What are you going to be for Halloween this year? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you might want to look to your ancestors for inspiration. Genealogists who know their heritage can turn to their family tree in order to decide on a meaningful costume to wear this Halloween.
It is going to take some planning in order to create a costume that reflects your heritage, or that resembles one of your ancestors. You may want to start now on creating your costume, so that you can get all the details just right.
If you don’t want to “become” an individual ancestor, you can choose a costume from a time period that one of your ancestors lived through. Or, create a costume that signifies the countries that your ancestors came from before they arrived in the United States.
Were any of your ancestors involved in the Civil War? Your Halloween costume this year could be a Union soldier, or a Confederate soldier. Or, you could decide to wear one of those huge Civil War era “Southern Bell” gowns, (that require a hoop skirt). If you don’t want to sew this type of costume yourself, you may want to get one from Costume Craze.
Many people like to attend their local Renaissance Faire in a costume that matches the time period that the Faire tries to re-create. Genealogists who have traced their family tree to Medieval England might have the perfect excuse to wear their Renn Faire costume on Halloween this year. If you don’t happen to already have a costume like this, you may want to get one from Historical Clothing Realm.
Another idea is to visit your local Army/Navy Surplus store. You could put together a Halloween costume that represents the branch of the United States military that one of your ancestors served in.
If your family has Greek heritage, you can represent it by wearing a costume that includes a toga and sandals. Or, you might want to be a Spartan Warrior for Halloween.
If your family has Native American heritage, you have two choices. You can either dress up in a “generic” Native American costume, (that does not represent any one particular tribe). Or, you can do some research and design a costume that more accurately reflects the tribe that your family is from.
These are just a few ideas about what a genealogist might want to be for Halloween this year. Now is the time to use your imagination, and decide on an excellent, historically accurate, Halloween costume. You have a little over a month to put it all together.
Image by landofnodstudios on Flickr