Very excited!!

   I'm very excited that I was gifted my great, great, great uncle's presentation outfit. It was the outfit that my 3rd great grandma hand sewed for him to meet his "church family". Dad gave it to me last night and I'm so excited over it.
  

  My 3rd great uncle was born in 1899 so this outfit is roughly 114 yrs old! Considering other family members most likely wore it for their church presentation and it's been in storage for years it's in great shape! 
  Back in the day families would either make christening gowns or presentation outfits. The church my ggg grandparents attended didn't believe in christening babies so the children wore presentation outfits. They were usually very detailed, white and even if it was a boy usually resembled a more girly outfit simply because of the time period. The child would be either dressed it in the outfit to attend his/her first time at church or when the family came to the house to see the baby. The outfit would be wore for important events only. 
    

  The detail that goes into the outfits were amazing! This one had small three layer pleats down the front and back, button front, frilly neck line and arm holes and had tatting lace detailed down it. 
  Many families held onto their presentation outfits as long as possible. Some, if they had big households, wore out their gowns/outfits! 
  This outfit holds alot of feelings for me not only because it's a piece of family history but because my grandma is gone and alot of her family on her immediate side is gone as well. I never knew this 3rd great uncle but I grew up with my Dad farming with his son on his farm. I played on the same staircase that my 3rd great uncle would slide down...in the same rooms my grandma (who would be 88 if living) played in. There is a strong family bond to this piece. 
  That side of the family settled into Williams many years before it even had a proper name. Williams was originally slated another name but due to another town already having that name they couldn't open a post office or have the town slated. So they decided since the Williams family (my Grandma's mother's family) had the most farmland they'd use that name. My 3rd great and 4th great grandpa built a fine farm home on the family farm. Complete with wide staircase, big rooms and fireplaces in each bedroom. A summer kitchen, a sheep barn, a farmhand's home, and a big barn was also built by hand. My great great great grandma used the summer kitchen to can, cook for the farm hands and to do the laundry in the summer to keep the heat out of the main house. It was the first house to implement  indoor plumbing/running water via a pump in the kitchen sink, slide troughs through the house and the privy was in the home eventually.
  My Granny had many great memories in the house and with my 3rd great uncle. He was a comic and a tall thin man. I love that I got to grow up playing in the same house as so many of my family members.