Her Story - Uncovering Women's Lives |
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| Women's Fashion & Couture | ||||||||||||||||
Even without photos you can often re-create a general description of your female ancestor through a study of the clothing, hairstyles and fashion of the time and place in which she lived. Many books, articles and other such resources have done much of the tedious work for you by compiling useful information from many difficult-to-locate primary sources. For instance, in "The History of Underclothes" by C. Willett and Phillis Cunnington, you would learn that in the 19th century, both men and women believed that good grooming required that all clothes in direct contact with the body be of wool. The changes through time of how women covered or revealed their body parts, says much about how women and their roles were perceived in their cultures. In reading about clothing of any period, keep in mind that, in most ordinary families before the 20th century, all that clothing would have been constructed - and sometimes the cloth woven - by the women of the family. Women also maintained the clothing – an insight you can experience first-hand on a visit to the Frederick Douglass home in Washington, DC, where in the laundry behind the kitchen, heavy irons were used to press the clothing of the household. The time to iron one lady's dress might be several hours, given the volume of material used and the intricate pleating popular at that time - this in addition to the actual laundering time, which, without the aid of modern washing machines and especially in cold weather, might take hours, too. Probate records, wills and other inventories can be a good source for information about your female ancestor’s clothing items. Advertisements and photos in local newspapers, lady’s fashion books and magazines from the time period, and costume exhibits at local museums and historical societies may also provide insight into the kind of clothing your ancestor likely wore. For more information on women’s fashion and couture:
With the wealth of genealogical and historical resources available there is no excuse for researchers to neglect their female ancestors in family narratives and histories. Despite the challenges of tracing female ancestors, they are just as much a part of your heritage as their male counterparts. Begin today by talking with your living relatives before it is too late and then branch out from there. It takes a bit of creativity and sheer determination, but by using a combination of personal, primary and secondary sources, you should be able to glean a significant amount of detail about what life might have been like for those women in your family tree - and about how different our lives are today, in part because of their hard work and sacrifices.
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URL:
http://genealogy.about.com/library/weekly/aa022403f.htm
© 2002-2003
Kimberly Powell and Jone Johnson Lewis. Licensed to About.com.
A version of this article originally appeared in
Everton's Family History Magazine,
March 2002.
