For the last two weeks I’ve written about a photo owned by Judy Linnebach. It depicts a couple and their three triplets. In the first installment, Motherhood Times Three, I discussed multiple births in the 19th century. They were a lot more common than I thought!
In last week’s installment, Mother Hubbard, I provided information on the family and their attire. I forgot to mention that in the 19th century it was common practice to obtain photos of deceased children. In this instance, the family asked an experienced photographer to take a photo of their babies even though one of them was deceased.
Additional research on the family added a mystery. There were two surviving infants, but only one lived to be an adult. I wondered what happened to George Boll. Judy was able to send me a funeral card for him.
I don’t read German, so if a reader could translate the text and enter it in the comments, I’d really appreciate it.
If you want to know more about funeral cards, genealogist Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens has an online article on the topic. Geneablogger Dee Welborn has a great blog on these cards, Funeral Cards and Genealogy. Fascinating stuff! If you thought they were just death announcements, check out Dee’s site. You can learn a lot about your family from these seemingly simple cards.
Judy Linnebach also sent me a photo of an unidentified dead ancestor and a picture of a child who died from hydroencephalitis. If you want to see them, leave me a comment and I’ll post them.
In the meantime, please e-mail me photos of multiple births before 1900.
This entry was posted in 1880s Photos, Photo Detective and tagged children, unusual photos. Bookmark the permalink.
Hangs on the sadly desert wall!
Nobody take them anymore to the hand!
No longer do approach our ear!
Songs in the netherworld choir.
We stand before the throne of God.
I’d love to see the photos you mentioned!
Oh, and thank you to the commenter for translating the poem into English. It is a poignant poem indeed.
How beautiful the poem. Thank you for posting. It explains the forlorn look of the mother in the first photo.
Would love to see the other photos.
Thanks for the explanations and for posting the pictures. I feel for the mother if she had to hold her two babies along with her dead child for a picture. But, I guess without having their own cameras, there would be no way to remember the one that was lost. That poem is just lovely – I’d love to see the other photos you spoke of.
???? *????? ???? ?? ?? ?????????????