Bigger Families; Faces From the Past

I first saw these photos on a blog called Celestial Charms .  When I asked permission to post them here the owner kindly said I could post any photo from her Flickr photostream!  Thank you so much, Maureen! I'll start with the the two photos that I found at her blog post, Thoughts on Victorian Fashion. As usual, please click on the photos to see them at their best.   First is a lovely photo of five little brothers from Canajoharie, New York.    Next is one of the same five boys with their two sisters and their parents as well.   They look like a pretty well-to-do family, and with all those boys there must have been a fair bit of mischief going on.  And with the girls, even more.  I can say this as my family is almost exactly the same in make-up, though spread out in age more than this one.   See Maureen's thoughts about the fashion and dating of these photos here at Celestial Charms--Thoughts on Victorian Fashion . Thank you, Maureen!

A man in our town (who has a number of the same Facebook "friends" as I have) posted this picture as his profile, and as soon as I saw it I asked permission to share it here.  He was very happy to let me post it along with the family's names and story.  Thank you, Ted! Please click on the photo to see it in better detail. Back, left to right: Margareta (Stremel) Gerk , unknown man, Jakob Gerk ,  Maria Gerk ,    Paul Gerk Front, left to right: Michael Kisser, Piada Kisser, Anna (Gerk) Kisser with unnamed baby, Anna Margareta (Rohwein) Gerk , Johannes (John) Gerk , Kristina (Rausch) Gerk with unnamed baby Jacob, Maria, Paul, Anna, and at least two others who aren't in the photo are the children of Anna Margareta.  I am waiting to hear whether Johannes/John is a child or grandchild, though with his hand on Kristina's lap and not Anna Margareta's, I presume he is a grandchild.  Margareta, Kristina, and Michael are daughters-in-law and son-in-law.  

I hope to get posting more photos soon.  I have dozens of them waiting.  It's a question of scanning, saving, organizing, uploading, writing!  I'm a bit ADDish and get stuck at one or more of the stages easily! This is a photo from an old issue of Our Canada magazine that I bought.  Love it! Click on it to see it full size.

Another recent purchase from Ebay.  Photographed by W.L. Evans, Brookeville, Indiana. Those fancy dresses must have been a HUGE amount of work to make!

Check out that sweet little baby belly button!  This is a photo I purchased recently.  Click to see big.  Beautiful!  The oldest three daughters are looking very pretty.  Unfortunately the seller has no idea who these people are; I sure wish I knew!

I love this picture of a family with great big smiles!  I wonder whether this is their farm and their horse, or maybe they were city folk who wanted their family picture done on the farm.  I tend to believe the former because a picture on a dude ranch or friend's ranch would probably be with more obviously western clothing accessories and background. Forget the polo shirt!   I bought the picture on Ebay and have no information on the family or where this was found or taken.  Of course, if anyone recognizes them, please let me know!  I'm not familiar with the trees in the background.  Perhaps someone can tell me what they are and they will be a clue to the location. As usual, click on the photo to see it full-size.  It is actually REALLY big so you may need to click on the enlarged picture another time if your browser sizes it to fit the page.

I recently bought a box of photos from an Ebay seller who told me that they were reproduced at the Toburen photo studio at Wausau, Wisconsin mostly during the 1960s to 1980s. Families in the 60s to 80s took their old family photos to the studio to be reproduced, and then never came back to pick them up!  I can't imagine that the studio didn't call to remind them, so I don't know why so many were never claimed!  There are some great images, I'm thinking particularly of one of an older couple from possibly the 1800s where the wife is smoking a pipe!  This wasn't a snapshot, but a posed photo from a studio, so the pipe must have been an object very near and dear to her!  Anyway, I will start posting some of the large family photos from this lot.  None of them have names, but some have order numbers.  Eventually I would like to find a way to find their modern families.  If anyone has an "in" with newspapers or local websites of Wausau who think this would b

I purchased this photo on Ebay recently.  On the back it says "Endlich family". Unfortunately, not one smile in the bunch!  Those little girls sure look alike!  Perhaps a couple of them are twins?  Or Irish twins (less than a year apart)?  The photo is in postcard format, and was given to Mrs Mary Brown.  Click to see it large.

This photo is from Ancient Faces, HERE. It shows the beautiful Robert and Callie Owens family.  The photo was taken in the year 1900.  Click to see all the detail.

These are more from my CD, mentioned here . Don't forget to click on the photos. Here's a lovely family with, it looks like, grandma visiting.  There's a cool plaid tie, and a couple of odd (to me) "bow ties" made of string.   Here's a lovely rural family with mom, dad, and seven children. I love the candid smiles and character.

These are from my CD, mentioned here . Don't forget to click on the photos to see them in all their beauty! The first one is obviously a posed photo with actors, but it still counts to me! Looks like Grandma is visiting...... A family with 12 lovely children. I wish I knew more about them. Were they as pleasant as they look? The dad in this photo looks just like my mom's younger cousin, our neighbour in my teen years. Oh, so CUTE!