The Great Thanksgiving Dress Debate

There are times in your life when you can mark a change.  There is no going back.  those moments mark the transitions between what was, and what is.  Change can be scary.

My move from normal person to...this...can be connected back to Thanksgiving 2012. And it is my mother's fault.

Mystery Lady

We found this photo in the the boxes of Marr family things.  Certainly this was an maternal ancestor of Grandma Marr. The bottom showed a Fountain County Photography Studio.  There was giggling.   And sure enough, the back of the photo was helpfully labeled "Grandma Marr".  Which means the photo was either Hester Keefer Marr, or Molly Redman Marr.

However, it might have been Grandmas Smith who wrote the label, so the photo could realistically have been...anyone.  That's all part of the fun: hours of barking up the wrong family's tree.

Molly Redman Marr

We already had at least one photo of Molly Marr.  Even in the crummy capture here, she is captivating.  She looks so fragile, with her wasp waist, dark hair, and pale skin.

And here's where my world started to crack.  I spent hours pouring over books and websites detailing women's fashions in the late 19th century.  You might think that would be a short book: "They wore big dresses." And you would be WRONG. Sleeve styles, corsets, bustle height, background props, hair style, buttons, embellishments, photographic style...eight hours in I sought professional help in the Genealogy Department.  They wished my luck and told me I was doing the best things.

Enablers.

Jane Marr

Fast forward.  You do not need to know how far this went.

Christmas rolls around and Mom pulls out another old Marr photo box.  There is the dress.  The same damn dress.  Maybe.  The back of the picture says Aunt Jane Marr.

We count buttons. We judge pleats.  We use a magnifying glass.  We discuss and debate.  Jon decides that he is no longer interested in genealogy because it "sounds like a lot of work for no reason".

That had to be Molly Marr.  There was cheering. The cats hid.

We can make up a pretty good story about this dress.

To celebrate a big birthday (16? 18?) young Molly Redman, bought the dress of a lifetime.  Molly's real name was "Mary" but she had always gone by the nickname Molly, to distinguish her from her Aunt Mary Marr, who lived one farm over.  Molly had always had delicate health, which made farm life a challenge.

She traveled by dusty buggy to the photographer's studio: getting there and back would be an all day event.  But it was an event.  She wasn't a girl any more, and this picture marked that growing up.

When it was Jane Redman's turn for her coming of age portrait, buying a new dress seemed frivolous on the family's budget.  But was was creative and handy with a needle.  A few embellishments to keep up with the changing trends, and the dress was even better than before.