A nice collection of old photos was donated to me in Hamburg recently. There were only a few photos in the lot that were labelled with names, and I could determine these 5 RPPCs to have belonged to one family Stoffers from Blankenese in Hamburg, Germany – my hometown! This photo of a couple in love is of Willy Stoffers and Frida v. d. (von der) Heide, who got engaged in April 1918 in Dockenhuden, Mühlenberg, which lies within the city limits of today’s Hamburg. I can understand the somewhat concerned expression on Frieda. They got engaged in the last year of WWI, but noone knew how long the war was still going to last when this photo was taken. Will she ever get to marry her dear Willy, or would she be widowed before she gets to say “I do”? I’ve got good news for you – Willy Hinrich Johannes Stoffers and Ida Frieda Emma von der Heide were married on November 21, 1919, in Blankenese in Hamburg. Their marriage record reveals some valuable information. Willy had been born on June 3, 1894, in Mühlenberg, Dockenhuden, to parents Claus Carl Wilhelm Stoffers and Wilhelmine Dorothea Margaretha née Suhl, both from Blankenese. Willy was a fisherman, just like his father. Frieda had been born on March 27, 1896, in Bitter, Bleckede, in today’s Niedersachsen. Her father Johann Heinrich Wilhelm von der Heide had been a seaman. Her widowed mother Marie Dorothea Elisabeth née Gabriel was living in Bitter at the time. One of the witnesses to their marriage was a bridge keeper Wilhelm Stoffers, 49 years of age, from Blankenese. I’ve identified him as Willy’s father, but about him a little later. Four of the photos in the lot are field post RPPCs from WWI. One of them is labelled “My brother Willy”. Willy was the one holding the shell. The second one was signed by Willy and addressed to Miss Helene Stoffers, living at 5 Panzer Str. in Mühlenberg, Hamburg. The stamp reads November 18, 1916 and the RPPC was sent from Wilhelmshaven. It says, “Dear sister, sending you a photo of our squadron. Best regards, your brother Willy” There are so many clues here! Firstly, the address in Panzer Str. Secondly, Willy was in military service in 1916, so we might find a military record for him. And thirdly, Willy had a sister Helene back home. I did indeed find one military record for Willy. In August 1916, he served with the Infantry Regiment No. 163 in the 2nd company and his whereabouts were unknown. He was missing in action. I can imagine the relief of his sister Helene when she received this life sign from him in November! I have not been able to find his sister Helene in the records. I wonder if she was much younger and her birth records are not public because of the data protection laws in place in Germany. I might have to pay a visit to my local archives to go through the birth books myself. But I did find two other sisters for Willy. Margaretha Anna Elise Stoffers had been born on August 2, 1898. Sadly, she passed away just a little less than a year later. Willy’s other sister Dora Magdalena Stoffers had been born on July 11, 1896. She gave birth to a son Paul Stoffers in 1915. She married Erich Menge in March 1919, her brother Willy served as one of their witnesses. But the couple divorced a year later. She re-married a fellow divorcé Curt Anton Böger. I don’t know if the couple had any children. Magdalena was widowed in 1934. She herself passed away in 1981 in Diepholz. What became of her son Paul, I don’t know. The good news is I don’t find him among the fallen of WWII. Paul got married in 1943, but that is all I’ve been able to find out. The third field post RPPC of a squadron peeling potatoes was addressed to Miss M. Stoffers in the same address in Panzer Str 5 and it reads, “Dear Lena, sincere regards from your father in enemy land. I am fine, I hope you are too. Your father. See you at home”. The stamp reads November 25, 1916. So, this RPPC was received just a week after Willy’s. So many new clues again! It looks like, both Willy and his father Wilhelm were in the Army during WWI. Willy’s father Carl Claus Wilhelm Stoffers had been born on September 2, 1870, so in 1916 he was 46 years old, probably one of the “older” faces in this RPPC. He came back from WWI, as did Willy. Father Wilhelm passed away of heart failure at 70 years of age in October 1940. On his death certificate, he is referred to as bridge keeper. I’m quite sure that the addressee of this RPPC, “Lena”, was Willy’s sister Magdalena, who in 1916 was living in the same address with her sister Helene (and probably their mother) and taking care of her 1-year-old son Paul. And the last RPPC is of Willy: It was signed by him and sent to his parents from Ostende in Belgium in June 1917. Interesting how someone has used the photo to do some math calculations on it. Paper must have been scarce :). I was not able to find out if Willy and Frieda had any children. Willy passed away at just 39 years of age on September 15, 1933, in Blankenese. But before I close, let me tell you a little bit about where Willy and his family were from – Blankenese in today’s Hamburg. 200 years ago, Blankenese was Danish and it was Hamburg’s biggest competitor for what one would call fish industry today. Located directly at the river Elbe, fishing was the life of so many Blankenese families for centuries, including the Stoffers as you could read above. Men went to sea, and women often worked in the fish processing industry which surely was one of the least lucrative jobs at the time – it stank, women worked long hours and they were paid a quarter of what men would get for the same job. At the beginning of the 20th century, the fishing industry of Blankenese and Altona began to decline; in the 1930s Blankenese became part of today’s Hamburg. The fish market hall of Altona still stands in Hamburg today, as a reminder of the golden days of fishing on the River Elbe. But why don’t you come and see for yourself what a beautiful city Hamburg is today – it is definitely a bucket-list-worthy travel destination! See you here! Source: ©fotos-hamburg.de

I found this wedding photo in Estonia. Mihkel Otsanen dedicated this photo to his friend Johannes, so I assumed Mihkel Otsanen might have been the groom. Mihkel was a handsome groom, don’t you think? He might be looking a bit uncomfortable in his suit, he probably wasn’t used to wearing it very often. The detachable collar looks freshly starched, but his suit might have been borrowed for the occasion. It looks very heavy and of warm woolish material for a spring wedding. His bride rocks the early 1920s wedding style. She didn’t wear any jewelry. Instead, she has decorated her dress with mistletoe for good luck and fertility, as was common back in the day. Estonians love their genealogy and many build their family trees on Geni.com. So that was where I looked first and I found a match! According to the public family tree, our groom, Mihkel Otsanen, had been born on November 21, 1896. His bride, Ida Pauline Leetsmann, was 9 years older than Mihkel, born on February 28, 1887, to parents Kustav and Anno Leetsmann. The couple got married on May 16, 1921, in Rägavere, Estonia. So they were 27 and 36 when this photo was taken. On February 6, 1922, their daughter Anna Otsanen was born. While the Leetsmann family has been pretty thoroughly researched, there was not an awful lot of information on Mihkel Otsanen. His father’s name was Kusta or Gustav, but nothing more about his parents or possible siblings, or place of birth. Estonian archives are for the most part digitised, it is soooo much fun to do genealogy in Estonia! You have access to church books and census lists online (for free!), there are also search engines for surnames, etc. But strangely, nothing came up on Otsanen. Otsanen is a common Finnish surname, I wondered if there was a connection to Finland I was missing. And then I hit the genealogy jackpot! I came across an application for Estonian citizenship by Mikkeli Otsanen from June 1921, including a photo of him! Link: Saaga Mikkeli Mattinen Otsanen had been born on November 21, 1896 in Soikkala in the region of Ingria which lies between Finland (at the time of his birth an autonomous part of the Russian Empire) and today’s Russia. He changed his first name to Mihkel to sound more Estonian; in documents in Russian his name was Mihhail Matvejev. Mihkel mentioned in his application that he had been serving in the Estonian Independence War as a member of the Estonian Army for two years. His father-in-law Kustav Leetsmann supported his application and added that since Mihkel had married his daughter Ida Pauline, he was going to bequeth his farm to Ida and Mihkel and with that Mihkel had financial security to support his family and remain in Estonia as a loyal citizen. The application was approved and in December 1921, Mihkel Otsanen was naturalised as an Estonian citizen. Mihkel died in August 1941. Ida Pauline outlived her husband by more than 30 years. She passed away in 1976. And now I was curious what happened to Mihkel at just 45 years of age. I suspected the worst… 1941 was the year of severe Soviet repressions and torturings as well as deportations to Siberia. I wondered if as a farm owner, a naturalised citizen and an Independence War veteran he might have been at risk for all of the above. Sadly, that was the case. Mihkel was murdered in his home village by the occupants in 1941, as I found on page 593 of the Memento Book no. 3 (These are Estonian books of lists of citizens who were imprisoned, deported or executed by Soviet occupants). Mihkel and Ida’s daughter Anna, barely 20 years old at the time fled from Estonia in the same year. She and her daughter Eha ended up in a refugee camp in Munich, Germany, before emigrating to the United States as displaced persons after WWII. She unfortunately already passed away as Anna Holmes in 2003. I hope to make contact with Anna’s descendants. And here we are, history repeating itself at its worst. Innocent men, women, children are being executed in their home villages by the same guns in Eastern Europe as I write these lines. Families separated, forever changed. Same methods are used by the occupant – brutality, torture and deportations. Every Estonian family can relate. Rest in peace, Finnish man who died for Estonia.

This was one of the very first tintypes I ever bought. Got this one from The Rescued Photo (check them out on Instagram, Etsy and on their blog!). I was so intrigued by this Victorian lady’s interesting outfit – the kind of a shawl fabric as an overcoat (or cape?) and the “flowerpot” hat that might have even been open on top with her locks flowing freely (it’s hard to see in the image). She also seemed have worn a bigger ring on her ring finger (but it looks larger than a wedding band would?). Her expression is so fierce and she is not in front of the camera to show off her newest lacey robe. Nope, she means business, she has no time to spare, she won’t even take off her coat. There is an identification printed on the reverse of the tin image. It says “Edith R. Young”. Was this her name, or the name of the female photographer who took the image, or maybe they were one and the same person? I’d like to think that! The “flowerpot” hats became fashionable in the late 1880s. I find it hard to guess the age of the sitters in old images. She could have been anything between 20 to 35 in my opinion. Perhaps she was born in the late 1850s up until the late 1860s? Perhaps she was Edith Bird Adams, born in August 1865 in Belmont, Mass. After her mother Josephine Richardson’s divorce from Edith’s father Alfred A. Adams, Josephine adopted her 2nd husband’s surname for herself and her daughter Edith. Starting from 1872, when her mother married M. Harwood Young, Edith was referred to as Edith Richardson Young in the historical records. What brought the family from Waltham, Mass. to Seattle, Washington. after the Census of 1880, I don’t know. But by 1892 the Youngs had made Seattle Ward 2 their home. Edith never married, instead she devoted her life to teaching. She studied at the University of Washington in 1894 and graduated from the Seattle Kindergarten training in 1897. In 1901, she applied for a passport, but unfortunately the application did not include a photo. That would have been awesome to compare if she was our Edith in the image! I’d also love to find Edith on passenger lists to see what she needed the passport for. Edith died in October 1925 in Seattle at the age of 60. The passport applicant’s description would fit our Edith pretty well, too: Of course, this is a long-shot and most probably my wishful thinking that we’ve found the right Edith. So I’m taking my liberties with this tintype image, just to see what options we have. If you have any other ideas or clues, or comments about her outfit, please let me know! I’d love to uncover this fierce lady’s true story!

“Oma & Ed Matthews, Charlie Wilkersons sister” Edward Matthew and Oma Wilkerson got married on February 26, 1898, in St. Clair in Missouri. Perhaps this photo was taken on their wedding day. Nancy Vioma “Oma” Wilkerson had been born on October 3, 1878, in St. Clair. She was 20 years old when she married Edward Matthew. Ed was almost 10 years older, he had been born on February 22, in 1868. He was a railroad section foreman. Don’t you think that this gentleman looks a bit like Phil from Modern Family? Phil was never not smiling, though. Ed here seems to have been the more serious type. Ed was one of the 8 children of carpenter George W. Matthew and Mary Jane née Turner. Ed’s siblings included William, George, Molley later Mathieu, James, Joseph, Charles and Robert Matthew. Vioma was one of the nine children of farmer Thomas Kelly Wilkerson and his wife Nancy Jane née Copenhaver. Oma’s siblings included, besides the mentioned Charles “Charlie” Levi Wilkerson (1871-1941), Benjamin C., George, Hannah later Hudson, Marsha Inez later Crawford, Allis B., Laura T. later Hickman and Odessa M. later Green. Vioma’s father passed away in 1900 at just 53 years of age, leaving behind mum Nancy Jane to take care of 5 of their still underage children. Perhaps Oma and Ed helped her carry that burden by staying with her in the same household in Polk, St. Clair. Oma and Ed went on to have six children: William Lawrence (1900-1986), Andrew B. (1905-1982), Elsie V. later Zumwalt, John D. (1911-1999), Atha later Harper (1914-1987) and Ida May later McKaughan (1918-2009). As US was sucked into WWII, all three of Oma and Ed’s sons were drafted. And the youngest child, daughter Ida May, enlisted voluntarily in the Women’s Reserve Company! Looks like all their children returned safe and sound, settled down and blessed Oma and Ed with lots of grandchildren. Hoping that some of them might still be out there, or have genealogy appreciating descendants who might miss this photo. Ed passed away on January 18, 1961, in Peculiar Township, Cass County, Missouri. And Oma was reunited with him 4 years later, on May 17, 1965. They were both buried at the Orient Cemetery in Harrison, Cass County, Missouri. Her obituary, published in The Clinton Eye of May 25, 1965, describes her as a cheerful person with a good sense of humour. Oma loved fine work like embroidery. Maybe you own a pillow or a doily she stiched? Link: newspapers.com I have added their photo to FindaGrave and to FamilySearch.

This tiny portrait shows Myrtle Marble Moore in the first decade of the 20th century. Myrtle Mary Marble was born in December 1883 in New York. Her father Charles Alanson Marble (1848-1931) was a farmer from Alabama, and together with his wife Frances née Walker (1851-19146), he had 8 children, born within the span of 26 years! In 1900, the whole lot was living together in Sparta, Livingston, New York. In 1910, Myrtle was 26 years old and working as a servant. Myrtle married Frank Wilber Moore on June 22, 1916, in Livingston, New York. She was 32, an “old spinster”. Thank goodness times have changed! By 1920, the couple had moved to Ossian, Livingston, New York, with their three children: sons Lynn Wilbur Moore (1917-2003) and Dwight Donald Moore (1919-1962), and daughter Hazel Mildred Isaman (1920-1989). And the 1930 Census finds Myrtle and her loved ones in Birdsall, Allegany, New York. Husband Frank had taken up a farmer’s position at the general farm. As WWII broke out, all men of Myrtle’s family got drafted. That must have been very tough for Myrtle, as a wife and a mother. All the men returned from service. Looks like son Lynn never married or had any children. In 1950, Lynn was living with his brother Dwight, his wife Marion and his children Donna and Sandra in Perry, Wyoming, New York. Myrtle’s daughter Hazel married Glenn B. Isaman and the couple with their 3 children were living in Grove, New York, in 1950. Myrtle passed away on March 14, 1948, in Grove, New York, and was buried at South Sparta Cemetery in Livingston. I wish I found an obituary for her, so that we’d know more about her, about her character, her interests and hobbies, more than just the dry facts! I’ve added Myrtle’s photo and the link to this blogpost to FamilySearch and FindGrave.

I found this photo in an antique store in Estonia. I grabbed it cause it was identified, but I didn’t think much about the person or his name. It was only after I showed it to my mum that she said “Niksi” would stand for Nikolai and he might have been the famous café owner. And she was right! I am too young to remember him, so as I googled his story, I also came across several other photos of him and his café. Link: Saaga Nikolai “Niksi” Kultas (1908-1995) is known in Estonia as the trail blazer of modern day cafeteria culture. Nikolai had a law degree, but he might have inherited his love for baked goods from his father Anton Kultas, a baker by profession. It was the combination of his international education and perfectionism, his spot-on business acumen and his love for good coffee that paved his way to success. He opened his first “Kultas” café in central Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, on February 2, 1937. Kristy Kultas-Ilinsky private collection It was a café like nothing seen in Estonia before! The waitresses spoke several foreign languages, international customers could often order in their mother tongue. Customers could read a variety of local and international newspapers while enjoying 70 different types of cakes and 12 different coffee blends. You could send a letter or a telegram from the café. Businessmen arriving early morning by train to attend business meetings in Tallinn could have their suits pressed while they had their breakfast. The café was a popular venue for literature and artsy events and they often played live music. The reputation of his cafés is still legendary. And that without serving even one drop of alcohol, mind you! Link: GoodReads Nikolai married Agnes Vildo, and in 1937, their daughter Kristi was born, son Rein-Erik followed in 1939. The above is the cover photo of a biography about the Kultas family, published in Estonia, showing Nikolai and Agnes, daughter Kristi and the building that housed his café. In 1940, the Soviet occupants nationalised all private enterprises. During the 1941 June deportations, thousands of Estonian politicians, military, academics, land owners as well as businessmen like Nikolai Kultas found themselves in cattle wagons on the way to Siberia. If they were “lucky”, they made the many-thousand-mile-long trip and were reunited with their families. Others were executed in the torturing chambers of the Soviet prisons. Although Nikolai and his wife Agnes made it to Siberia together, their 2-year-old son Rein-Erik didn’t survive and died on the way. While Nikolai, his wife Agnes and their oldest child lived far away in the most terrible conditions in a Siberian work camp, Nikolai’s now state-owned café was renamed “Moskva” (“Moscow” – how original…) and continued as a café and a restaurant after WWII, of course now following the reglements of the Communist idealogy… Nikolai was released from Siberia in 1960. After returning to Tallinn, his dreams had been shattered by the new regime. For the next 20 years Nikolai worked as a film developer in a photo lab, a new skill he had learnt in the work camp in Siberia. I wonder if he remembers this photo of him from 1932? It might have been taken during his years spent at Tartu University, as a member of the Sakala fraternity. I am happy that he could witness the re-independence of Estonia in 1991. He passed away 4 years later, in January 1995 in Tallinn. The cover photo of him on his biograohy shows him in the late 1980s in front of the “Moscow” café that once used to house his own café “Kultas”. Link: Vaimuvara

Happy Wedding Wednesday! Today we have a lovely couple – Heinrich & Betty – whose wedding day was on September 14, 1921, in Ludwigslust in Germany. And eventhough the dedication does not mention the couple’s surname, I was lucky to find their marriage record on Ancestry according to which they were Heinrich Clemens Müller and Betty Emma Sophia née Saffan. Heinrich had been born on December 11, 1895, in Boppard, Germany. And Betty’s parents Adolf Friedrich Heinrich August Saffan and Maria Hermine Auguste Schmidt welcomed their daughter Betty on June 12, 1900. Betty lost her father early in life, before the age of 15. By then, she and her mum had moved to Ludwigslust where she was confirmed in the local church in 1915. Heinrich was a man of the law, he served as the district court judge (Gerichtsaktuar) according to the marriage record. I don’t know if the couple had children. Heinrich died on August 28, 1984, in Ludwigslust. Betty outlived her husband by 15 years, and passed away at almost 100 years of age on September 13, 1998, in Bad Kreuznach.

These two photos came to me from the United States, and upon receipt I was happy to discover that the young ladies shared the same surname – Emma and Minnie Kline – and both had had their photo taken in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Could they have been sisters? The answer was not hard to find – yes, they were sisters! Mamie Minerva “Minnie” Kline and Emma Kline were daughters of tin smith Alfred L. Kline (1868-1954) and Mary Elizabeth née Reppert (1867-1931), who had got married in July 1887 in Lehigh, Pa. The sisters had four older siblings – Bertha J. Kline Heinly (1888-1962), Charles H. Kline (1889-1966), Marcus F. Kline (1892-1953), William C. Kline (1894-1917)), and a younger sister Lillian M. Kline Robbins (1902-?). In 1900, the Kline family was living at 441 8th Street in Allentown, perhaps in this house: Now in more detail about the two sisters: Mamie Minerva “Minnie” Kline was born on February 27th, 1897 in Allentown. When she was 18, she married Albert Erwin Bechtel. Their wedding took place on April 17, 1915, in Allentown. Source: newspapers.com Albert was a machinist with the Bethlehem Steel Co at the time. On May 13, 1916, they had a son Harrison Alfred Bechtel. In 1917, Albert was drafted to serve in the US Armed Forces because of WWI. After he returned from service, the family was reunited and in 1920, they were living in Allentown in the house of Minnie’s father-in-law Arthur Bechtel. Sometime between the Censuses of 1920 and 1930, the family changed their surname from Bechtel to Beers. I have not found out the reason for it or when exactly that was decided. Everyone in the family – Albert, Minnie and son Harrison – all went by the surname Beers from then on. Minnie’s husband Albert passed away in April 1936 of acute pulmonary edema. In August 1936, Minnie married William R. Morris in Manhattan, NYC. She divorced him 3 years later. In the same year, on March 18, 1939, Minnie married her last husband Walter C. Horn, who was a widow and 20 years older than Minnie. Walter was a clerk with a steel company and had 3 grown-up children at the time of his marriage to Minnie. Source: newspapers.com Unfortunately, Walter passed away in 1945 of hypertension and Minnie was once again widowed. Strangely though, she was not mentioned on Walter’s death certificate as current wife. I wonder why. Minnie’s busy love life has left me very puzzled for sure ! Minnie passed away in 1951 and was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Allentown. Minnie’s only son Harrison Beers married Margaret L. née Guth in 1939. In 1940, Harrison was drafted due to WWII. In 1942, his son John Albert Beers was born. In 1945, Minnie’s only grandson John Albert passed away at just 3 years of age. In 1963 Harrison was widowed. He must have made the decision to leave Allentown and move to Puerto Rico soon after his loss. He married Raquel Maria Casas Lagueruel in Puerto Rico. He died at the age of 56 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico of heart disease. Source: newspapers.com Emma Kline was born in 1899 in Allentown, she was a life-time resident of Allentown. Emma married George Dewey Fenstermacher on July 12, 1919 in Allentown. Source: newspaper.com Before her marriage to George, Emma was working as a clerk and George was employed as a metal worker with Motor Car Company. By 1930, George had changed professions and was working as a teacher at a public school. Their son Earl Ronald was born on October 5, 1923. I found a 1942 yearbook photo of Emma’s son Earl “Fensty” on Ancestry: The photo was taken in the same year that Earl graduated from Allentown High School and was drafted to the Navy. The heartache mother Emma must have felt, sending her teenage son into war. Fortunately, Earl returned in 1943. Shortly after his return from service, he married Frances née Lawrence in 1946 in New Bedford, Pa. His application for veteran compensation from 1951 states the names of their children: 1. Gretel Frances Fenstermacher 2. Mary Ann Fenstermacher 3. Earl William Fenstermacher Emma passed away on September 27, 1972 and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Allentown. Source: newspapers.com So we know that there are no direct living descendants of Minnie. But I wonder if any of the grandchildren of Emma might still be alive today? They were all born after 1946, so that should be very likely. Please let me know if you are related to any of siblings of Minnie and Emma Kline or to Emma’s children, the Fenstermachers!

This Miss Cat Eyes was (is?) Sharon Elaine Bullard, born on September 25, 1943, in Stanislaus, California. Her papa Arthur Edward Bullard was from Alberta in Canada, a cement work contractor. Her mama was Mildred Yvonne née Powell, from California. Sharon’s sister Barbara was 3 years older, and these two photos were originally part of her estate. In 1964, around when these photos of Sharon were taken, Sharon attended the Stalislaus State College in Turlock, California. You will recognise her in the group photo by her cat eye spectacles (seated 2nd from right). 1964 Yearbook Sharon married Robert Elden Edwards on July 9, 1972, in Los Angeles. According to the Encyclopedia of the Seventh-Day Adventists, Robert E. Edwards was an ordained minister and served for the longest period as a member of the Voice of Prophecy King’s Heralds Quartet. I don’t know if the couple had any children together. Bob had kids from his previous marriage. Sharon was widowed in 2004. I wonder if Sharon might still be out there? Help me find Sharon Bullard Edwards, possibly still living in California!

UPDATED – I received some new information about the Schoedels from one of our amazing readers, so I’ve adjusted the text below accordingly. Oh how I love this community, thank you for your feedback and help! I bought these photos and RPPCs from German ebay a while ago. Only after they arrived by mail, I discovered that they were all identified and of one family. I’ve been trying to piece together their story, but haven’t had much success. The records for this town are not digitised, so not accessible on my subscribed genealogy platforms. Doing genealogy in Germany can be a strenuous and expensive hobby… Asking someone in the archive to look up someone’s birth or death details can cost between 20-30 euros every half hour… Well, enough ranting done. The photos include lots of valuable information we can work with: Please meet family Schoedel (also Schödel) from Münchberg, Germany. These are husband Fritz and wife Johanna. Johanna’s maiden name was Reichel. Fritz and Johanna had a daughter Marie, who later married someone with the surname Streitmann. Here you can see a photo of three generations of women in the Reichel-Schoedel family – granny Therese Reichel, mother Johanna and daughter Marie. There are also two RPPCs among the photos. I cannot unfortunately read the date on the stamp, but judging by the fashion, these were sent before WWI. The first one shows Johanna, Fritz and Marie with an unidentified woman and girl in Bad Schachten in Lindau, an idyllic town at the Bodensee Lake in Germany. The second RPPCs was probably sent from the same trip, written on their last day of holidays. Both RPPCs were addressed to Johanna’s mother Therese Reichel in Lugwigstr. 10 in Münchberg. When I first began my research, I realised that the surname Schödel is a household name in Münchberg. One Fritz Schödel (1886-1966) owned a textile factory Friedrich Schoedel AG in town for many years. He was even appointed the title of an honorary citizen of Münchberg for his contributions. But then I saw a photograph of him and can rule out that he was our Fritz Schoedel. My only clue was that the addressbook of Münchberg from 1950 lists one Johanna Schoedel as a widow of a company proxy holder, living in the same address the above RPPCs were addressed to. So was our Fritz Schödel related to the manager of the textile company and was he working as legal proxy for him? Was Fritz in this case short for Friedrich? So I published the original blogpost with this little information. And then one of our readers contacted me with a marriage record for Fritz and Johanna! That marriage record had such a domino effect as it revealed so many new details! Friedrich Karl Schödel (or Schoedel as handwritten on the photos) was born on March 18, 1876, in Münchberg, to parents Johann Schödel, city treasurer, and Johanna née Rothermund. Johanna Maria Sophia Reichel was born on October 3, 1879, in Münchberg. Fritz married Johanna on September 16, 1902, in Münchberg. Now that I had their birth dates, I could check for more records. Fritz’ military records from WWI, available on Ancestry, confirm his birth date, name of his wife and his profession prior to WWI. We can also see his parents’ names and that Fritz only had one child (we already know that his daughter’s name was Marie). He served in the Landsturm-Infantry Batallion of Straubing III B 11. We can also see a reference that he somehow participated in the defense of His Majesty King Ludwig III in July 1916. From April till December 1918, Fritz was stationed in Estonia and Latvia (territories referred to as Livland in old German records) as part of the police force of the occupying forces. One of the witnesses at their marriage was one Karl Reichel, a bookbinder by profession. I dug a bit deeper and found his military records from WWI (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3) which say that he was Johanna’s older brother, born on March 30, 1878. He was married to Wilhelmine née Wenzel. The military records also reveal the name of Johanna’s father Heinrich Reichel, who was a bookbinder. I ended my original blogpost on a very pessimistic note, and even though I still don’t know the whole story, including when Fritz and Johanna died, when Marie was born or got married, who her children were, I am soo happy about these new details about the Schoedels!

These lovely people were Olga and Andreas Kaugver. Andreas Vilhelm Karrofeld was born on May 16, 1894, in Kurtna, Estonia, to parents Jüri Karrofeld and Maria née Otto. His early adult years were spent working as a labourer for a manor house in Russia. After WWI, he returned to Estonia and became a clerk-accountant. Olga Lukina Tinnuri was born on September 29, 1895, in Kihlevere, Estonia, to parents Juhan and Minna Tinnuri. Andreas Vilhelm Karrofeld and Olga Lukina Tinnuri married on October 23, 1920, in Haljala, Estonia. On February 25th, 1926, the couple’s only son Raimond was born. In the 1930s it became popular to change German-sounding surnames into more Estonian-sounding ones. Surnames had been given to Estonian peasants (serfs) by their German masters at the beginning of the 19th century. That’s why many surnames sounded very German. The dislike for Baltic German superiority peaked in the 1920s and 30s which resulted in a new law that gave the citizens the right to change their surname if they so wished. In 1937, the Karrofelds changed their surname to Kaugver. In 1939, as a result of the Secret Protocol to the Non-Annexation Agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Estonia was “handed over” to the Soviet Union for “friendly” annexation. Of course, by 1941 the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were in war with each other, and Germany invaded the territory of Estonia. The Soviet Union answered with extensive bombings all over Estonia. In one of those bombings on Rakvere in 1944, Olga died of her wounds from shelling. She did not live to see her 50th birthday. At the same time, Andreas and Olga’s son Raimond Kaugver, who had just graduated from high school in 1942, fled to Finland in 1943 and joined the Finnish Army in the fight against the Soviet occupation. When he returned to Estonia a year later, he was soon arrested by the Soviet occupants under the notorious Soviet Criminal Code article of “treason”. After 1,5 years in prison Raimond was sent to a work camp in Vorkuta in Siberia. He got the permission to send letters to his father Andreas and his first love Sigrid back in what had become the Socialist Republic of Soviet Estonia. He was released 3 years later and returned to his loved ones. Raimond Kaugver It took more than a decade before Raimond Kaugver became one of the most popular and the most published writers of Estonia. His work is what you would refer to as Estonian Classics. His experience in the Soviet work camp, the physical and emotional torture and humiliation, the pain he had endured and the heartache from losing his mother to war, left a strong stamp on his future literary work. His letters to his father Andreas as well as to his first love Sigrid while in Siberia were later published as books alongside his many novels, collections of short stories and radio plays. He passed away in January 1992. Raamatuvahetus His father Andreas passed away in January 1972 in Rakvere. He never re-married.

I purchased a photo lot on eBay in 2018, with most photos bearing absolutely no clues as to the identities of the photographed persons. One of the photos, though, had an inscription on the back, saying: “Martin Krawielitzki & Emmi Spieß, engaged couple, 1924”. I did a quick search on Ancestry and found out that Martin August Wilhelm Eugen Krawielitzki, born in 1896, married Amalie Mathilde Emilie Spieß, born in 1899, on June 16th, 1925 in Nürnberg, Germany. Martin was a pastor, and an author of several religious books. He died in 1975. I couldn’t find much on Emmi. The couple had a son Gottfried Ludwig Hans Siegfried Krawielitzki in 1937 who died only 7 years later in 1945. They didn’t seem to have any other children. I recognised the same persons in another group photo and with the help of the internet could identify further members of the family Krawielitzki. The group photo shows the parents Theophil Krawielitzki and Thusnelda née von Kolkow, the sons Martin und Hans with their wives, and an unknown deaconess (perhaps a daughter, but I don't know). I had not heard of this family before, but the Krawielitzki family was apparently a pretty well-known name in the theology circles. Father Theophil Krawielitzki was a renowned clergyman in Marburg and at the turn of the 20th century, the Head of the Hebron Deaconess Mother House. His other son Hans Krawielitzki was a politician and unfortunately sympathized with the National Socialist Party in the 1930s and 1940s of which he was later officially denacified. According to Wikipedia, he most probably emigrated to the United States. I wonder if there are any relatives out there who'd love to keep these photos with the family.