting.  I can't afford to do even that for all
the things I want to know.  And I don't think that's really a proper
use of this service, where researchers rightly expect to earn their
fees.

Myoarin, I disagree that I have any obligation to use GA as my sole
research tool.  I have no commitment to any research methodology as my
sole source.  I can use the encyclopedia, the dictionary, the library,
the Internet (by myself), other search engines, personal contacts, and
a real, live assistant without in any way failing to uphold an
appropriate relationship to GA.  And I am not asking any GA researcher
to go offline with me; I know that's verboten.  But there are
certainly ways that GA customers could meet offlist, and so I was
simply suggesting that if a GA customer should happen to want to
discuss this matter with me, I can arrange it.

Yes, family matters have pressed on me rather heavily of late. 
There's been some serious business.  I have upheld my resolve to write
every day, but just barely--sometimes it isn't much at all.  Last
night I wrote only one word.  It was a good word, but at that rate I
am going to be 160 before I see the end of this.  I have to make some
progress, and right now I am stuck in several places without research
help that I can't afford to keep paying for on GA.

Here's one example to show you what I mean:

In southern France (Toulouse area) in 1306, what kind of footwear
would children of a well-to-do household wear indoors, and what would
they wear to go outside?  In particular I need to know if their
footsteps would be noisy or silent if they were running.

I would tell my assistant to spent an hour tops trying to find an
answer to this, and then I would either give up or try to solve it
another way.

Tryx

Tryx, yes, I can understand that the questions add up. 
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/lalonde/SCA/shoe.html
http://www.geocities.com/wolfram_von_taus/Research/Research_Patyn.htm
http://histclo.hispeed.com/style/foot/shoe/shoe.html
http://www.happywomanmagazine.com/Fictionwriting/Shoes.htm
I expect that those early 14th century kids in Toulouse went barefoot
or wore soft-soled slippers and maybe wooden clogs outdoors, so I
expect that they could
pad about rather quietly if they wanted to, otherwise, they probably
dragged their feet a bit, wearing their soles more than Dad
appreciated  - unless he was very well off (Dads and kids haven't
changed much.).  As I know from my own childhood, going barefoot was
no social distinction.
Is that good enough?  Or do you have an other one?
Greetings, Myoarin

Hi tryx,

Hopefully something here will be helpful to you.

The French word for shoe-maker, cordonier is derived from the old
French form cordouanier, refering to the cordovan leather.
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/lalonde/SCA/shoe.html

=========

10.  Pointy-toed shoes became popular around the 14th century.
Sometimes the points were so long that they had to be tied up to keep
them from dragging.
http://www.shooznthings.com/shoefacts.html

=========

These shoes, based on a simplified version of a 14th century low boot

Children's 14th century shoes
http://www.revival.us/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=154

=========

http://therionarms.com/reenact/therionarms_c517.html

=========

http://homepage.mac.com/rhook/sablerose/grimoire/5_2_5.html

=========

http://www.geocities.com/wolfram_von_taus/Leather.htm

Turn-shoes of the 14th Century:
http://www.geocities.com/wolfram_von_taus/Research/Research_Turn-shoes.htm

"Shoes were not as common in medieval life as they are today. In fact,
according to manuscript illuminations, it would seem a large
percentage of peasants did not wear shoes on a regular basis. Farm
hands are notoriously illuminated with bare feet.
      During the fourteenth century, it was not uncommon for nobles to
go without shoes inside buildings or at ?high society? events
(reference Grandes Chroniques de France; folio 3v The crowning of
Charles VI). Likewise, we may reference images such as /i>Le Songe du
Verger; folio 1v The Churchman and the Knight Debate, to see that the
knight and the ?Churchman? are wearing only hose in an out of doors
setting before a royal court. Albeit an illumination of a dream, the
artist must have been familiar with such practices in his everyday
life.
      I have as not yet been able to discover a clear-cut practice as
to which occasions called for shoes. My best speculation is quite a
simple one; shoes were worn to protect hose from moist earth or
perhaps to add a layer of insulation to the feet at colder times or
terrain. I chose the term moist as it is very evident large numbers of
the shoes illuminated from this period do not appear to be water
resistant anywhere but their soles. Their low cut sides, perforated
decorations, or the occasional fabric-top styles would do no more to
keep out water then our similar motifs today.
      A healthy number of shoes illuminated in manuscripts and other
artwork of the 1300?s tended to be free of decoration and either dark
brown or black in color. I have noticed a trend for illuminators to
show decorated shoes on the feet of the central figures in their
works. One may presume this refers to the fact that the higher ones
social class the more decoration they were allowed to have or afford.
Since we do know of sumptuary laws restricting the use of certain
material and decoration in dress of this period, it is a logical
theory.
      The extended point of the toes on shoes (and patyns) were
referred to as either Crackowes, after the city of Crakow (Poland), or
poulaines derived from the word Poland."

========

Best regards,
tlspiegel

A reference librarian at a public library is most like what
archae0pteryx-ga is looking for, except that such a person will not be
available 24x7 to respond to inquiries.  More likely success would be
had by batching up a sheet of questions and leaving them for stray
moments of opportunity.  I recommend bribery in the form of warm baked
goods, esp. in the cooler seasons.

There are professional associations of online researchers.  My
impression is that the successful ones have their pick of assignments
and are paid more like executive assistants than like reference
librarians.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Ah, the Languedoc region of France, half a century after the fall of Montségur.

1306 is the year following the death of French Queen Juana of Navarre
and the year before King Philip IV (the Fair) sets a trap and arrests
all the Knights Templar in France.

In 1307 Dominican Bernard Gui is appointed inquisitor, with a base of
operations in Toulouse until 1324, when he is promoted to Bishop and
publishes Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis (The Conduct of
Inquiry Concerning Heretical Depravity), a manual of sorts.

[Inquisition: Introduction -- by David Burr]
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.html

In the middle of the 14th century, the Black Death claims a quarter of
the population in Europe.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The natural place to begin is with whether children at such a time and
place, and of course economic status, would have worn shoes at all.

[Historical Boy's Clothing -- Children's Footwear]
http://histclo.hispeed.com/style/foot/shoe/shoe.html

"Children went barefoot, especially in the warm weather. But
eventually children also began wearing shoes--at first those from
aristocratic or wealthy families."

The "Little Ice Age" of Europe was only incipient and probably not a
factor in 1306:

[The Little Ice Age -- by R. D. Tkachuck]
http://www.grisda.org/origins/10051.htm

Given that we are interested in southern France, it seems likely that
children if at play and not specially dressed for an occasion, might
well be barefoot.

But supposing that they were to wear shoes, what type might they be? 
Two basic possibilities come to mind, soft leather shoes (without
heels) and rough wooden clogs.

This site has a great deal of material, but acknowledges that there is
much detail unknown about the craft of shoemaking at this period:

[Footwear of the Middle Ages -- by I. Marc Carlson]
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/SHOEHOME.HTM

The term I'd pick out to dwell on is "cordwain".  This refers in the
first instance to a type leather from the "Mouflon sheep or goat" of
Cordoba, Spain. There are many variations of spelling and as time went
by it referred to other types of leather (cow, and by 18th century,
horse).  There would have been no heel.  [A man's shoe, or boot, might
have hobnails added to it for durability, but within a suit of armor,
a simple cordwain shoe would have been worn.]

Such a soft leather would be rather quiet.  If for the sake of a plot
point, we wanted a form of footwear that would make a more reliable
noise, then I would turn to the rough wooden clog as an alternative. 
There's a curious bit of word history here.  "Sabotage" comes from the
Arabic "sabbat" for sandal, which became the French word "sabot". 
Used as a verb, it means "to do work badly", and hence the noun
sabotage.  Cf. an entry here for 05/02/2005:

[Rumkin Trivia]
http://rumkin.com/fun/trivia/index.php?category=27

[Historical Boy's Clothing -- Children's Shoes: wooden shoes clogs sabot]
http://histclo.hispeed.com/style/foot/shoe/shoe-wood.html

"The French term for wooen shoes is sabot. Presumably the word sabot
is also the root of French and English word "sabotage" because sabots
are in fact cheap substitutes for leather shoes that working-class
people weould have preferred. When you walk with these, the entire
house knows you are there and if you do this exercise during the play
of some music, you are really sabotaging the music...!"

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Two possible "shelf" reference resources for period costume/fashion topics:

Medieval Tailor's Assistant: Making Common Garments 1200-1500 (Paperback)
by Sarah Thursfield 

"The book is one of the few that features patterns for men, women,
children, and even babies. Also included are maturnity patterns,
shoes, and some hats. So its great for the variety of patterns it will
provide you." (from a review at amazon.com)

Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th
Centuries (Paperback)
by Mary G. Houston 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Some online resources, with secondary links and references:

A "short survey of the costume, arms, and armour of the period":

[Medieval clothing]
http://www.verso.org/medieval/clothzyl2.htm

This "chapter from H. M. Zylstra-Zweens's Of his array telle I no
lenger tale. This discusses a number of costume terms found in
14th-century records."

From the same site:

[Historic clothing]
http://www.verso.org/clothing/index.htm

Handout "Fine Arraye: Clothing of the 13th and 14th Centuries" is
available here as a Word document. "The handout includes a
bibliography of resources for 13th- and 14th-century clothing. This is
a selection of records from Goodly Gear."

"Goodly Gear: Jennifer's MLIS bibliography" is downloadable as a Word
document from the top of that same page.

For a history of footwear that encompasses the medieval period (and
emphasizes the barefoot option at points):

[The History of Footwear -- by Cameron Kippen]
http://www.podiatry.curtin.edu.au/history.html
 

regards, mathtalk-ga

:-)
Tryx, seems like you have a helpful fan club.  Now I understand
Mathtalk's first comment.
Did you lose sight of your question about domestic staff?
Best regards, Myoarin

All this was tremendously helpful on my one question about shoes,
folks, and I greatly appreciate it.  And I am flattered, Mathtalk,
that you would exhibit such enthusiasm just for giving me a hand. 
Myoarin and tlspiegel are both familiar helpers, though only Myoarin
never expects any fee.

The thing is, it's usually not a big enough matter to call it a plot
point.  In the example I gave, all that hangs on the answer to my
question is one word.  As I read back over a scene, I saw that I had
the children clattering down the stairs when their father called, and
then they flew across the cobblestones on swift, silent feet.  You
can't do both of those things in the same pair of shoes.  And I
realized that I did not have a clear picture of their footwear in mind
and that this and any other such missed detail is going to cause a
wrong word choice (either "clattered" or "silent" has to be wrong) and
strike a false note in my narrative.  Somebody is going to pick up on
it and say, "Wasn't the author paying attention?  And was the editor
asleep?"  I certainly would.

For a single word, I can't do the quantity of research it would take
to learn all about the footwear of the period.  To be sure, footwear
figures in other scenes as well, so it's not a great example of
minutiae.  But for all the details I have to check, I will go broke if
I post them--even in batches of ten, looking for free answers, and
phrasing them so that no researcher would attempt them at my price,
assuming that GA would even tolerate my doing that--because it's still
50 cents a shot.

Yes, I know that a real research assistant is expensive.  If I could
afford to pay someone's salary, I'd pay my own--meaning quit my job
and spend my time on this work, and do my own reseach.  Impossible. 
The insurance benefits alone make my job unquittable at this present
juncture.  Hence my original question--the one I am seeking an answer
to:  by what means do I find someone who can help me in the way that I
need and on my terms?

I do like the idea of leaving sheets of questions on the reference
desk at the library along with a batch of cookies.  But on the other
hand a scene that I am hot to work on could hang for weeks or months
while I wait to find out whether, for example, a family in Bruges (in
1309) who have only a single servant would ever eat a meal in their
kitchen.

Thank you,
Tryx

Howdy Tryx,
Those kids clattering on the cobblestones:  maybe they were wearing
sabots, wooden shoes, and kicked them off to run faster and silently
when being chased.  ?
But you probably don't need any second guessing.

I expect that a family with only one servant  - a girl to do all kind
of help -  would not have been very well off.  The girl wouldn't get
much more than room and board, maybe only a small Christmas gift of
money and occasional clothing.  So she wouldn't really cost much and a
handworker family could afford her.  The house would have had no
dining room, probably just a living-dining area that may have also
included the kitchen fireplace, so they would have had only one table
to eat on,  with the girl, either being treated as a member of the
family or as a Cinderella.

I don't know if these images of English houses can be of any help to you:
http://www.salbani.co.uk/Med%20Web/dagnall_street.htm

That's my problem, Tryx, of offering my services:  40 years of
interested exposure to Germany and surroundings, but sloppy on
research unless I am lucky, and sometimes I don't even know where the
sun rises, as I recently demonstrated on another question.  Not by
chance, I revised my  understanding of Mathtalk's first comment after
I saw the support for your situation.
Any more questions?  ;)

Regards, Myoarin

PS:  you don't need any time-wasting distractions, but I just have to
add this link because of its so appropriate title:
Frequently Asked Questions - Archaeopteryx
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/archaeopteryx.html

Thank you once again, Myoarin, for all your fascinating contributions.
 I got completely sidetracked reading about archaeological hoaxes and
defenses.  Very interesting.

Myoarin, Mathtalk, and Tlspiegel, you've been a great help here. 
Math, I do have the costume books you mentioned.  Many searches lead
me to SCA sites.  Those folks are wonderful, but I can't consider
their information in the same class with authenticated scholarship
unless they document their sources.  And I'm afraid I can't put
costume sellers on the same footing with historians.  This abundance
of popular information is actually one of the things that have made my
research difficult.  I went ahead and joined SCA hoping to gain access
to people who've developed minute specialties in my areas of
question--such as exactly what kind of button a very wealthy citizen
would have on a coat he wore to church (I hope it's jeweled)--but I
haven't figured out how to pose questions so that those who have the
answers will find them, without investing hours in each one. 
Interesting as it is, I simply must practice economies of several
sorts or else I will have to give up.

I'll try the list approach you suggested (#430253), feeling somewhat
brazen in doing so, but I don't have high hopes for it.  The way isn't
paved with cookies.

Myoarin, the family with only one servant is highly eccentric: 
wealthy but not of a class.  It's two elderly ladies in a big,
well-furnished house in the city.  Some of their wealth is inherited,
and they have increased it by their own special means.  They don't go
out.  They keep one servant girl.  They do some of their own cooking. 
Would they be able to take a pleasant breakfast in their kitchen, or
would there simply be too much nasty smoke from the fire to allow a
comfortable meal there with white linens and crockery?

I think I will use your shoe solution in this scene, Myo:  kick off
the sabots.  Thank you.  Elsewhere I will turn to other information on
this paqe.  I think people's feet must have got awfully cold and wet
in winter--especially that freezing winter coming up.

Thanks and best regards,
Tryx

Liebe Tryx,
Poor girl: two old spinsters or widows, probably sisters or near
relatives, and apparently financially well off, but so stingy that the
shared on servant girl ...?  Poor girls, or poor two girls, forced
into competition, if each mistress had her own.
Let's talk (no keep that to yourself, if you wish) about the old
girls' household.  I have to assume that they are closely related in
those times, since families "took care" of unmarried females, maybe
putting them in a cloister, which would cost a trouseau.  They
couldn't both be spinsters, IMHO,  one at least a widow, in order to
have an inheritance  - from her husband.
I may be projecting into later times with the suggestion that her
husband was a skilled craftsman, a member of a guild, whose wife could
(in Germany) have continued his trade with a qualified journey man  -
often a marriage condidate, but clearly not in your novel.
But this is obviously not forseen in your novel.  Without a trade  -
as guildsman or dealer (in cloth or whatever), it is diffucult to see
how one or the other of the old girls could be living in a
"well-furnished" house.
Sorry to be questioning your plot, but i think that any son would have
had preference over a daughter, unless there were no son.  Then,
maybe, the daughter could have taken over the business  - if she had
enough gumption, but then she wouold have managed the greater
household staff that she "inherited".  One of the old girls increased
her wealth, a sign that her situation was above the minimum level of
just one maidservant.

(I sure wish Scriptor-ga or someone else would sign on to confirm or
refute my undocemented suppositions.

I will check out all those questions.

Cheers, Myoarin