Mystery Ladies, Part Deux
A few weeks back, I shared some mystery photographs that I found among my great-grandparents’ things. Here are a few more of those lovelies.
As I mentioned earlier, some of the picture are from Hamburg, where Leo grew up, but a few are from New York and New Jersey, where Leo arrived as a young man of 21 in 1912, and where he and Margaret settled. The quality of the images is so exquisite — the paper is creamy, they’re mounted on durable (and seemingly acid-free) board, and they look as if they haven’t faded at all.
If you recognize anyone, please leave a comment.
I assume that these three women — Hedwig, Else, and Cläre — are sisters because they look rather alike. Hedwig signed the back the photograph.
I played with Google Translate for a while to understand the inscription from Hedwig. It seems to say something like, “To your happy memories” or “To commemorate happy memories.” This is only a guess, however — alas, I don’t speak German.
This intense young woman is identified only as “Chris” and the photo was presumably taken in 1945 at Studio Percenel in Brussels.
“In remembrance of August, 1938, with all my love, Chris.” Now I really wonder what happened in August of 1938!
There are two shots of this unidentified young lady, both taken at the F. Reimer studio in Hamburg, but at different times, based on her clothing.
Here’s the second, closer view. That hairdo must have been quite something to achieve every morning, and the eyelet lace she’s wearing is so exquisite.
This is my favorite of the mystery ladies. She looks as if she’s dressed for an adventure. Alas, there are no clues to her identity or where the photograph was taken.
In other news, I’ve been digging into that genealogy scroll, and I am in awe of what my great-grandmother Helen Hudelson Adams Yoder was able to achieve without benefit of the internet. I have no idea how she did it, but am so very grateful that she did. I’ve begun entering all the data into my own family tree and am discovering many fascinating things along the way — there’s fodder for about a million posts in there. The trick is going to be staying focused and not going off in ten directions at once. Squirrel?!?
Have a great weekend, People.
2 comments on “Mystery Ladies, Part Deux”
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If you are a Person of Pancho, have questions, clues, or want to use any images or writing from this blog, kindly contact me at peopleofpancho@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.
The People of Pancho 
When my husband John’s parents passed away we found a photo album that was jam packed with photos. They were all dated in his Mother’s hand, but put into this album in completely random order. A few had captions. They were glued in and I didn’t want to damage them, so I took it all to Kinkos and had them copy all the pages onto photo quality paper. I took the copies and cut each of the pictures out and put them out on the table in date order. What emerged from this was the story of the family’s beginnings in Sicily, New York, movement west to California and trips back to NY to visit family . I didn’t know who some of the people were or the events that the photos represented. I took the reassembled date order photos to every family member and asked them if they knew any information, the outcome was amazing. The best moment was when Aunt Mae who is 95 years old exclaimed, “That is my wedding day and I have never seen that picture!”She had tears in her eyes as she told me who each of the people in the photo were. This gave me the idea to create a family tree, not in the traditional format, but rather a linear timeline back through great-great-grandparents of my husband’s generation. I carried it forward through the next four generations to a LoFranco baby born April 28, 2014. I have shared this with all the family members (over 70 of them) and they were so thrilled to know information that would otherwise have been lost if it weren’t for that old album.
I love your pictures and story and look forward to reading more! Please say hi to Richard for me. I have such fond memories of our times together. Jeannie LoFranco
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What a phenomenally wonderful thing to do, Jeannie! I’ve met several heretofore unknown relatives through this blog, one of whom identified herself as one of the mystery children I posted a while back. Treasures need context in order remain treasured, don’t they? Thanks so much for stopping by, and Richard says hello!
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