Here we have little Charlotte Milinsky from Berlin. If this photo was taken in August 1903 and she was 1 year and 4 months old at the time, she was probably born in April 1902. So with this information I set out to look for her in the records.
Charlotte Martha Elfriede Milinsky was indeed born on April 3rd, 1902 in Berlin. Wasn't she just as adorable as the doll she was holding? I believe she might have been her parents’ only child. Her father Karl Adolph Milinsky was a son of a rope master and is listed on Charlotte’s birth certificate as merchant (Kaufmann), but I don’t know which line of business he was in. Charlotte’s maternal grandfather Julius Kersten, her mother Klara’s father, was a cigar manufacturer.
When Charlotte was 29, she married Willi Walter Wegener in Berlin-Lichtenberg. It was on September 1st, 1931, that Charlotte and Willi tied the knot. Charlotte’s father Karl Adolph had passed away when Charlotte had been just 10 years old. I noticed a name on Charlotte’s marriage record that I had seen on her parents’ marriage record over 30 years earlier – Max Nell was a witness at Charlotte’s parents' marriage registration, and he did so at Charlotte’s marriage registration as well. I believe after her father’s passing, Mr. Max Nell might have taken Charlotte under his wing. This warms my heart to see such a long friendship of the families beyond death. I was also glad to find out that Charlotte’s mother witnessed her daughter's wedding day. Mother Klara passed away just a year later.
Charlotte’s groom Walter was 5 years younger than her and in training to become a merchant. Charlotte at 29 was working as a stenographer.
Next I wondered if Charlotte had children of her own. Indeed, her baby daughter Sibille Haidrun Wegener was born on March 21, 1941. By that time it was WWII and the Wegeners found themselves in Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad and part of Russia). I’m sorry to tell you that baby Sibille died just 6 months later of meningitis.
I don’t know if the couple had any other children. I also don’t know how life turned out for Charlotte and Walter during WWII and after. Germans were forced out of Königsberg as the Soviet Union annexed the territories after WWII.
Charlotte passed away on New Year’s Eve of 1981 in Köln.
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