All my posts so far have been about my father’s side of the family.  Maybe it’s because I’m living in New York now, in what used to be a very German area, that I feel a particular connection to my old German family.  But I realize I’ve been neglecting some other quality family photos that come from my mother’s side of the family.

Example:

Great Granddad and Yale Drama

The dashing fellow in the center was my Great Grandfather, Robert Chesterfield, looking very serious indeed in his cast photo.  I have no clue what play this was for, but clearly being at Yale ca. 1900 meant that it called for men to dress up like women.

Those are some BAD wigs.

After helping my mother this past week with her “family” business, I thought it would be a good time to show you a different, older, family business:

Osceola Grocery in The Bronx

Great Grandfather August was first generation American, after his father August and his mother Elise immigrated from northern Germany in the early 1860s.  Growing up, he spent some time in Osceola, Nebraska, with his uncle, living in a sod house.  This lovely old New York grocery store was where you can now find yourself stuck in god-awful traffic on the Major Deegan Parkway in the South Bronx.

153 Lincoln Ave may now be a heating and sprinkler company, but the original building and window molding is still there…

So glad that every where you go in New York you can still find little remnants of Old New York.

There are two photos from Grandma Anna’s collection that truly stand out, but have no identification.  They are two old photos on metal plates of a girl and boy probably around 10.  After reading descriptions of old methods of photography on A.J Morris’ Site, I’m guessing that they’re tin-types.  But I don’t know if they’re from Germany or New York. All I know is it’s later than the 1860s.

The little boy could be my great-grandfather August or his brother William, who was born in Princeton, NJ in the 1860s.  His parents, August and Elise, emigrated from Oldenburg in 1861, and settled down in NJ.  When my great-grandfather was 7, Elise died from diabetes, according to the Hudson NJ medical records.  The 1880 Federal Census shows that they had another German immigrant, Bertha Schon, living with them as a servant.  I imagine she probably did most of the upbringing.  Great great grandfather August was a grocer.

If the other picture is August or Henry, then I fancy that this picture is their younger sister Agnes.  Those are some serious ears.

I do wish there were names on these mysteries.

Dad’s mom Anna Adeline grew up in The Bronx.  If she were still around she’d be 111 this year- we have big generation gaps in my family.

Grandma Anna liked to mark herself in old photos… possibly just in case she forgot.  Clearly, she’s the one with the blue pen mark.  I love the giant bow sticking out from behind her head, as well as the squinting eyes I managed to inherit from her.  And the glares.  Almost NONE of these kids want to be in this photo!

It’s nice to see that classic Old New York diversity in this picture that you always see in movies that take place in turn-of-the-century New York.  Certainly northern European, as my grandma lived in a German area, but it’s not as homogenous as many areas can be today.  Can anyone tell me what ethnicity the girl standing second from the left is?  I’m intrigued by her clothes and have to assume she’s not northern European.  And I love the intensity in her eyes.

My Dad’s side of the family German.  Like, really German.  So this gets in the way of figuring out old family photos, since I don’t read German.  Yes, this is something I should fix.  I should also, apparently, learn to read German from the 1890s, because I haven’t met anyone who reads German today that can actually decode the handwriting of my Great Grandmother Dororthea.

Family scuttlebutt is that the Burfeindts, which was her maiden name, were at one point part of the royal family based around Stade/Oldenburg, and G.Grandma’s family was disinherited due to her mother or other ancestor marrying beneath their class.  This could be absolute bunk, but it’s a nice family story, no?

Anyway, she wrote all her notes on photos in German.  Her handwriting is ILLEGIBLE.  Woman was out to give a headache to her great granddaughter. THANKS.  So this photo is either of her sister Adele, who was born in Stade in 1873, or of Adele’s daughter Agatha, who was born in California a little before 1900, in the coffee shop they owned.

From the clothes, etc, I’d say it was taken in the 1920/30s.  So the question- does this woman look like she’s in her mid 20/30s, or her 40/50s?  Grandma said this is Aunt Adele, but part of me thinks Agatha…