In a message dated 5/27/2000 7:06:24 PM Mountain Daylight Time, Smlathrum writes: << I believe the term "spinster" came from the fact that spinning (cotton, wool, flax) was so vitally important to a family that one of the daughters was to remain unmarried and spend her days spinning for the family. She may also have done the weaving but that was less labor intensive and much faster than the spinning. It would have required someone spinning virtually full time to produce enough thread/yarn to in turn produce the woven fabric needed by each family. I >> There are two meanings for spinster. Spinner is correct for large family. Often the oldest daughter eligible for marriage was responsible for spinning (hence 'spinster' was adopted) that passed the product to the mother (or grandmother sometimes) for knitting, weaving, etc. The next youngest daughter was responsible for combing, etc. (cotton, wool, whatever). The older you got, the easier the job was. The youngest usually had to go out and collect, bleach, clean, etc. Really nasty job. But in all the 25,000+ people I have in my database, I've never run across a family in US or England that purposefully never allowed a woman to remain unmarried and stayed at home. Also, in that time period (1800s) there were bolts of cloth available. Some families did have sheep, flax etc for spinning and weaving, but it was not an all consuming passion. I believe the email concerning Elizabeth was her marriage status only. Hope this helps. Diane