What would I do without my Instagram community! Once again they’ve helped me put together the puzzle pieces of another lost photograph! I wasn’t sure what was written on the back of this early 1900s wedding photo from Vienna, Austria, so I asked my Instagram family and together we pieced together that it says:
Tante und Onkel Windisch (aunt and uncle Windisch)
Leopoldine & Johann
(Mannsdorf 4
Bruder von Maria Pohl (brother of Maria Pohl)
Ok, so my first step was to check if any Leopoldine and Johann with the surname Windisch got married in Vienna in the 1900s. And indeed, I found one Leopoldine Antonia Windisch and one Johann Ankerl who tied the knot in Vienna on November 22, 1908.
But who were the “aunt and uncle Windisch”? Leopoldine’s parents, Leopold Windisch and Theresia née Sternek? Or was this photo dedicated to Leopoldine’s paternal uncle and aunt (if she had any)?
And what about the last line “brother of Maria Pohl (I can’t quite make out the surname). Was Johann Ankerl the brother of one Maria Pohl née Ankerl? The only sister I’ve found for Johann was one Caroline Elisabet Ankerl, born in 1888, with the married surname Regal. Sometimes too much information is confusing!
Anyways, what I can tell you about the couple is that both Leopoldine and Johann were 24 when they got married. Johann worked as a streetcar operator in Vienna.
Leopoldine was employed as “Diensthelferin” which I think means she was probably a maid. But I must say, her dress is way too stunning for someone on maid salary. I wonder what I'm missing...
The couple's first son Johann Franz Leopold Ankerl was born on June 6, 1907. What is curious about this birth record is that at the time their son was born, Leopoldine and Johann were not married. They got married in November 1908. I can only speculate why they chose to stay unwed at the time when cohabitation without marriage was highly unusual. Maybe they were modern in their thinking. But looks like when Leopoldine found herself pregnant with their daughter Leopoldine, the couple decided to make it official. Little Leopoldine was born into wedlock on June 19, 1909. Sadly, she died just 2 days later. I can only hope that the birth of little Karl on January 26, 1911, gave the grieving parents new hope.
Sadly, Leopoldine died of tuberculosis on July 30, 1917. She was just 32, leaving behind a grieving husband and two boys, aged 10 and 6. These tragic ends of young people in my found photos has become the norm these days; many of the stories I’ve recently discovered have involved the persons dying way before their time, or losing their parents or children. This is just heart-breaking. Life is just so damn precious!
Her sons would live long lives. Johann Jr. passed away in 1983, and Karl died in 1991. Their father Johann Sr. lived a long life too, and passed away in 1947.
I will add this wedding photo to FindaGrave.
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