Nearly 50 years have passed and I am still practicing my childhood pastime, sewing, now as a seasoned seamstress and dressmaker. A pastime I became to know as a given talent that had been passed on to me through my biological mother. When I became restless, or banned to seclusion as a child growing up in a very small, very strict, religious community, Dayton, Rhea County, Tennessee, during the 196
0‘s and 1970‘s, the only way I could keep myself busy in these long lonely hours and days, was to teach myself to sew. I would get a needle and some thread along with some fabric or an old rag, drafting, designing and making clothes for my dolls' . By the age of eleven I moved up to making my own, and by the age of fourteen I was making clothing for customers. I now specialize in Civil War Reproductions for Re-enactors, Museums, and the Film Industry, with a long list of Clientele such as Wall to Wall Media/Texas Ranch House PBS Reality TV Production, Allen Albert Productions Broadway, NY, Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago, IL, MTV Networks, NY, Ohio Historical Society, including Our local Theatre Centers‘ and others. Born in Watervliet, Michigan, and given up for adoption as an infant, becoming an abandoned child at the age 16, then put into the State’s care with the Department of Children’s Services. A desire for my real family, and a connection to my roots, brought out my second passion, Genealogy. With a lot of “Brick Walls” I soon learned that I did not have access to tracing my personal family tree, so I started doing “Genealogy Research” to help others, leading to 81 local cemeteries I have visited, making a journal, and recording them on an Internet page that I now maintain for Sequatchie County Genealogy and History, located for the Sequatchie Valley, and Sequatchie, Tennessee. Thanks to some vary caring people, I now have met and know my biological mother (R.I.P. May 2, 2022), my Biological Dad (R.I.P. 1982) along with siblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins, and I now have the opportunity to build relationships with those who share my biology. Today, I still have my passions, making my creations at home, sewing for customers, and I am continuing to add local history to my Sequatchie County web page now linked in with my sewing pages. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about me. ~ Glenda Schroeder
