Sisters Reunited - Sepia Saturday 766

Yesterday, opening another envelope of miscellaneous old photos taken by my grandfather, I found two of my grandmother Sally (in the middle above) with her sisters (+ brother-in-law) that I can't recall  having seen before. But they were obviously taken on the same occasion as the portraits below of my great-aunt Gerda proudly wearing a medal - previously posted on this blog in a post entitled Gerda's Medal, for Sepia Saturday 634, in August 2022.

That post was about my research to try and establish when and why Gerda was presented with that medal; and my conclusion was that it was probably after 30 years of service to the countess Estelle Bernadotte. Estelle was American (born Estelle Romaine Manville, 1904). She got married to the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte in December 1928; and  Gerda - by then 47 years old and an experienced lady's maid who had worked as such not only among nobility in Sweden, but had also lived in both America and France, and was well used to travelling - got  employed as lady's maid to Estelle from shortly before their wedding; and ended up staying with that family the rest of her life.

If Gerda got the medal after 30 years of service, that dates this photo to 1958. An alternative might be if she received it in connection with her 75th birthday, in 1956. (She was born in 1881, and lived to be nearly 92 years old.) Either way, it seems that shortly after Gerda was presented with this medal, not only did she visit my grandparents Sally and Gustaf, but they also managed a reunion with all four sisters still alive. 

The woman next to Gerda here must be her sister Ester, who was born 1876 (five years older than Gerda), and died in 1959. (So this may even be the last time they got together.) The one standing in the middle behind Ester is Hildur (born 1892) - older half-sister to Sally on their mother's side, and step-sister to Gerda and Ester. The man to the left is Hildur's husband Olle. (They lived only a few minutes walk away from my grandparents.) And to the right, my grandmother Sally (born 1900). 

Below to the right is a double portrait of Ester and Gerda together from their youth (some time before Gerda emigrated to America in 1902); and to the left, one of Ester on her own (obviously some years later, but I don't know the year). 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 766

I ett kuvert med foton märkt "efter 1930" fann jag två foton som jag inte kan påminna mig att jag sett förut, men som uppenbarligen måste vara från samma tillfälle som andra foton av min farmor Sallys halvsyster Gerda Ekman med samma medalj, sittande i mina farföräldrars vardagsrum. Jag har tidigare spekulerat kring dessa och årtalet för och anledningen till medaljen, i ett inlägg från augusti 2022, Gerda's Medal. (Text där på både engelska och svenska.) 

De nytillkomna fotona ovan visar att även Gerdas och Sallys äldre syster Ester Ekman, (1876-1959), var med vid den här syskon-träffen. Detta bekräftar väl också min teori att Gerda troligen fick medaljen antingen år 1958 efter 30 år i tjänst hos familjen Bernadotte; eller möjligen i samband med sin 75-årsdag två år tidigare.

Med på gruppfotona här är också min farmor Sallys halvsyster Hildur (1892-1964) och hennes man Olle Hellsten, som bodde bara ett par minuters gångväg ifrån mina farföräldrar. (Hildur var dotter till Sallys mor Selma från hennes första äktenskap; medan Gerda och Ester var döttrar till Sallys far Samuel Emanuelsson från hans första äktenskap.)

Greetings from Lake Geneva, Wis. (Sepia Saturday 736)

 

To: Mr Gustaf Ekman, Galeton, Box 342, Potter Co, Pa
From: Gerda (sent from Chicago, Jun 9, 1908)

Käre bror! Undrar hur du mår. Jag är nu på landet, detta är platsen som jag arbetar, men den är så otydlig. Du väntar nog på bref, jag skall snart skrifva. Här är så vackert, jag önskar du vore här. Jag har just varit och badat i sjön idag. Kära hälsningar frän syster Gerda. 

Dear brother, I'm wondering how you are. I'm now in the countryside, this is the place where I work, but it [the picture] is very blurry. You will be waiting for a letter, I will write soon. It is so beautiful here, I wish you were here. I have just been to the lake for a swim today. Love, sister Gerda

To: Mr Gustaf Ekman, Galeton, Box 342, Pa.

From: Gerda (Lake Geneva, Wis, Jul 23, 1909)

Käre bror! Jag är nu på landet, och jag har ej hört någonting från dig på så länge. Jag undrar hur du mår. Jag mår fint. Jag minns ej om jag skref till dig innan jag lemna Chicago, så kanske är min tur. / Här är förtjusande vackert, jag önskade du kunde komma hit. Jag kanhända lemnar här nästa vecka. / Min adr. är c/o Mrs Seipp, Lake Geneva, Wis.

Dear brother, I'm now in the countryside, and I haven't heard from you in so long. I'm wondering how you are. I'm fine. I don't remember if I wrote to you before I left Chicago, so perhaps it's my turn. / It's charmingly beautiful here, I wish you could come here. I might leave next week. / My adress is c/o Mrs Seipp, Lake Geneva, Wis. 

After a few shorter employments in Chicago, my great-aunt Gerda ended up working in the household of a well-known physician, Otto L. Schmidt. (Among other things, he was prominent enough to be one of 25 citizens to have his name engraved on The Illinois State Archives building in Chicago in 1938.  He was also the first physician in Chicago to use X-rays.) His wife was Emma Seipp, daughter of a wealthy Chicago brewer, Conrad Seipp. They were both of German heritage; and had three children: Ernst, Alma and Clara.  

I have written about them before on this blog (some of the posts not linked to Sepia Saturday). For example, you can read more about Otto L. Schmidt in a post from September 2012, and about his wife Emma and the Seipp family in a post from April 2021. 

Here, I'll just repeat that it seems the Schmidts (and at least some of their servants) used to spend the summers at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where Mrs Schmidt's mother had a house - or even two. An article I found online says that the Seipp family built a summer home there in 1888, and after the death of Conrad Seipp, his widow (Catherine Orb Seipp) added a rather large and more modern "cottage" in 1905 - "to also accommodate her large and growing family".

I have also come to the conclusion that the two photos below of Gerda together with other servants were probably taken at Lake Geneva, on two different occasions. My guess is that both these photos show the summer staff at the Lake Geneva houses, consisting of Mrs Seipp's own servants +  those that Mrs Schmidt brought with her from her own household in Chicago. (In case you are wondering, Gerda is standing in the middle of the top row in the first photo, and sitting down on a tree stump or a rock in the second.)

The second postcard above (with the boat) shows the residence of a Mrs. Otto Young. I also found an article about Otto Young and his stone manor. It seems that Young was another German immigrant who arrived in New York in the 1850s, worked his way up in business (involving jewellry and real estate) and ended up very rich. He had a stone manor built at Lake Geneva, and died there in December 1906. I suppose that after his death the manor came to be known as the residence of his widow - and so named on this postcard.

To finish off this post, I recently noticed two more postcards of residences along Lake Geneva, Wis.,  in Gerda's collection of unwritten cards. I have not yet done any research on those names - maybe I'll return to them some other time... (I'm already late with this post as it is!)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 736

 

On the Beach - Sepia Saturday 733

 

This is a photo from my great-aunt Gerda's album. Those who have been following this blog for a while may remember her. She was an older half-sister of my grandmother; and a lot of this blog was based on her postcards and photos. She emigrated to America in her youth, worked her way up as lady's maid and travel companion to wealthy ladies, and from 1928 onward ended up working for Estelle Manville-Bernadotte, married to the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte (related to the Swedish royal family, acting as diplomat during WWII, and tragically assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948. 

Gerda's photo album is in no particular order and without notes about names or dates. My best guess is that this photo shows Gerda together with a great-niece of hers, in the mid/late 1940s - probably on holiday on the west coast of Sweden? To me the sand dunes look rather typical of beaches in the province of Halland. If my guess is correct, Gerda would be around 65-68 years old here. (She lived to be 92.) I know from postcards she wrote back in her youth that she loved to swim/bathe. 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 733

Walking About in the Alps - Sepia Saturday 699

Six unwritten postcards from my great-aunt Gerda's collection. I think they are probably from her years in France during WW1, when she sometimes travelled with her employer (still Unknown to me) in the south-east of France and stayed for a while at various mountain resorts there. How far up in the alps she ever walked herself, I'll probably never know! 

The Vanoise massif is a mountain range in the Western Alps and the third-highest massif in France. Nowadays Vanoise is a national park. 

(M.030.01)
1422. - Le Lac Rond et le Col de la Vanoise

(M.030.02)
2366. Sommet du Jovet (2563 m.)
- La Mer de Nuages et les Glaciers de la Vanoise

(M.030.03)
1426. Col et Massif de la Vanoise - Refuge des Lacs

    

(M.031.01)
Massif de la Vanoise - Cascade de la Fraiche (a waterfall)

(M.031.02)
1976. Le Mont Blanc (4820 m.), vu du Bréven

 

Mont Blanc, the "white mountain", located on the French-Italian border, is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.

(M.031.03)
3063 - Zermatt - Vieux Mazots

Zermatt is in the Swiss Alps. Gerda did cross lake Geneva over to Lausanne in Switzerland during the war years (I think more than once); but how close she ever got to Zermatt or Mont Blanc (either back then or later), I don't know. She might just have bought postcards of those two places. As there are more cards from Vanoise, my guess is that she saw some of that area, though.

The Chicago Portraits - Sepia Saturday 695

Among my inherited family photos, there are also some portraits that I don't recognise as "family". Taking a closer look at some of those for this month's Sepia theme (portraits), I noticed a bunch  of rather large ones in paper frames from the early 1900s or so that were from studios in Chicago. This suggested that they must have belonged to my great aunt Gerda (older half-sister to my grandmother Sally), who lived in Chicago c. 1903-1910, working as a maid. So likely to be of people she knew back then... 

For SS 636 (2022-08-27), I wrote a post based on the addresses on postcards sent to Gerda while she lived in Chicago. They show that during the first years she changed employers rather frequently, but from around December 1906 and until she returned to Sweden, she remained living on the same address: 3328 Michigan Avenue. Thanks to the American census of 1910, I also know who she worked for there: A Dr Otto L Schmidt with wife Emma (born Seipp), both of German heritage; at the time with three children in their teens: Ernst, 17, Alma, 15 and Clara, 14. At the time of the census, besides Gerda they also had three more white female servants (from Austria and Germany); plus a 'mulatto' chauffeur with wife and two children. Dr Schmidt was a rather prominent citizen of Chicago, and his wife also belonged to a well-known and wealthy family there. 

At the bottom of this post, you will find an image from the census, plus links to a number of earlier posts where I've written about Gerda and her time in Chicago and with the Schmidt family. 

Anyway - my first thought about the Unknown portraits I was looking at now was that they might be of fellow servants that Gerda had been working with. However, at least one of them did not seem to fit that theory: A child portrait.

 

Putting these two photos side by side, not only do they come from the same studio, and have the same background - but to me, it also looks like the woman and the child may well be mother and daughter. So I'm beginning to wonder if this could actually be Emma Schmidt with one of her daughters (a bit earlier than 1910, as the girl looks younger than 14). 

The double portrait below comes from the same studio but with a different (updated) logo. I also think the two young women look like sisters - and that the one on the left could be an older version of the girl in the portrait above. Could they be Alma and Clara Schmidt? 

Next, a portrait of a young man - not from Chicago, but from Palm Beach, Florida. At first, it made me wonder if there had been a "special man" in Gerda's life during her time in Chicago after all, even though I have not really come across anything else pointing to that.

 

Then I put his photo next to that of the two young women, and now I couldn't help but think I see a family resemblance between all three of them. So what if he's actually Ernst Schmidt?

(Another curious fact, by the way: there are two identical copies of the girls' portrait...)

Trying to verify my guesses, I searched online for photos of the Schmidt family. There are quite a few available at the website of Wisconsin Historical Society, in a collection named "Black Point Estate and Seipp Family Papers". (I.e. Emma's side of the family.) These all seem to be subject to copyright, though, so I won't include any copies here. But here are a few links if you're curious: Ernst in 1912. -  Alma in 1906. - Otto and Emma in 1891.

There are no copies of the same portraits that I have though - so hard to be sure. (Btw, searching for photos of this family, it's also rather confusing that they seemed to like naming their offspring after close relatives... Emmas daughters, for example, were named after her own two sisters, also called Alma and Clara.)

For now, I will assume that the portraits above are indeed of Emma Schmidt and her children. Maybe some day I'll get it either confirmed or disproved - that has happened before with theories I've come up with in this blog!  

Then there was this portrait below, which seemed somehow familiar... But where from??

It hit me after a while that she must be the woman 2nd from the left in the photo below, standing next to Gerda (in the middle). And this (I have concluded earlier) must be from the Seipp/Schmidt families' summer residence(s) at Lake Geneva - probably a group photo of staff from at least two households, "joining forces" while there.

 

I think she's also the friend posing together with Gerda in the studio photo below; which makes me assume that she too was a servant in the Schmidt family household in Chicago. Probably one of the two from Austria - but whether Maria or Amalia, I dare not guess. (Both a little older than Gerda, according to the census of 1910.)

And at last, below, two more Unknown photos. They look to me like they could be one and the same woman, though, even if I don't know her name. Unless something turns up to provide more clues, I'll assume her to be another servant colleague of Gerda's. (The portrait to the left is from Rockford, Illinois - so could be someone she worked with for a while in Chicago, but who either came from, or moved on to, Rockford.)

The 1910 census from 3328 Michigan Avenue (the handwriting a challenge!)

Links to previous "related" posts of mine about Gerda, the Schmidt family, and Chicago:

1910 US Population Census (2012-08-31)

Otto L. Schmidt, Gerda’s employer in Chigaco 1910 (2012-09-03)

The 1933 Chicago World's Fair (2012-09-04)

***Lake Geneva (2021-04-24) (where the family had their summer residence)

Changing My Theory About a Photo (2021-05-08)

Chicago Then and Now (2022-08-27)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 695

 "head and shoulder portraits"

Family Portraits - Sepia Saturday 694

This portrait of  my great grandfather Samuel, born 1835, is the only one of him that exists. The sign he is holding says "Lord, increase our faith". Back in childhood I always wondered why, and I can't recall anyone ever explaining. (Possibly they did not know either.) He was a farmer and a merchant; not a clergyman. However (thanks to research done by one of my dad's cousins), much later I learned that Samuel was involved in the founding of a local free church in 1884. Then he was 49 years old, which seems to fit with this photo.

Back then, he was still married to his first wife, Anna Sophia. She died in 1894. (There is no photo of her.) Together they had 9 children, born between 1866-84. Two died in childhood, and another (at age 31) in 1899, before my own grandmother was born.

In 1898, Samuel got remarried to my great grandmother, Selma (born 1861);  she also a widow, with a young daughter. There is no wedding photo or other portrait of Samuel and Selma together either.

This photo of Selma is probably from her first marriage - or even earlier. Her first husband was younger than her; but died when their daughter Hildur was only two years old.

Together, Samuel and Selma got two more children: my grandmother Sally (born 1900) and her brother Nils (born 1902). Samuel died in 1907 (72 years old) and then Selma was a widow again, now with three young children. She did not get married again, but remained living on the farm with her step-son Carl (single), who had taken over the running of the farm already around 1903/4.  

In the census of 1910, two separate households are listed for the farm: Selma and her children (probably at the time living in a separate cottage) counted as one family; and Carl, his brother Gustaf (recently returned from eight years in America) and their sister Ester (housekeeping for them) as another. Later on, it seems that Carl, his stepmother and her children all lived together in the farmhouse, though. 

Selma (born 1861) and her sister Ida (born 1865). Not sure which year, but my guess is c. 1917. 

Ida and her husband Gustav  in 1908
(the year actually printed on the photo!)

 

My grandmother Sally (born 1900) and her half-sister Hildur (born 1892 in Selma's first marriage). Same studio background as in the photo of Selma and Ida. Could be from the same occasion.

Hildur, Selma and Sally, around the same time as well. (Compare Hildur's bow tie here to the one Ida is wearing in the first portrait.)

Another studio portrait of Sally and Hildur
 - a few years later, I think.

Sally's half sisters on her father's side, Ester (born 1876) and Gerda (born 1881). Must be from before Gerda emigrated to America - 1902 or earlier.

Ester, a bit later in life (year unknown)

▲Gerda with a friend, from Chicago (1902-1910)▼
LEFT: Gerda to the right - RIGHT: Gerda to the left

Gerda returned to Sweden in 1910/11, but soon went abroad again.

Gerda in Lyon, France, 1913 (or 15?)

Hildur, Gerda and Sally. My guess is that this was taken on Gerda's return from France in 1919 - after the end of WWII.

Gustaf, born 1878, also emigrated to America in 1902, and returned in 1910. The portrait above is from Port Allegany, probably 1903. The photo below is one I just recently found and realised that it must be Gustaf to the right. It's printed on American postcard paper (but not written on) so I'm guessing that it must be from his later years in America. I don't know who the other two men are.

Once back in Sweden, Gustaf did not go abroad again. He helped out on the family farm for a while; then moved away to work elsewhere in Sweden (also with farm work); then returned again to help out at the family farm - and took over when his older brother Carl died in 1928. But I think the farm was sold after Sally, Nils and Hildur all got married and moved away - to do with distribution of inheritance.

Carl, Selma, Hildur and Sally 

Hildur, Selma and Sally, probably summer 1930

Nils, Sally and Selma

("when big hats were the fashion")

Linking to Sepia Saturday 694 - Portraits