This is one of my favorite family pictures. It’s Ole and Marie Anderson with their children, (L-R) Lydia, Jennie, Andrew and George. I’m not sure of the date, but George (my maternal grandfather), was born in 1897 and he looks maybe fourteen here? You might remember George from two previous posts, “Oceans of Love” and “As Ever, Geo”. I’ve always been fascinated with the hairstyles and clothing from “back in those days”. It looks to me like Marie’s dress is made of silk or satin. Since it’s not in color, I’m guessing the dresses are black, but for all we know they could have been navy blue or maybe a dark brown or purple.

The woman on the right (in the photo on the left) is my grandma Edla’s mother, Charlotte Nelson. I don’t know who the other lady is. The photo on the right is my grandpa Emil’s mother, Anna Caroline Johnson. Their dresses are all similar, except that Anna Caroline’s doesn’t have puffed sleeves. Notice the “hourglass figures” on all three of them. Corsets, maybe? I also think it’s interesting that at a time when women rarely cut their hair, bangs seemed to have been in style, at least for awhile.

There are two of my unknown Swedish relatives (or family friends) from Petronella’s C DV album. Most of the women in Petronella’s album seem to have their hair pulled back severely in a bun, like the lady on the left. I’m not sure if the lady on the right had her hair cut, or if it’s just the way she has it fixed that makes it look short. I read that sometimes women would have to cut their hair all off due to illnesses or complications of childbirth. It was thought that long hair contributed to fevers and other health issues. Here’s the article where I got that information. After being pretty well “hairless” for the better part of last year due to chemotherapy, I don’t mind telling you I feel their pain.

I found these photos on the Swedish Roots website. I can say that my hair is now longer than the girl’s pictured on the left but not by a whole lot. The one on the right could have been unhealthy due to the way her eyes look. To me it seems like she’s got short hair instead of it just being put up in the back, but I could be wrong.

I noticed a lot of pretty lace collars and minutely detailed dresses while perusing through Swedish Roots looking for possible ancestors. As a matter of fact, long after I left off looking for family resemblances, I found myself spending hours just admiring the people’s clothing. It all said “blog material” to me, so I did a little bit of research on Victorian and Edwardian styles.

One thing I learned was that some of these outfits could be very heavy. Often made of drapery-like fabrics (I guess Scarlett O’Hara had the right idea) and with lots of beading and decorations sewn to them, plus with the abundance of petticoats required, some of these outfits could weigh six to nine pounds. They were often uncomfortable, and hard to walk or move around in. I found an interesting article from the 1880s on a WordPress blog that talks about the weight of women’s fashions and how unhealthy they were.

“Johanna the Dressmaker”, from Petronella’s album. If you sew, you know that ruffles can require a huge amount of fabric, not to mention a lot of patience to make.

Also, the sheer volume of fabric it took to make these dresses, even without ruffles and other embellishments, surely made them harder to sew and added weight to the garment.

These ladies look kind of alike to me, and their dresses are even similar. I really like the dress designs. The one on the right looks like velvet to me. Both photos were taken by Louise Lefren in Stockholm. Sisters, maybe?

Some puffed, or “leg of mutton” sleeves, which look like they would have been a pain to make, not to mention the cost of the extra fabric required. As I mentioned in “Swedish Roots”, to me this explains Marilla’s reluctance to make Anne her coveted dress with puffed sleeves in “Anne of Green Gables”.

This is from my grandma Edla’s photos. It was taken in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I’m including it because of their dresses. They were probably Swedes, but to my knowledge they weren’t relatives. On the back, Edla had written “Charlie Johnson girls in Brandon” and the names Clara, Alma, Serena, and two question marks. So, while in that sense I know who they are, at the same time, I don’t. The girl in the center looks like a bit of a “character”, if you ask me. Like she’s thinking of some mischief to get into after the photo shoot.

This was with my grandpa Johnson’s photos. It’s from Ludington, Michigan, and on the back in what I think is his handwriting it says “Nels Olson family, moved to Kansas about 1905”, as well as “Aunt Hanna on my mother’s side”. Their outfits don’t look a lot different from the ones on “Swedish Roots”. I love how each of the boys has what I assume is his own watch chain.

Speaking of kids, look at the adorable outfits these kids have on. The older child in the picture on the left has practically the same haircut that I had in kindergarten. Since my kindergarten photo is “vintage”, but not “antique”, we’ll leave it out for now.

There were so many great photos that I wanted to include, but it would make this post way too long. I don’t know if he was a relative or a friend, but the man in the checkered trousers on the top row is from my great grandmother’s album. The rest are from the Swedish Roots website, just pictures that I find intriguing or that I particularly like.

Feel free to check out the Swedish Roots “Old Portraits Database”: they have over 100,000 photos with new ones being added every day. That way you won’t have to wait for me to do another post in order to admire the clothing and hair styles of our ancestors.