Photos Without Families

This lovely group photo found its way into the PWF archive from an antique shop on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. It shows the following persons: Süld Oskar and Süld Elli Süld Ingel Kristiina Mihkels Olga Põldmaa and Roobert Säkk

Valentin Roedel was pretty easy to find in the records. I found this original photo in Germany. Having immigrated to the United States from

This old photograph came to me from an online shop in Germany. Although it doesn't include the location of the photo studio, there are some valuable clues on the back. The text is written in modern German handwriting, so it’s possible that the names were added much later. It reads: “Franz Maret, Son of Karl Friedr. Maret, Berlin, and Dorothea née Lerchen” 

On my annual trip to Estonia this summer, I also visited Saaremaa, the largest island of Estonia, where I stopped by the local antiques store and “raided” their old photos section for labeled treasures. Among them, I discovered a photo of Leen Valdov from Ninase, right there on Saaremaa — a true local!

This sweet photo of the siblings Herbert and Gertrud Ihle was gifted to someone as a New Year’s greeting on December 30th, 1902.

The digitized Czech Archives helped me reconstruct the following details: Johann Hohmann and Anna Korb married on January 31, 1815, in Schlaggenwald. The woman in the photo was born on April 29, 1795—nearly 230 years ago! How incredible is that?