• Posted on April 14, 2013 3:26 pm
    Judy Linnebach
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    This haunting photo was found in a Bible that originally belonged to my great grandmother Lena Wilhelms Kohler.  It was passed on to her only child, my grandmother, Emma Kohler Boll and then came into my family with Grandma Boll's death.  Grandma Boll recorded family information in this Bible for both her family and her husband's family so I hope that the pictures that were inserted in the Bible could be from both families also.  In 2010 I sent this photo in to Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective to see if it would interest her enough to write about in her blog for Family Tree Magazine.  I believe that it is a photo of my great grandparents John Boll and Barbara Platzer Boll holding my grandfather, Charles Matthew Boll, his twin? brother George, and maybe a third baby who did not survive long enough to be baptized with Charles and George 15 days after their birth. For one segment of Maureen Taylor's analysis of the photo see it    here .  My sole basis for this identification of the photo is because my grandfather's was the only multiple birth I have discovered in any of the family.  If this is indeed a photo of Charles Matthew Boll and his siblings, it would make sense that it would be found in a place of honor in his wife's Bible. Many people in the 1800's and early 1900's had professional photos taken as their only memento of a deceased loved one.  The collection of photos in Grandma's Bible includes several photos of obviously dead people.  Now, with the proliferation of cameras we have multiple pictures of all our family members, some people even have videos of their children's birth and in the case of a still born baby the hospital will take photos and the family often will also, even with their phones.  At the time of this picture people did not have their own cameras, they had to pack up and trek down to a photographer's studio or have a photographer come to their home.  It was not a casual thing.  The reverse side of this carte-de-visite size photo has an advertisement for the photographer.    Tobias & Co specifically addresses mothers and heads of families regarding the difficulty of obtaining "good and permanent Pictures of Babies"  and advertising that they have a patent on a new process to facilitate this. Maureen Taylor could not absolutely confirm a date for this photo because they are just wearing everyday clothing that did not change according to fashion trends. But, as I am writing this I have thought of 2 other avenues of research to pursue to better nail down a date for this photo. 1.  I will go back to the baptismal records and check the 15 days between the 8th of Dec 1883, their birth, and the 23rd when the baptism of Charles and George took place.  Possibly the 3rd baby was baptized immediately at birth because of his/her weakness or still-birth.  When the baptismal records were originally obtained, many years ago, I had not even thought to look for another birth/baptismal right around the same time.  My eye was immediately drawn to the one for Charles Matthew and I found it although the surname was Bohe rather than Boll (subject for another post sometime).  Lesson 1-  always look on pages surrounding your record, this especially applies when looking at Census records.   2.  I will research patents obtained by Tobias & Co.  If this patent was not registered until 1900, then it could not be on the reverse of a photo printed in 1883.  Now, care needs to be taken here because either the photographer could have applied for the patent, but not have had it issued already officially, but still advertised it as "secured"  or this photo could be a later reprint of a negative taken in 1883.    

    Boll, Kohler, Photos
  • Posted on March 19, 2013 12:51 am
    Judy Linnebach
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    Of all the places that your ancestors could have lived I would wish for you that they lived in St Louis!  I began my research there because St Louis was my family’s home for 4 generations. I now know just how fortunate that was!    There are many reasons why St Louis is one of the most research friendly places on earth, but the first and foremost is the work of the St Louis Genealogical Society.  Their members are among the leading genealogists in the nation.  I was fortunate to be able to attend all three of the Research Institutes that have been held to date and each one added so much more to my St Louis research skills.  Their website is www.stlgs.org and even without joining there is a wealth of information available.  For those with St Louis ancestors, the $35 annual fee to join is well worth it.  There are many databases that are accessible on the site and it is the first stop for those who want to know more about the home of their St Louis ancestors.  I searched  their Naturalization Records database for my great –grandfather, Valentine Pogorzelski and found the reference for the date and court where he became a citizen of his adopted country. With that information in hand I was able to search the correct film from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to find the actual document. I might not have found it so easily had I not searched on this more localized site because his name was indexed as Poyorzelski, his first name was sometimes Valentine, sometimes Walenty and a few other spellings also.  He renounced his allegiance to the “Emperor of Germany”  on  13 October 1892, so using Polish or Poland in my search would have eliminated this entry.  In fact when I first searched under Pogorzelski, even using the Soundex option, there was no entry for Valentine. There was however an entry for a Stephan Pogorzelski, which I looked at as you should always do, especially with unusual names.  There I found Valentine Pogorzelski testifying that Stephan Pogorzelski had come to the United States as a minor and had been there 5 years and so was eligible for citizenship. Now, I had another person, who was quite likely a relative, born outside the US. Following Elizabeth Shown Mills’ FAN principle (Friends, Acquaintances, and Neighbors) I have learned that one of the best tactics for “jumping the pond” is to get as many people as possible that could have come from the same place.  Even if your ancestor did not leave any records naming their birth village, maybe someone else did. Stay tuned for more articles about the many resources available for St Louis research.

    St Louis