When I stumbled upon this original photograph, I never imagined it would unveil such a rich history and so much sorrow, too. The young boy in the picture was Rudi Hochenegg, born into a family of some remarkable individuals, but more on that later. Rudolf “Rudi” Hochenegg was born on June 20, 1894 in Vienna, Austria. The photo was taken at the beginning of 1902 when little Rudi was 7. In 1897, Rudi welcomed his baby sister Johanna "Hanni” into the family. Unfortunately, WWI took away the youth of Rudi's lost generation. In Rudi's tragic case, it not only deprived him of his youth but also claimed his life. Rudi lost his life in a battle against Russian troops in Horodenka, present-day Ukraine, just over a month before his 21st birthday. At home he was mourned by his parents, his sister and his young wife Olga Hochenegg née Weber whom he had married less than a year earlier and who was 7 months pregnant at the time. Baby Johanna Hochenegg was born on July 15, 1915 and never knew his daddy. What could have been Rudi's fate if he hadn't passed away at such a young age? The possibilities are endless. Would he have followed in the footsteps of his father Julius Hochenegg, a renowned surgeon specializing in bowel surgery in Vienna? The loss of his potential successor deeply affected the doctor, who, despite his expertise in saving lives, couldn't save his only son. Maybe Rudi might have pursued a career in law, similar to his grandfather Johann Baptist Hochenegg, the attorney-at-law? Or perhaps he would have been drawn to engineering, like his uncle Carl Hochenegg, a prominent Austrian electrical engineer? I believe the world would have embraced Rudi wholeheartedly, given his noble lineage. His sister Johanna wed Professor Fritz Kaspar (1885–1943), an accomplished surgeon. Rudi's daughter Johanna, known as “Hanni,” lived a long life and passed away in 2008 as Johanna Grüner. Rudi's wife Olga remarried and had two more children with her second husband, tragically losing one of her sons in WWII three decades after Rudi’s similar death. Reflecting on the past, I often ponder how people dealt with grief and PTSD in those times... Despite the absence of a happy ending to this family saga, I find solace in the fact that Rudi experienced love and made a lasting impact on the world. There is a lot more to delve into regarding Rudi's family, originally from Tirol. Rudi's great-grandfather, Joseph Edler von Winiwarter (below), was both a lawyer and a university professor. Another great-grandfather, a descendant of a farming family from Ehrwald, established himself as a tradesman in Graz around 1810. His son, Johann Baptist Hochenegg (1814–1899) – Rudi's grandfather – was a respected lawyer who wed Cäcilie von Winiwarter (1831–1862), the lady depicted in the painting below. Rudi's father, Dr. Julius Hochenegg, made significant contributions to the field of medicine. In 1890, he married Rudi’s mama Julie Mauthner von Mauthstein (1863–1942), the daughter of the lawyer Wilhelm Mauthner von Mauthstein, in Vienna. Rudi's father was granted nobility by Emperor Franz Josef on November 12, 1914. Professor Hochenegg authored a widely utilized surgery textbook. I will upload Rudi's photo to Geni and reach out to his relatives.

I found this lovely family photo in an online shop. With so many clues, handwritten on the back of the photo, of course I had to buy it. It shows: Paula Tischer née Sprotte with Helmut und Ruth December 1907 in Bautzen I know that the archives in the eastern regions of Germany are a bit behind with digitising their records, so I was hoping some family member might have built a family tree online and I was lucky! I could find out that Paula Sprotte married Wilhelm Tischer, a pastor at St. Michael in Bautzen, on August 21, 1900, in Bautzen. Paula, a daughter of Gustav Adolf Sprotte and Auguste Marie née Dietz, was born on December 1878. So perhaps it was around her 29th birthday that this photo was taken. She had an older brother Walter Sprotte. Paula’s husband Wilhelm Tischer was born on October 7, 1871 in Meschwitz, Bautzen, to parents Hermann Tischer and Mathilde Ida née Noack. He had 8 siblings (Ludwig, Elisabeth, Hermann, Max, Alfred, Bertha, Helene and Charlotte). I don’t know exactly when their children Helmut and Ruth were born, but they look about 2-3 years old in the photo, so I assume about 1906-1908. I don’t know when mother Paula passed away; husband Wilhelm was a widower when he died in 1952 at the age of 81 in Dresden. It was his daughter Ruth, then Ruth Friedrich, who reported his death to the authorities. That is all I can tell you about these lovely faces in my found photo. I will try to make contact with whomever built their family trees on MyHeritage and Ancestry,

UPDATE! The photo has been sent to a local genealogy friend in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I found this photo in Germany, but as you can see, the photo studio where this photo was taken at was in Green Bay in Wisconsin, USA. The photo is labelled by hand in old German kurrent hand-writing: " Emma Küstermann Robert's wife with little Walther, 4 months old 24/11/88 " So many valuable clues! Let's start digging! Walther Wolleben Kustermann  (in American records without the dots above “ü” in Küstermann) was born  on July 10, 1888, in Green Bay, in Brown County, Wisconsin. So he was indeed 4 months old when the photo was taken.  His father  Robert Kustermann  had been born in Germany in 1855 and had immigrated to the US in 1872 at the age of 16. He and his brothers set up the book and musical instruments business  G. & R. Kustermann  in Green Bay, selling organs and pianos as well as sheet music. The Kustermanns' business was known in Green Bay as the "Temple of Music", Their shop included some pretty special collectors' pieces: The Kustermann brothers were active members of the Green Bay German community. Robert frequently travelled between Europe and the US, sometimes staying for many months in Europe.   Robert married Walther’s mother  Emma Kalb on September 25, 1884. Emma was a daughter of a farmer and county treasurer Joseph Kalb, originally from Germany. Green Bay Press-Gazette reported about Emma and Robert's nuptuals the following day:  Life looked promising for the Kustermanns. Father Robert’s business was booming, the family had standing in the community and little Walther was well provided for. But on July 28, 1890, 2-year-old Walther’s life changed forever. His mummy Emma passed away unexpectedly and just like that, it was just him and his grieving father. Walther’s father Robert never re-married. He dedicated his life to raising his boy and to his work. Father and son travelled to Germany and Switzerland together in 1894. And looks like they stayed for 10 years! You'd think Walther, surrounded by so much music since his childhood would follow his family's footsteps. But no, by 1909 , Walther had graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a university degree in mathemathics. I was lucky to find a 1909 yearbook photo of Walther. He was about 21 in the photo. By September the same year, he had enrolled in the University of Munich in Germany for the purpose of studying mathemathics.  As WWI broke out, he returned to the US. He was drafted  by the US Army in 1917, but he asked to be exempted on physical grounds. At the time, he taught engineering at the University of Michigan (1913-1918). According to his draft card, Walther was tall and slender, had dark brown hair and blue eyes.      The father-son duo can be found registered in Green Bay in 1920. After Walter’s employment with the University of Michigan, the father-son duo moved across the country to San Diego in California where I found them in the  1930 Census . Walter was 41.  Sadly, Walter passed away suddenly in May 1932. With his life ending too soon, it gives me some consolation to know that we have two photos of young Walther to remember him by. I can definitely see the same features in both: Walter was unmarried and I assume he had no children. But I’m hoping that there are  relatives of the Kustermann or Kalb families out there who might be interested in this family photo. So please reach out if you know Walter Kustermann or his parents Emma and Robert from your own family tree.

Here’s Auguste Steger who had her photo taken in Mittweida, Germany, in 1896. I’m happy to tell you that I have found Auguste in the records. Amalie Auguste Rosinus, born on March 15, 1843, married Carl Ernst Steger on January 6, 1868. Carl Ernst who was a master weaver, The couple lived and had their daughters Auguste, Laura and Luise in Königinhof (Dvur Králové nad Labem in today’s Czech Republic). According to Wikipedia, Königinhof an der Elbe was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918 and was doing pretty well economically. The industry had flourished after the railway had been built in 1858, the road network had improved, and the Elbe had become navigable. In the 1880s, the first textile factories were established. So Carl Ernst Steger fit right in. I haven’t found any specific demographic data on the town in the 1870s and 1880s, but that region was generally inhabited by Germans. The town also had a Jewish community. All that changed, of course, with the beginning of WWII. But now back to Auguste who was about 53 years old when she had her photo taken. Looks like by 1895 her whole family – husband Carl Ernst Steger, daughters Auguste Martha (born in 1873), Laura (born in 1874), Luise (born in 1885) and son Paul – had all resettled to Mittweida. Auguste's youngest, Paul, was born in 1889, just before Auguste's 46th birthday! Carl Ernst died in May 1920, and Auguste died just 5 months later in October 1920. They had been married for almost 53 years! Perhaps Auguste's great-grandchildren are out there. I really hope to return this photo.

This adorable little model was Ernst Kaspar August Wahl from Chicago, at Christmas 1901. I assume he was about 3-4 years old in the photo, so I guess he was born around 1897-98. Indeed, Ernst Kaspar August Wahl was born on October 5, 1897 in Chicago. In 1900, he was the only child of his parents Ernst H. and Edna Wahl. The family and their two servants, Emily and Agnes Carlson, resided at 2149 Kenmore Avenue in Chicago. I suppose this was their home in 1900: I can see from the 1900 Census that Ernst’s father Ernst Sr. had immigrated from Germany in 1893, and Ernst’s mother Edna was a 1st generation American. Ernst’s maternal grandparents were also from Germany. By 1910, Ernst had become an older brother to George Wahl, 3 years younger than Ernst. The 1910 Census lists “own income” in the field about Ernst Sr.’s occupation. Their house in Kenmore Avenue was owned by Ernst Sr. morgage-free. I have an idea how Ernst Sr. might have come to his wealth, but I’m going to keep you in suspense for a little while and reveal a juicy bit of gossip at the end of this blogpost. You are in for a treat -a true Cinderella story, I can promise you that! In 1917, our boy here was drafted to serve in the US Army during WWI. At the time, Ernst was 20 years old and enrolled as a student at the Northwestern University in Chicago. According to his draft card, he was tall, slender, had blue eyes and dark blond hair. His home address in 1917 was 5048 Kenmore in Chicago. Perhaps in this house? The family lived in the same house in Kenmore Avenue also in 1920. I don’t know when exactly Ernst married Gertrude Hayes. On April 6, 1924 they became parents to their only child, Barbara Marie Wahl. Ernst and Gertrude parted ways is 1933. Star Tribune of December 28, 1933, informs us that Gertrude’s request to divorce Ernst K. Wahl was granted. The 1940 Census of Chicago reveals that Ernst was a stamp dealer, dealing with stamps for collectors. His ex-wife Gertrude, a high school teacher, was listed as a patient at the Glen Lake Sanatorium in 1940, a tuberculosis treatment center in Hennepin County, Minnesota. She died on April 25, 1940, at the Sanatorium, presumably from tuberculosis. Looks like their daughter Barbara graduated in Minnesota before moving back in with her father Ernst in Chicago by 1950. I found this Duluth Central High School 1941 Yearbook photo of Barbara: Apparently Ernst was drafted again in February 1942. He was 44 at the time, I’m not sure if he was shipped out, or kept in the reserves. The address listed on his draft card was 2835 N Racine Street in Chicago, which I assume was this house: In 1950, I find Ernst together with his daughter Barbara in Chicago. Ernst’s occupation reads “advertising man”. The industry mentioned in the Census is of the scaling division manufacturers, but I’ve no idea what that means. Looks like Barbara never married. I don’t know what happened, but she died in 1964, a week after her 40th birthday. I can imagine Ernst never recovered from this loss, he passed away on August 1, 1965 and was buried at the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Source: newspapers.com But now, as promised, let me tell you about how Ernst’s parents, Ernst Wahl Sr. and Edna Pauline née Schmidt, met. His parents’ lovestory was made for the history books! Ernst Wahl Sr. immigrated from Germany in 1893 (or 1892 according to another record), and took up employment as the coachman for the well-known German family of Kasper George Schmidt, a millionaire brewer in Chicago. Mr. Schmidt had opened a brewery in Chicago in 1860 which by 1866 was known as the K.G. Schmidt Brewery. The daughter of the wealthy family and the driver fell in love. When Edna’s father found out, he was furious and fired his coachman. Edna was just 17 at the time, with three weeks to go until her 18th birthday. She couldn’t turn to her mother for moral support either as she had lost her mother when she was 14. She was alone with her big feelings and Ernst was probably her best friend as well, someone who understood her, didn’t judge her, supported her. So on her 18th birthday she made the decision to elope with her sweetheart and get married without her father’s approval. If you've watched that brilliant historical TV series of Downton Abbey, the storyline of Lady Sybil and driver Tom Branson sprang to my mind, With the difference that Ernst and Edna’s storyline was real life, no movie production! I found this photo of Ernst's mum Edna on FindaGrave: A scandal like that was considered quite the blow to the family name and reputation, the news was kept secret by the family until, well, the press got wind of it and showed no mercy with their headlines: Source: newspapers.com This might have been the family's first scandal, but it surely wasn’t the last. No surprise where big sums of inheritance money are involved. It took 18 years of litigation to settle the estate of Kasper George Schmidt, who died in 1898, among quarreling relatives. It was finally settled in 1915. Our boy's grandpa Kasper Schmidt was quite the figure in Chicago's high society. If you wish to know more about him, I recommend to read the recent blogpost by Brookston Beer Bulletin. I must say, I do see a lot of grandpa Kasper in little Ernst's face. I will add Ernst to FindaGrave and hopefully can make contact with relatives and return the photo. Keep your fingers crossed, will you!

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.

Updated! The photo has been reunited with its family! My wonderful community has solved another mystery photo! This photo from Reading, Pennsylvania, is labelled with the name of the man, but the writing in pencil is so poorly visible that I couldn’t make out the surname. I could only read “John J. … and Wife”, so I once again turned to my Instagram and Facecook community for their take on the surname. And again they came through! The writing on the back of this photo reads “John J. Dribelbis and Wife”. I would date this photo to late 1910s. The wife’s dress is simpler, the hem shorter and she was probably not wearing a corset, a typical trend of the mid- to late-1910s. With those clues in mind, I am pretty sure I’ve found the couple in the records. These were John Joseph Dribelbis (also Dreibelbis) and his wife Anna Ella Reger (also Rieger or Reiger in the records) who married on July 18, 1913 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. John was the youngest child of five children of farmer Cleophas S. and Martha Dreibelbis. John was born on June 24, 1889 in Shoemakersville, Pa. In 1900, he and his parents and his three older siblings lived in Perry, Berks County. The second oldest sibling Israel had passed away as a toddler in 1884, so before John was born. While his older brothers became a miller and a superindendent, John chose another path and became a public school teacher in Ontelaunee, Berks County. Anna Ella Rieger was the same age as John, she was also born in 1892. Anna’s father John Rieger was an inspector with the Reading Water Board. Anna’s name comes up often in the local Reading Times in connection with a Sewing Club, as a chairman of the cake competition at the icecream festival, or as a dancer in a Suffragette Play. She seems to have been an active member of the community. She must have been about the age in the second photo I found on the FindAGrave page dedicated to her: Soon after John and Anna got married, they welcomed their only son, John Stuart (also Stewart) Dreibelbis on February 15, 1914. Life was idyllic, if only there had been no war raging in Europe and the USA were sucked into the turmoil. John was drafted in 1917. According to his WWI draft card, John was short and slender with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Sounds like our man! John survived the world war, but sadly not what came after – the Spanish flu. The influenza or la grippe hit Pennsylvania hard and John was among the thousands who perished from Reading the surrounding areas. John died on October 20, 1918, of pneumonia as a result of the influenza. Source: newspapers.com I don’t know if John contracted the virus in the troops or from school. The US troops were heavily affected by the disease, tens of thousands of soldiers died. The public school stayed open under strict regulations, so if John had been released from military service, he was teaching in Ontelaunee at the time. Reading this, I had a bit of a deja-vu with our own situation from not so long ago as Covid took toll on the lives and health of so many. The articles in the local newspapers in 1918 urged people to take necessary measures, some institutions closed whereas others decided to keep the doors open, people with symptoms were urged to isolate. Doctors, many of them involved in serving in the troops, were hardly available to attend to the sick who were left to self-medicate if possible. Remember, there was no luxury of mobile phones or TVs, not many had a landline so early in the day either. So the sick were cut off from the rest of the world. That must have been truly hard for the sick as well as the families... Source: newspapers.com John was not even 30 when the mysterious virus took him. His widow Anna and their 3-year-old son moved in with Anna’s parents John and Ella Rieger where I find them in the 1920 Census. Anna remarried in April 1922 in Reading. Her husband, Nathan William Miller, was a glass cutter and glazier by profession. John Stuart remained Anna’s only child. The couple lived in Reading where Nathan operated a shop at 231 Chruch Street for more than 30 years. Anna was widowed for the second time in September 1951 at just 59 years of age. Anna didn’t marry a third time. She lived her remaining years in Berks County where she died at the age of 90 and was buried at the Good Shepherd Cemetery in Muhlenberg Township. John and Anna's son John Stuart looked so much like mum Anna, don’t you agree! A 1932 Reading High School yearbook photo shows John Stuart at about 16-17 years of age. Such a friendly warm smile! John Stuart lived a long life of 84 years and passed away in January 1999. I will leave his obituary here for you to read about his life. Source: FindaGrave.com John never got to see his son John Stuart grow up, never knew him as a schoolchild, a teenager, a young soldier, a grown man, a husband and a father, but I’m sure John would have been so proud of John “Stew” Stuart. I hope to find John and Anna's great-grandchildren and return this photo to them. I've added the photo of the couple to FamilySearch and FindaGrave.

Happy Tie-the-Knot-Thursday, everyone! Today I have a lovely wedding photo for you that I bought at my favourite antique store in Tallinn, Estonia. The couple is identified as Peeter and Juuli Gentalen from Uue Vingi, Estonia. Estonians are true genealogy buffs, so I had no difficulty finding the couple on Geni.com. I have added their wedding photo to their Geni profiles and hope to make contact with their families. Peeter Gentalen and Juuli née Toodo got married on June 20, 1921. Peeter was 23 (born in 1898), and Juuli 17 (born on September 25, 1903) at the time. For their young lives they had already experienced quite a bit – WWI devastated their home country Estonia, Peeter had been drafted to the reserves at just 15. Just as the rest of Europe started picking up the pieces of the WWI destruction in 1918 when the war ended, Estonians saw the war go into overtime for more than a year – The Independence War against Soviet Russia was won by Estonians together with their allies in February 1920 and for the first time in history, Estonia declared itself independent as a sovereign Republic. Young Estonians were eager to welcome all the new opportunities the new found independence brought to them. Peeter and Juuli hopped on that train of optimism. The geni.com page for Juuli includes her photo from before her wedding! Oh, how I love to see the strangers in my found photos in different phases of their life! You can definitely recognise her 100%. Juuli was 79 when she passed away in July 1983. I don’t know when Peeter passed away, he was not mentioned among the mourners of Juuli's passing in 1983, I assume he might have passed away before her. According to Geni.com, Peeter and Juuli had 5 children. I will try to make contact with the Geni account administrators and return the photo to the family.

Look at that sweet face! And look at that incredible cursive hand-writing. Someone wanted to make sure we never forget little Maximilian! Such valuable information, too! We have his birth date and place. And we also know that the photo was taken in Philadelphia. Little Max was not difficult to find in the records. I just wish I didn’t find what I found next... Little Maximilian died on November 29, 1884, at the age of 7... He was the youngest child of Eberhard Flues. Max’ living siblings Natalia, Eberhard Jr. and Laura were all at least 10 years older than Max, all born by Eberhard’s first wife Nathalie née Ellinger. After her death in 1869, Eberhard remarried Ottilie Heidemann. Before little Max was born, the couple had buried their first baby in 1875. It must have been such a shock for the family, especially for mum Ottilie, to lose the youngest of the family in 1884. Eberhard Flues had immigrated to the United States in 1853 with Max’ uncle Bernhard Flues from Hagen in Westphalia, Germany. In 1865 I find Eberhard in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, dealing with silk goods. In 1863, I find him on the draft list of the Union Army in Brooklyn, New York. He was 39 at the time. He was already a father of two. By 1870, Eberhard was dealing with woolen goods and lived in Whitemarsh with his children and second wife Ottilie. By 1880, father Eberhard had retired. From the looks of the photo of little Max, the family was doing pretty well. Father Eberhard passed away in 1897 and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, next to little Max. I found this obituary attached to Eberhard Flues' FindaGrave page: Perhaps Max’ siblings’ descendants are out there and might love to cherish this photo of him. I will add his photo to FindaGrave and FamilySearch.

These siblings have been identified as Adolphine and Heinrich Hinsch and the photo was taken in Bromberg (in Bydgoszcz in today’s in Poland). I assume the photo was taken some time in the late 1880s, judging by her dress and hair style. So my thinking was perhaps she was born in the early 1870s. Heinrich looks younger than his older sister. At first I had some difficulty finding anything about the siblings in the records. But when I finally came across the birth record of Adolphine from February 1871, I had names for the siblings’ parents: Eugen Hinsch, who was a teacher by profession, and his wife Emma née Falck. This was my missing puzzle piece and it didn’t take me long to find the family trees built for the siblings on Ancestry. Adolphine Auguste Louise Gustave Hinsch was born on February 17, 1871 in Bromberg. The younger brother, Heinrich Georg Eugen Eggert Hinsch, was born on August 13, 1880 in Bromberg. He studied law and in the early 1910s practiced as a judicial trainee. But now I’m having my doubts if the siblings in our photo really have an age difference of 9 years, like Adolphine and Heinrich did? Or was the boy in the photo another brother? Or perhaps Adolphine looked frail and younger for her age? According to a public tree on Ancestry, the siblings had one more brother, Alfred Georg Gustav Emil Hinsch who was born in 1873 and who became a medical doctor. Perhaps these are Adolphine and Alfred instead? What do you think? There should have been four siblings in the photo, but unfortunately I’ve found a death record for the fourth sibling from 1877. I have no other details about the sibling, how old he or she had been or what his or her name had been either. Adolphine married Leo August Moritz Georg von Scheven in January 1895 in Bromberg. Eleven months later they welcomed their first child, Günther Leo Kurt Alfred Eugen von Scheven in Greifswald. And three years later, their daughter Irene was born in Greifswald. And this is where the fate of the Hinsch-von Scheven family took a tragic turn. Adolphine passed away in May 1899 in Stettin. She was just 28 years old, mother of toddlers of 4 and barely 1,5 years old. The doctor confirming her death was her own brother Dr. Alfred Hinsch. I don’t know what the declared cause of her such early death was, it is not mentioned on her death certificate. But I have a feeling it could have been something modern medicine could have had an answer for if she had lived in our modern times. Such tragedy! Death continued to follow the Hinsch family. In September of the same year, the siblings father Eugen Hinsch passed away; 10 years later their mother Emma. Sadly, our boy Heinrich passed away 13 years later, on August 9th, 1912. He was just 31 years old, practicing as a judicial trainee. And curiously the siblings’ brother Alfred Hinsch had passed away just a day before, on August 8 in Stettin. But I don't know the cause of either of their deaths. So many young deaths in this family... I hope to make contact with Adolphine and Alfred’s descendants or relatives or whoever has made the loving effort to record their family trees in such detail. I would love to return this photo to the family!

How lovely that this late 1860s – early 1870s CDV is labelled with the name of the mother, the baby son as well as the father of the child. It says in German: “Aunt Anna Pomy, wife of Hermann Pomy in Chicago with son Hermann” The photo studio stamp on the CDV confirms the location: Chicago, Illinois. The names have been added at a much later date in pen and in modern German hand-writing. I found the original photo in Germany, so perhaps it was sent to relatives in Germany when it was taken? I couldn’t wait to find out! These were mother Anna Pomy née Kuebler and her first-born, Hermann George Pomy in 1868. Anna Kuebler married Hermann Pomy in 1866. The couple’s only son, little Hermann here, was born on September 25, 1867 in Chicago, followed by four daughters: Clara B. (1869-1941), Bertha (1871-1939), Anna (1873-1928) and Pearl Olivia (1887-1965). I’ve also figured out how come this photo was labelled in German. Well, their names obviously sound German – I assumed they must have had German ancestry. Anna Kuebler had been born on August 20, 1845 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and had made the sea passage to the United States as a 4-year-old girl in 1850, together with her parents Hieronymus and Anna Kuebler and her four older siblings. In 1860, Anna was 14 and living in her older sister Barbara and her husband George Auer’s household  in St. Louis, Missouri. As mentioned, Anna married Hermann Pomy in 1866. Hermann had left his homecountry of Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1859 as a 19-year-old man. What he probably didn’t expect while making the weeks-long journey was that just 2 years later his patriotism for his new home country would be put to a life-or-death kind-of-a-test. He - voluntarily or involuntarily, we don’t know – was drafted to serve with the Chicago Cavalry in the Union Army during the Civil War (with Company B, 1st Illinois Cavalry and later Company C, 16th Illinois Cavalry). Perhaps it was his bravery and loyalty that earned him the respect in the community and got him appointed as the deputy sheriff by 1880. The Pomys lived at 318 Maxwell Street in Chicago at the time. In 1896, Anna Pomy applied for a passport for international travels. I wonder if she travelled to Germany? The passport application mentions her birthdate and place, her original date of arrival in the US in 1850 as well as the date of naturalization in 1864. According to the application, she was 5 feet 7 inches tall (170 cm), had dark hair and brown eyes. From the many newspaper clippings I gather that the Pomys were very active in their local German-Swiss community. Hermann was a member of the German-American Veterans Association, the Chicago Dragoner (Reunion of former Swiss Dragonerschwadron soldiers), Germania Lodge (the Freemasons of Chicago), the “Orpheus Society" to name a few. Hermann’s name was among the director candidates of the new German Opera House or the Schiller Theatre, built in 1891, as well as mentioned as a representative delegate of 40 German singing societies. By 1891, Hermann Pomy had gone into bottling business and held office as the Secretary and Treasurer of the Chicago Consolidated Bottling Company up until his death in 1907. The Pomys surely made a name for themselves in Chicago. In September 1891, the Pomys celebrated their silver wedding anniversary and were referred to as well-known Germans by the Chicago Tribune who reported on the celebrations: Hermann Pomy died in 1907 from complications of a surgery he had undergone a year earlier. Anna Pomy passed away in 1929 at the age of 84. Anna's obituary, published in the Chicago Tribune on November 29, 1929, gives us many interesting clues about their life. Apparently the Pomys survived the great Chicago fire of 1871, which raged in October 1871, and left about 30% of the approximately 324,000 inhabitants of Chicago homeless. 120 bodies were recovered, but according to the coroner, the death toll may have been as high as 300. And Anna’s obituary includes her photo, such a lovely surprise! How amazing that we get to see her face almost 50 years after my found photo was taken! But now let’s look at what became of little Hermann from our picture. Just like his father, Hermann Jr. joined the Freemasons. And the Compendium of Freemasonry of Chicago gives us a pretty good overview of Hermann’s accomplishments: Hermann Jr. married Harriet “Hattie” née Droney in 1892 and the couple had a son Hermann John Pomy (1894-1973), an officer of the US Army and a WWI and WWII veteran. Hermann Jr. passed away in 1931. I will add this photo to FindaGrave and FamilySearch and hope to make contact with the Pomy descendants and return this photo. How wonderful it would be if it made the journey back to where it was taken some 156 years ago!

This babe came to me with a name, but had the photo not been labelled with her birth date as well, I probably would have had a very hard time finding the pumpkin in the records. As you can imagine, there have lived tens, if not hundreds of Frieda Kleins in Berlin in the past! But because we know little Frieda Ella Klein was born on August 9, 1896, probably in Berlin, I had no difficulty finding her. Frieda’s father Joseph Klein was a saddler from Marienwerder, Prussia, who had married Frieda’s mother Bertha Josepha née Böhm in May 1896 in Berlin. I couldn’t find any siblings for little Frieda. Frieda married Georg Wilhelm Alois Kriesten on June 7, 1927 in Berlin. They were both relatively “old” for their first marriage – Frieda was 30 and Georg 39. Back in the day, a woman of 30 was pretty much a "spinster" and was considered way beyond her child-bearing days. We can see in their marriage record that Frieda was working at the time, her profession reads “Abnehmerin” which translates to someone who receives something, goods for example. Perhaps this might explain why for Frieda a marriage was not a priority in her younger years? Maybe she really loved her job and was really good at it and didn’t want to give it up too soon? Georg’s work title was a commercial clerk. Perhaps the couple met in the same company? This is of course all speculation, I love to imagine the reality behind their stories. Sadly, their marital bliss didn’t last long. Frieda was widowed in 1936, just days before the couple’s 9th wedding anniversary. Frieda herself lived a very long life and passed away in January 1992, just a few years shy of her 100th birthday. I don’t know if the couple had any children and if there might be descendants out there who might love this photo. I also don’t know how Frieda spent her remaining 56 years after she was widowed, if she ever re-married, what she worked as. I wish we knew more about the life of this little babe Frieda Klein Kriesten.