UPDATE: There is an update posted on this mystery photo.
We’ve been doing a bit of cleaning at my grandparent’s house recently, which has caused us to come across a lot of new family photos from my maternal side. This comes as a double-edged sword as there are some amazing old photos, including a very old photo album filled with late 19th-century, early 20th-century photos, but most of them are not labeled. I hope to spend some time with my grandfather and run a few of them by him, but he may not remember anymore.
There was one neat, large family photo that we found. I had no idea who it was. Then, I noticed a few things on the mother in the photo. She looked strikingly similar to my great-great-grandmother, August (Luedtke) LAST. Though, I only have more recent photos of Augusta and she lived to be 100, so her age changed her appearance quite a lot (as it does to us all.) But, there were certain things about her face in both photos that matched up quite well. Here is a quick comparison image I put together.
One of the few things I noticed was her mouth, how both of them are very straight across. Then, I noticed the nose. Both have a bit of a ball on the tip. The last thing I noticed were the ears. Augusta seemed to have ears that landed in the “larger” category and both women also have these. It’s tough to match the eyes as her age has caused some problems around that area, but they do look similar. Her forehead and hairline match up quite well. The only lingering issue is when I look through the list of children I have and try to match them up with the children in the photo. They don’t line up quite right.
Here is the complete family photo with the children listed below. I’ve tagged the children from oldest to youngest based only on how old they look in the photo. Click for larger version.
Family Group Sheet for reference.
- The couple’s first child was John, born in 1885, whom is probably child #2.
- Their second child was Emma, born in 1886/1887 whom is probably child #1.
- Their third child was William, born in 1888, probably child #4.
- This is where it goes off the rails. Their next children were Ida and Helena, twins born in 1889. I don’t see any twins in the photo and their both recorded as having lived until at least 1969. The next child of that age range would be child #3.
- The next child would be August, born in 1891, whom may be child #5.
- The next 3 children either died not long after birth or at a date unknown, Bertha, Charles, and Freida (1893, 1894, 1897) so I assume they’re not in the photo based on this info.
- That would make child #6, Madora, my great-grandmother, born in 1898. Though, she always had dark hair, but I know hair can change as kids grow, so who knows.
- #7 and #8 don’t really even line up unless we can work out the previous issues.
I guess the moral of the story is to label your photos. I’ll keep you updated on anything more I figure out. I’ve already sent the photo to some descendants of Helena that I connected to via 23andMe to see if they notice any similarities.
