A Piece of Family History



This is our family christening gown, first worn by my grandmother, Letitia Mary Cooper Hawkes, circa 1874.

Since Letitia became a seamstress when she grew up I have always imagined that  her mother or a relative made the gown.

A lot of family babies have worn the gown at their christenings and I clearly recall my second son throwing up down the front of it minutes before the minister grimly took him and made him official.

When it was looking fragile and couldn't handle another laundering, we turned it into an heirloom.

My eldest son made the oak case and oak hanger and the case is sealed tight.

This wonky picture is of my brother wearing the gown in 1930. My dad is holding him; on one side is his boss and on the other, my older brother who would apparently rather be elsewhere. This picture tells a story or two. Too late to find out just what they were.

Come to think of it, why am I not in the picture?  Is my mother taking the picture? These people did not have a sense of occasion.

There are no other christening pictures of us kids--my parents weren't big on picture-taking.

Now the family is scattered everywhere but I have the notion that christenings aren't of much significance anymore.

But the memory lives on.