Using Fashion to Date Your Family Photos: Part One

This post is part one of two. Example images for after 1900 will be in the second post. See the end of the post for a timeline of photography and relevant links. 

There are tons of online guides on this topic but since most of them focus on identifying the type of photograph to figure out the date I'm going to focus on identifying the fashion trends in the photo to date it instead. The clothing details in an old photograph that will narrow down it's date range the most in both men's and women's wear are found in collars/necklines, sleeves, shoe styles, and hats. Specific to women's wear will be telltale details like bustles or hoop skirts and fitted bodice styles. Specific to menswear will be ties, waistcoats/vests, and occasionally jewelry. For photographs that are bust style portraits; the sitters hair style will also be important to consider. 

Sibling Portrait

To date this photo we will look at the following details: her skirt, dress bodice, sleeves, hat and his fly front pants. So right off the bat you're probably thinking "Why are most of those details in her clothes and not his?" Mostly because the collar of his jacket is difficult to see despite the photos nice quality but also because trends in men's wear didn't change nearly as fast as women's and so dating women's clothing tends to be much easier. 

So starting with the skirt. She's definitely wearing a skirt with a bustle underneath. If you look at the detail image you can see it piled up behind her on the left. The bustle was very popular and increased and decreased in size from when it originally came into fashion in the 1870s through the 1890s.

An example of an 1875 dress with over skirt and bustle.

Image from agelesspatterns.com 

Bustle, button front bodice, and fly front detail

Hat detail

Her dress bodice is fitted and has a button front popular in the 1880s. The narrow sleeves indicate it is no later than 1890; after which sleeves with lots of volume from shoulder to wrist came into fashion.

The bonnet style hat; worn without the securing ribbon tied under the chin that's typical of a true bonnet is an 1880s style. It's distinguished from earlier bonnet styles by the way it is worn on top of the head rather than leaning forward across her forehead as was popular in the 1860s (think Scarlet O'Hara) or tilted to one side as was popular in the 1890s. Learn more about Victorian hats here. His hat unfortunately is impossible for me to date as it fits no specific style and is almost certainly a work hat worn for practicality rather than fashion.

The fly front on his pants dates them to post 1850 when fly fronts replaced the flap like opening on breeches of earlier decades. These still closed with buttons however and the zipper wasn't used on clothing until after 1900. 

Likely date range of photo: 1880-1890

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A well to do fellow

This guys coat with it's fancy velvet trimmed collar makes it difficult to definitively date his outfit because details like the shape of his suit jacket lapels and sleeves are hidden by it. So I'll have to use the unobscured details of his outfit: the waistcoat/vest, collar, and hat.

Waistcoat and collar detail

The waistcoat is basically an earlier version of the vest. Only worn in modern times on formal occasions it was originally worn as part of everyday wear and a man would never be caught out of the house in just a shirt. This one is likely a post 1860 waistcoat which before then were commonly worn in colors or prints and had higher necklines.

Continue reading after the jump 

Resources

Just a quick post to point out to anyone who may not have noticed there is now a resource list in the navigation menu at the left of the blog. This list is a work in progress and will be updated regularly as I come across things that I think will be helpful to other researchers. If you have any questions about anything on the resources list or you'd like to suggest an addition to it please leave a comment on this post.

How To: Tracing enslaved ancestors beyond the 1870 census

This guide will primarily be helpful to researchers who have already traced their African ancestors up to the "brick wall" of the 1870 census and are interested in their earlier ancestors. First you'll need some basic information about your ancestors slaveholders. Researching these details isn't for the faint of heart but knowing at least a little about them will give you clues for where to look for your ancestors in reconstruction era documents like the Freedman's Bureau records and make them easier to spot despite surname changes. Taking a DNA test and cross referencing information about these slave holders with your ethnicity percentages and the ethnicity percentages of the cousins on your match list will narrow your research to specific people and places which may then lead you to surviving slavery era records listing the names of your ancestors. If you haven't taken a DNA test some of the steps listed below will still work for you but this guide focuses on using test results in research.

Gather what you already know

1. Record the basics like names/nicknames, birth and death dates, occupations, etc.

2. Interview older relatives about what they may know about any enslaved ancestors and record this as well. If you need ideas for questions My Heritage has a helpful guide here. Don't dismiss any stories they happen to tell because you think they won't matter. Within a seemingly irrelevant story could be the clue you need to locate a hard to find ancestor. (See my first post on idioms.) 

a) If a family bible or old framed photos exist photograph them and print the photos rather than making copies or scanning it. The handling required to make photocopies and scans may damage the spine of an already fragile book and old photos often stick to the glass of a frames they've been in for decades making removing it without damage impossible. An actual camera will work best in both cases but if a smart phone is all you have access to put your cellphone on a tripod (here's a short video about attaching phones to tripods) and follow this guide. 

Start with the censuses

1. Search the 1850 census and slave schedule and the 1860 census for slaveholders living where you know your ancestors to be from and who have the same last name as your enslaved ancestors. Be sure to check neighboring cities and towns since county and state boundaries may have changed between censuses. Look for the following: 

a) Are they listed as "farmers" or "planters"? Do they live near other farms or were they isolated? Note their household members and the names and ages of any children they had. (Slaves were often given to newly married children or passed on to them in wills.) 

b) Where are they from and where were their parents born? This may give you clues to the source of any unexpected ethnicity results from your DNA test. 

c) How many slaves did they have? Do any of the listed slaves ages match up with your ancestors ages? 

d) Do they have female slaves with young children but no male slaves? This doesn't always mean the slave holder or another member of the household is their father...this is when it will be useful to know if there were nearby plantations and who owned them.
Enslaved people were sometimes allowed to socialize with and marry slaves on nearby plantations. 

e) Are there free people listed in their household listed as being "mulatto", "pardo/parda" "creole" or "Indian"? Keep in mind that people of color were often referred to by these titles interchangeably and that they varied by region and sometimes implied social status. (You may want to research what terms were common for the place you're researching and what they meant at the time.)

Continue reading after the jump 

A Way With Words: Idioms as clues for genealogy research

Most people can think of a few unusual and outdated sounding idioms they've heard their family or community elders use.

 Idiom as defined by Merriam-Webster, 1) An expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically (such as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (such as ride herd on for "supervise")

2) The language peculiar to a distinct community or class: Dialect

3) A style or form of artistic expression that is characteristic of an individual, a period or movement, or a medium or instrument

Since an idiom is by definition "distinct to a community or class" it's also logical that they would also be linked to specific places. Knowing the likely geographic source of a family idiom can help you narrow your research area from an entire state to a few cities. Some examples from my own family are: 

They act like they got cotton in Augusta

Used to describe someone flaunting wealth, living beyond their means, or acting haughty.

Where to look: This one is easy because it directly references a place. The city of Augusta, Georgia. Augusta is right on the state line of South Carolina and Georgia. So when looking for ancestors associated with this idiom be sure to include South Carolina and even the Sea Islands in your research. 

They can go to Halifax Nova Scotia
Used in place of the ever popular Go to Hell.

Where to look: Obviously Nova Scotia but it also hints at an ancestor who lived in the New England colonies or along the Eastern Seaboard. They may have worked a maritime job such as a fisherman, dock laborer, or engineer on one of the many cargo and passenger ships traveling back and forth with goods during the 1800s. This is the case with my third great grandfather who was a steamboat engineer; among other things, and is likely the source of this idiom in my family.

40 acres and a mule
What someone is due or deserves for their hard work. A direct but slightly incorrect reference to the British governments promise to give black military recruits 3 acres and a mule at the end of the war of 1812.

Where to look: The original 13 colonies, Canada, Nova Scotia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. 

A kuta could've been a turtle if it wasn't a kuta
I heard this a lot as a kid and it always annoyed me because I didn't get the point of it and honestly I still don't but I do know that Kuta is the word for turtle in the Gullah Geechee dialect. 

Where to look: The Sea Islands 

I would love to expand this list. If you have any interesting family idioms that can be traced to specific groups of people or places please share in the comments!