Contributed by Bob Trout
Here is a picture of my great-grandfather, Albert H Gessner. He was a police officer for Allentown, Pennsylvania. I believe this photograph was taken about 1885.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
Contributed by Ward R. Bray, Amherst, New York
This is a photo of my great-grandparents’ (Fred and Lizzie Brandt) family who lived in the Village of Tonawanda, Erie County, New York, between 1891 and 1944. Tonawanda is the western terminus of the Erie Canal. Fred and Lizzie Brandt settled in the Village of Tonawanda around 1890, soon after giving up his way of life–as a canaler on the Erie Canal. Competition from the new railroads and the new Erie Barge Canal in the late 1800s made the canal life obsolete. Fred then worked as a carpenter for the Herschell-Spillman Company, making carousels, or “Tonawanda machines,” as they were known then. This photo was taken around 1907.
Center – Elizabeth Brandt (nee Wasmund) born Pomerania, Germany, 1864
Upper right – Her husband, Frederick Henry Brandt, born Pendleton Centre, 1864
Upper left – Their son, Earl Brandt, born 1893
Lower left – Their daughter, Minnie Augusta Johanna Brandt, 1891
Second from right – Their daughter, Pearl Brandt, born 1896 (notice the chicken she is holding)
The other two ladies are not related to me. They may be friends/neighbors, Minnie Harder and Augusta Rodgers.
I love these photographs!
What wonderful treasures!
I don’t have many photos of my family and really love looking at all the ones included here. I make sure to see if any of them could be connected to me………..maybe, someday I will find a treasure to add to my family.
Thanx to the families that contribute/share and to Ancestry for including them.
Nannette
I love looking at the pictures because one of these days I do hope to see a family that I might know or be related to in some way. I did submit a picture at the beginning of this year. I have not seen it. The picture was “landscape” and I figured that is why it has never been posted. All the pictures that are posted have been “protraite”. However I have seen recently a few pictures that are of landscape. How do you pick which pictures you post? Maybe you could show more pictures at different occasions. Anyway, I did find a picture of “protraite” so maybe I’ll try again. Please remember I really enjoy viewing the picture that everyone sends in. Please keep posting the pictures. Thanks, Anna
It was great to see the police photo. My family were miners who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1849 – initially in Chester County but later lived in Allentown. Does anyone have any photos of coal miners in Penn from the early days of photography in the mid 19th century? Occupational photos are a wonderful way to get a feeling for how people lived 150 years ago. NB I sent in one of my Gt grandfather in his pulpit – like his 4 brothers, he also started life as a miner (aged 11 in the 1941 Yorkshire GB census). Like Anna’s photo, I haven’t seen it either! Thanks, Liz