Photos Without Families

Some lives leave behind a wealth of documents. Others emerge only in fragments: an entry in a school register, a university record, an address in an old directory, and finally, a death certificate. Walter Eduard Jacob belongs to the latter category.

Alma Anna Christiane Auguste Blencke was born on December 9, 1873. Her father, Andreas Blencke, was a merchant and was 29 years old at the time of her birth. Her mother, Wilhelmine née Harms, a daughter of a merchant, was 22. The public family tree on Ancestry also shows Alma's parents - how much she took after her mother!

I began this search with great expectations - I had a full name - Marie Kasten - and a location - Friedeberg in Neumark, a date (April 22nd, 1904) and a hint that she had at least one brother, as this photo was dedicated to her sister-in-law, Gretel.

A simple piece of thin cardboard, typical of the 1870s. A faded yellow face of a toddler, a location Giessen, and someone’s handwriting in modern German spelling out Karl Geilfus.

The gentlest photographs are often those of first-time mothers with their beautiful babies. In them, you can almost feel the awe of wonder, the vulnerability, and the immense love. One such photograph shows little Elisabeth Homann at five months old, sitting safely in the embrace of her mother. The image was dedicated to someone on June 19, 1892, in Hannover, Germany.

What I love about this blog - besides all the beautiful old images - is the history I get to learn and explore while uncovering the stories of the people in these photographs. This particular photo led me down both familiar and unfamiliar historical paths, and I can consider myself a little richer in knowledge after writing this post.

This is such a sad, heartbreaking story, but I believe we owe it to baby Kurt to share it with the world. The photo is labelled “Kurt Karsunke,” and the note in German simply says:

A beautiful woman in white, elegantly holding a fan, gazes dreamily away from the camera - as if lost in thought. This was Eugenie Forster, captured in a moment of quiet introspection. She dedicated this photograph to a good friend in September 1896, in Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

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”

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 photo shows the Brinckmann siblings from Harburg: Franz at age 7, Victoria at age 5 and a half, and baby Anita at 6 months old.

This charming photograph, found in Germany, shows three brothers: Alfred, Emil, and Bernhardt Höhnig in 1872 in Bernburg, Germany.

According to the handwritten information, these were Herrmann Günther and his wife Wilhelmine Günther née Peters in America.

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.

Here’s Auguste Steger who had her photo taken in Mittweida, Germany, in 1896.

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 o

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 Ado

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 ha

This photo was a birthday gift to Agathe Gerbracht’s mother at Christmas 1890 in New York. The dedication on the back of the photo says in German: “Der lieben Mutter zum Geburtstage von Agathe Gerbracht Dec 25 / 90” I think the surname was added later (and thanks to whomever added it, otherwise we wouldn’t have found this woman’s story!) So I set out to find an Agathe whose maiden name or married name had been Gerbracht. How old do you think she was in 1890 when she ha

This photo came identified with the name of the person, the names of her brother and her father. I wish it also had a stamp of the photo...