Why Are My Great Aunt's All Wearing The Same Dress ?

[Rachels]

Does it mention anything on a census about a disability ?


Rachel

[Stefan Woolf]

Hello all, I'd no idea Minnie Jane's knees or legs would attract so much attention. 

I can't offer any explanation about any unusual appearance, and wonder if she has just slumped down in the chair to give a better composition with the other girls.

There are pictures of her standing, and her only known disability was that she ended up fairly deaf, (she used a large ear trumpet, apparently).

She worked as a sorting clerk and telegraphist in a variety of Herts & Beds Post Offices, and was eventually awarded a Civil Service medal for long service, (I found details in the London Gazette).

I don't think she was particularly tall - it's Lizzie that looks like she was probably the tallest.  But my grandfather Harry's world war one service record claims 5' 9", but when pictured beside my father (6' 1"), they are very much matched, so I tend not to believe reported heights anyway.

Very interesting that other photo of 4 similarly dressed.

I don't think mine relate to a uniform or a club membership.  Certainly church wise the family were Strict Baptist, so no dressing up, or chorister possibilities there.

Here's another poor image of the family.....

[saddles]

Thanks China for your appreciation.


Carolyn 

[saddles]

Hi Stef........Heres another colour interpretation of the family in colour.


Carolyn 

[chinakay]

I think you'll find the term "Strict Baptist" refers to a theological position, not a behavioral one...Strict Baptist is akin to Particular Baptist, who hold that Christ's atonement was on behalf of a particular group of people. I think the "strict" term applies to their requirement for membership in their churches.

It may surprise you that the current fundamentalist practice of don't do this, don't do that and don't do the other thing...is very modern. It's all externalism, and not from the Bible. Of course there are certain things the Bible says God abhors, but dressing up isn't one of them 

Charles Spurgeon, probably the most famous Baptist preacher England has ever known, was Strict Baptist. He enjoyed brandy and tobacco.

Cheers,
China

[Roydie]

in that gorgeous colour of minnie and her debated knees the red dress and the brown dress are also identical!!

[Stefan Woolf]

Wow!

What super colours!

Many thanks.

As to the "Baptist" element, I'm fairly up to speed on the Baptist side as my grandfather, (the other one not the one here), was a Baptist minister including a spell as minister at the chapel in question.  So my mum, still with us, is a Baptist minister's daughter, and her sister, my aunt, was also married to a Baptist Minister.

Tring Herts has some fame for having had many Baptist chapels, I think 5 simulaneously at one stage, and still has three active ones to this day.  My grandfather Harry, in the pictures, married in one of the other ones during WW1.

Knowing what I do about the chapels, I'm sure there would have been nothing going on that requirred all my great aunts to wear similar dresses! 

The three who never married share a grave at that chapel with their parents, and the married one and her husband are buried in the next plot.

Stef

[maidmarianoops]

www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/tidbits.php?index=1

part of the info on this site
sylvia
dont let the corset name put you off.

Children were supposed to be seen and not heard and when they were seen, they often were dressed alike, despite age differences! This custom was prevalent in the 19th century although rich parents dressed their children alike

[Josephine]

What a wonderful site!

Thank you, Sylvia!

Regards,
Josephine