Prior to the industrial revolution families were drastically different to how they are today. Extended families and kinship economies played a large part in family life as all land was owned and farmed upon by relatives beyond that of the nuclear family and as such people were born into certain roles in family rather than this being based on achievements and qualifications as it is nowadays. These roles would be passed down through generations and few people would reject this as it was commonplace and based upon tradition. Because of this the extended family provided all the roles that functionalists believe the family provides ; economic, education, reproductive and sexual.
The extended family would provide the family with the skills required to function within the family business and was labour orientated, as such this would very rarely include numeracy and literacy skills as they weren't seen as necessary prior to the industrialisation and to some extent the birth of capitalism. The family would also help maintain the health and well being of everyone included in the family group and would also provide welfare for the more vulnerable members of the family in particular the old and young who are unable to look after themselves, this is all due to the lack of a universal health or welfare system, additionally the extended family would take it upon themselves to provide justice for a wronged family member.
Economy was totally different prior to the industrial revolution (I guess that goes without saying), instead of purchasing goods in the way we do nowadays instead goods would be traded between other families. The two biggest family businesses were cottage industries and farming families. Farming families are as they sound families based upon farming and growing there own produce so technically a farming family could live of the land but at the same time has a desirable trade. Cottage families are groups