Saturday, January 7, 2017

Hermine, die tüchtige Näherin


The family is gradually sorting itself out. Today I picked up one of my family's 1920s photo albums. Sadly, as is so common, the pictures aren't labelled with information as to who's who. Years later, someone's inked in mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, Fred .. but I know who they are: what I want to know is who are the other folk in the snapshots? There's Onkel Fred, and Onkel Max, and Minna and her lawyer husband Richard Stern ... and oh golly! Look! Here's Hermine. The wedding-dress maker. Labelled! So she obviously remained an integral part of the family...


So there's my father, his Onkel Max, Nana Rudi .. front row Minni, my great-grandma Stojetz-Baumgartner and the mythological Hermine! Not really one of my direct family, but the daughter of great-great-grandad's second wife. Yay! One more down!



Hang on, who is Minni? Not Minna Stojetz: they're BOTH in the next photo. Sigh. You solve one question, and another presents itself ...

So, Onkel Max is alive in 1923. And here he is at Easter 1926 with Marie Stojetz ...


There's another question. My father told us that Max died in Hungary 'between the wars'. Yet one day, I guess, in the 1960s, I distinctly remember Rudi saying 'I shall write to Max' ... Mother heard it too ... is this something else we were not told ... is there another mystery here?

And what's this? A schoolgirl's autograph book. Rudi's. Begins in 1894 with Vater, Mutter, Grossmutter, Tante Hanni ... who????

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