Genealogy Chat

The book by Liza Picard looks good, i have seen a copy online and at a very reasonable price, will have a look at that.
I take the point about which clothes survived, and how they might affect interpretation, most of my family were plain ag labs, and of course the poor would have worn their clothes until they were little more than rags.... Still i would like to get some kind of overview of how people lived, what they wore etc, i have a lot of info on ancestors names, dates and places of birth, but of course i need to look at their lives within the context of when and where they lived, somehow i think that would help bring them to life for me.

Without having made a careful study, I'll bet there's a fair amount of distortion in many books as some material's not readily available. I'll bet there's dozens of ballgowns worn by Lady Such & Such or the wife of General Such & Such at the ball on the eve of Waterloo that are preserved somewhere, yet there's not one instance of the preserved dress of the miner's wife worn as she sent her man off to mine the lead that was actually used at Waterloo.

I enjoyed reading :

Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870 by Liza Picard.
2005 Weidenfield & Nicolson. ISBN 0 297 84733 3

I realise it doesn't cover the whole century, but I found it very interesting none the less.

It covers life in London rather than the clothes side of things, though there is a chapter on that.

Hi everyone, thanks for your ideas, the websites look interesting and i will have a browse at the nearest library too. :-)

You might find this sight interesting

http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Clothing-Victorians.htm

Have a look at this site.

http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm.


George

Irene, my suggestions would be to visit your nearest main library or (probably easier!) to do a google search.
Jan

Hi everyone, not sure i have picked the right board for this but, do you have any recommendations for books or websites that show how our ancestors would have dressed? I am particularly interested in the period from c1800 to c1900. In fact, if anyone can suggest something along the lines of how our family members would have lived in that period i would be most grateful - especially if it relates to London.
Many thanks, Irene