Monday, March 11, 2013

The Story of the Christening Dress

This post is all about a special dress.

 A Christening dress that was given to me by my mom,years ago,which was given to her by my Great Grandma.

 A list of relatives have been christened in the dress. What I didn't know,was as I was going through old paperwork, I found a little note, written in my Great Grandmas handwriting about where it came from.

According to the note , it was given to her by a sea captains wife and she writes the name of the ship(I could read the only the  first and last few letters).It says the dress was over 100 years old, and was from India. I started to search, first for the correct name of the ship. I was able to find a New York Herald entry(shipping news), dated 1872, with ship name (Coriuga), captain (Bogart)and port(Calcutta to Boston). Once I knew it was correct, the real search began. Now remember this captain is no relation to me or my family. I know-I get obsessed!
  Here is a copy of his seaman's certificate that he signed at age 20. It actually has a physical description of him and is signed by him on Jan. 19, 1855. Hard to read, but it says he was 5'9", light complexion,light hair and blue eyes.Amazing they have all this available on the internet and Ancestry.com.


 That's all I need to be off on a little mystery. As most of you know I love genealogy.

I was able to create a time line of his life , his wife, his daughter and where he lived and died.
 I'm not able to figure out when the dress was actually given to my Great Grandma, but I'm sure it was after the Captains death. Here is his obituary.


Annie was older then my Great Grandma and had only 1 daughter. Maybe daughter Emma was  christened in it and maybe they were friends. The connection is Maine where Annie's relatives lived and was the home of my Great Grandparents.When my Grandfather was born , I like to think Annie gave it to her, to pass it on. It was passed on-at least 7 more babies were christened in it-including my brother,cousins, Uncle and Grandfather.. My Mom always said I was too chubby to fit into the arms.But she gave it to me.


I feel like my Great Grandma left this little note as a clue. Here is a photo of Great Grandma and me.

Thank you Great Grandma for writing what you knew about the history of the dress. I was totally obsessed with this over the weekend. I will leave all this new information with the dress. When I pass it down it will have it's own history.
  I'm joining Tweak It Tuesday. Please go check out some wonderful projects.
  Spring is in the air around here! I'm off to paperwork, cleaning and hopefully finish my little crafty projects. Hope you have a wonderful week.
Leslie

60 comments:

  1. How absolutely fascinating! How fantastic that you were able to play Nancy Drew and discover so many fantastic clues and history. A gorgeous treasure.

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  5. Oh Leslie, how I love this post!

    How wonderful to have your family christening gown and have it accompanied by a note from your grandma, with its history. Makes me all goose bumpy. I'm so excited for you! You are a sleuth after my own heart. I love to research stuff. (Wish I had known that when I needed a career - that would have been great!)

    I'm all smiley now :) Happy Monday!

    xo

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  6. Oh that is so awesome! I love history and it is so great when someone has the forsight to pass down information.

    Blessings,
    Amy Jo

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  7. Leslie, How beautiful and special! Thank you for sharing. E

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  8. Oh Leslie, you know this is my kind of post!! Love, love the pic of you and your great grandma and the story about the beautiful dress!! Finding your great granny's hand written note was perfect!! What a wonderful history to pass on to the wee ones to come in the family! :)

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  9. I love the picture of you and your g.grandmother. What a wonderful treasure you have. Hope you get to see many christened in this little dress. xoxo,Susie

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  10. What did we do before the internet!?!?! That is an amazing story. Now to find pictures of babies wearing the dress...:-)

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  11. So interesting! It's a lovely dress and knowing the history makes the dress extra special!

    Chris

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  12. So neat and such a sweet dress and family heirloom to have! Thanks for sharing the history! It is amazing what you can fin on the internet! xo heather

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  13. How precious and what a treasure! I love the picture of you and your grandma....too cute! Thanks for sharing the history of your beautiful christening gown!

    Vicky
    Life On Willie Mae Lane

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  14. Oh I love this! I love genealogy and like you get obsessed trying to figure out a mystery. So glad you came by to visit me. I frequently write about my families heirlooms.
    The gown is beautiful, and how smart your ggrandmother was, seeing her picture with you adds so much to the story!

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  15. How wonderful to have all this info. That is one special little dress!

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  16. How wonderful to own this beautiful piece of history! Isn't it something that a short handwritten note can provide so much information? It is fun to solve a mystery with the help of the internet, too. Good detective work!

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  17. This is so interesting and so nice that you have a piece of the past to move forward to the future.

    Stopped by from Tales of the Reborn Crafter and am your newest follower.

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  18. OMG!!

    I loved reading about this because I too am a history bluff and love perserving the family histories. The story of this precious christening gown is such a wonderful story and should be passed down to future generations!!

    I have my Hubby's christneing gown and both of my boys were also christened in it.

    Thanks so much for stopping by!!

    Hugs,
    Deb

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  19. What a gorgeous christening gown, and how special that you are able to cherish it. Love the history behind it, so interesting.
    Mary Alice

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  20. The dress is beautiful and I loved reading it's history. What a treasure you were given by your mom. I am sure you love having it.

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  21. WOW! What a beautiful dress and a special treasure. I love the history about it. It is amazing how wonderful it looks. You lucky girl.
    Hugs
    donna

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  22. What a beautiful dress and the fact that you found so much history is just amazing. Definitely something to treasure forever!

    ~Trisha

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  23. What an amazing story and beautiful dress. I love when we are able to find the history of a very loved item!

    Blessings

    Linda

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  24. What an amazing story...thankfully your grammy left you the clues. I'm afraid in this paperless digital world we live in such "clues" will be lost to future generations.
    By the way I am learning how to crochet and that sweet little zippered case you made for me is keeping my hooks neat and pretty! I love it!.....Hugs Patti M :)

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  25. This was an absolutely fascinating post! I would have been the same as you "Obsessed" :)

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  26. I loved the story of the Christening dress, but then I'm a sentimental old fool. I enjoyed all your research. It makes me realize that I need to get busy and start putting notes with some of the sentimental things I have that have been passed down to me. I have three sons that probably aren't real interested, but maybe someone like you will find one of my notes someday.

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  27. What a beautiful dress! And the story behind it, the people in your family who wore it, and that you were able to find out so much about the Captain... all amazing!! A real treasure.
    And this reminds me that in a drawer in the closet, I have a little baby gown that I need to send to my nephew. I made it for him 30 years ago. Somewhere along the way, my sister returned it to me in case my kids could wear it... but they were too big. I need to get it back into the hands of the boy who wore it. Maybe he and his wife will have their own little ones, someday soon.

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  29. Hi Leslie! I wrote you a thank you on my blog for commiserating with me but thought I'd come over here too in case you don't see it. I'm struggling with all the paperwork for my dad's house, since it's now a rental property for me and I haven't a clue about that stuff. I had to remodel/update the entire inside of the house as it was a disaster, big time. I have a CPA but he charged me a FORTUNE last year so I'm trying to do most of the work myself. I don't think I'm going to have a hair left on my head and I have enough hair for a family of four ahahhahahaha! I can't remember (with any surety, geez, where did my brain go?!) if you sold your daddy's house or if you are renting it? Oh! I think I remember now because you told us about the lovely people who bought it and found the violin and restored it for you???
    Please forgive my overloaded brain.
    Thinking of you, sending lots of hugs! Happy Leprechaun Day! xo

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  30. What a great post. I can't believe you could find all that info about it and the history behind it. What a great thing for you to have. (Love the pic of you and your great grandma.
    D

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  32. Such a special dress, so sweet and how wonderful to have all of that history with it!

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  33. This is such a wonderful post and reminds me that the kindness' we share could have long lived stories. How sweet you look with your great Grama.

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  34. Leslie,
    This is truly a gift from the past that just keeps giving! How blessed you are to have this, and especially the note....I would have done the same thing with the captain of the ship! Just a beautiful simple white christening gown that means so very very much!!!!!

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  35. How awesome is that! I wish i would have done something like that for my girls, my mother and grandmother never saved their christening dresses, but my daughter will have to start her own tradition with the one i just purchased for her from http://www.dressedinwhite.com/index.php/infants/girls.html.

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  36. Good morning, Leslie, on the first day of Spring!
    Oh...What a treasure. It's absolutely gorgeous. How fascinating to have the history in tact. Your great grandmother was wise to record it. You are the very person to take care that it remains in the family.
    Thank you so much for sharing, my friend. I, too, love genealogy and have spent countless hours researching my family roots.
    Thank you for your kind comments on my blog. I'm glad you stopped by and spent a moment in my cozy cottage guest room.
    Have a great day!
    Carolynn xo

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  37. I have so enjoyed reading this post and so glad that you shared what you learned. How special to have the dress and photos. I am in awe...just amazed! And what a gorgeous dress! Happy Spring!

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