dresses for second wedding


Women’s Clothing Tell Stories
An ivory-colored lace dress, which was donned by a bride 107 years ago, as well as an elegantly beaded jacket from the same period worn by an another Lithuanian young lady, are among the historic items received by the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture over the course of the last few months. Remarkably these items of vintage apparel survived even after their owners’ death.
The jacket came to the Museum by post from Florida. Its sender, Elayne Adams, wrote that the classy jacket belonged to her grandmother, Anna Ramanauskas Poskoczym (Paskačimas), who emigrated from Vadoklių Parish in Panevėžys County. Her family traces its ancestry from an established line of noblemen. In 1905, at the age of sixteen years, she together with her twin sister Katherine sailed to America. She settled in Chicago, where her elder sister Helen had already taken up residence. The twins found work, at a minimal salary, as maids in the posh Palmer House hotel.
Arriving together in the package with the jacket was a photograph of the twin sisters, Anna and Katherine, dressed in their bonnets, which was taken in 1906, a year after their arrival to the United States. They were photographed in their most beautiful apparel, so they could show their relatives in Lithuania how well they were living in America.
After a time, the three Ramanauskas sisters became acquainted with the Poskoczym family, which included four brothers John (Jonas), Michael (Mykolas), Adam (Adomas), and Joseph (Juozas). The three sisters married three of the Poskoczym brothers. Anna married Michael Poskoczym in 1912, and they had four children. A photo from their wedding day was donated to the Museum as well. Anna was a successful businesswoman, and thanks to her efforts, the family acquired much real estate. When Katherine’s husband Adam died, she married the fourth Poskoczym brother, her deceased husband’s brother. Of the twins, Anna died first in June, 1970. Next died Katherine, three months later in August of the same year. dresses for second wedding
The original owner of the ivory-colored wedding dress was Antanina Ančaitė, who was from the small city of Joniškis near Sauliai and who arrived in 1905 about the same time as the Ramanauskas sisters did. Antanina married Motiejus Burnickas in 1911. The wedding dress now entering its second century of existence, a photo of the newlyweds, and other family artifacts were donated to the Museum by the granddaughter of Antanina Ančaitė-Burnickis, Janet Cloud Mose, who is 82 years old. She has visited the Museum numerous times and has received answers from the Museum’s Genealogy Department to questions relating to her family’s history.

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