I’m going to go link this on my blog. I’ll look forward to more. And I’d love that field trip idea you mention in part 2 — again, I would love the excuse to carve it into my schedule to actually DO some of what it takes, to learn how to use the software, etc. My experience with it all is very limited.

Can I send you a pic of my family history wall, though?

FYI - $2 in 1920 was about $22-23 today, $2 in 1940 would be about 30 dollars today. (Yes the the trend was deflating!) $12 for silk garments would be $120 to $180 today! Just goes to show the declining cost of real goods.

The prices amazed me. Makes me feel like we get a pretty good deal these days. (All the more so thanks to Pres. Hinckley!)

I remember having a conversation with my companion (it would have been sometime early in 1980) in which I gave my opinion that, given the garment changes that had occurred in the past, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see two-piece garments. I thought I was suggesting a pretty radical idea, but apparently, my companion had already heard that two-piece garments would be available. Sure enough, the next batch of back issues of the Church News (they saved them up and gave them to us at zone conferences) had the announcement.

Here’s a very short article which mentions nile green and the influence of Egyptology on 1920s fashion. Clothing from that decade also pulled in influences from ancient Greece and WWI military uniforms. Top designers from this era included Charles Worth, Coco Chanel, Madeline Vionnet, and Paul Pioret and their influence filtered down to the masses.

It’s not insanity
Says Vanity Fair
In fact, it’s stylish to
Raise your skirts and bob your hair…

What we think is chic, unique and quite adorable
They think is odd and “Sodom and Gomorrah”-ble!
But the fact is
Everything today is thoroughly modern…

Men say it’s criminal what women’ll do
What they’re forgetting is
This is 1922!
[Thoroughly Modern Millie]

This period saw immensely dramatic changes in women’s clothing that were echoed by the change in garment design in 1923 as J. Stapley noted in comment 8.

We saw some of these styles in Ardis’ posts of church members around the world with the women wearing simple, straight dresses. It was very much a contrast to anything from the previous decades and I imagine that the switch to shorter garment styles must have caused heartburn in many a devoted Saint.

Neither he nor I personally believed that there was any issue about it (we were both happily married), but there were a lot of folks in Utah — including married students at BYU — who were sure that you weren’t allowed to remove your garments for sex. Of course, there were also persistent apocryphal stories of Mormons (usually older, string-tied garment types) who would bathe or shower while holding onto their garments with one hand.

Mark and I did have occasional contact after I graduated in ‘78 and moved away, so it’s always possible this was some follow-up conversation a year or two later. But it sure seems to me that this happened while we were both still at BYU. ..bruce..

After we’ve gone over some of the easier sources, I plan to ask for a few real-life examples from readers’ pedigrees. I can’t offer to solve all problems or do original research for anybody, but I’ll look at the examples and explain where I would go to look for evidence.

I’m still debating the wisdom of this one, but if I can work it out, I’d be willing to set up a field trip with a small group of readers at the Salt Lake Family History Library (sorry, everybody at a distance) for an afternoon or evening of working on your own research. I could review your chart, suggest a research strategy, and you would do the searching yourself with me there to answer questions if you get stuck. But I’d like to go over some common documentary sources, especially ones you can do online, before we set up anything like that.

So I’ve been trying to find new ways to document what I have. I want to flesh out the details and resolve contradictory facts. I’m just so new to this I haven’t learned all the right sources yet.

I have a friend who descends from the Youngs, Bensons, Pratts, and other well-known families. He’s worked on documenting his lines for years, and a while ago he finally found a great aunt who had married a nonmember and gone away from the family and church and had been still living the last time anybody had done massive amounts of temple work. Just one person, but he didn’t give up before he found her.