A Closer Look (Part 59)

Southwestern Lithuania, about 1912. This is Mr. Irene's Great-Grandfather Jacob.

Here's the original post.

A Closer Look (Part 58)

Southwestern Lithuania, about 1912. This is Mr. Irene's Great-Grandmother Agnes.

Here's the original post.

Purposeful

Suburban Chicago, 1965. Shortly after I posted today's "A Closer Look" photo, I came across this image. Tatjana asked my Dad to take this snapshot so she could send it to our relatives who lived behind the Iron Curtain. This picture reminds me of the original, 1912, photo on which I based the "A Closer Look" post.

A Closer Look (Part 49)

Tambov, Russia, 1912. I had not noticed the bow in the original post.

"We're having four vegetarians for dinner tonight."

Happy 100th Birthday to Julia Child.

Related by Marriage: The Young Women, Back Home

Southwestern Lithuania, around 1912. These are the sisters and cousins of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Anna's sister Emily, sits on the right, and sister Marta stands on the far right.  The staging of this snapshot—and especially the positioning of woven tableclothes as backdrops—suggest it was taken the same day as this photo of the immediate family.

Related by Marriage: Greetings from the Old Country

Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, was one of four daughters born to a modest couple who lived in southwestern Lithuania. We don't know the precise location of the homestead, but we believe it was an area on the Lithuanian-Prussian border because the family surname dervied from a German word.

In 1910, Anna and one of her sisters, Petra, emigrated to the United States. We are not sure why they left Lithuania. Anna settled in Philadelphia, where she lived with an upper middle-class family. We assume she worked for the family as a domestic. In 1915, Anna and Petra moved to Chicago, where they settled in Bridgeport, on the South Side. The young women assimilated fluidly into American culture.

Anna married Stanley in 1917, but her sister Petra remained single.

Anna and Petra remained in close touch with their parents and the two sisters, Emily and Marta, who had stayed behind in Lithuania:

Southwestern Lithuania, around 1912. The Parents of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, sit with the two daughters who did not emigrate to the United States. Left to right: Anna's Sister Emily, Anna's Mother Agnes, Anna's Father Jacob, and Anna's Sister Marta.

A Grandmother Who Wore the Pants

Tambov, Russia, 1912. This is my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana. Tatjana was about sixteen when she posed for this photo. I love the shoes!

Tatjana liked to ride horses, and she once broke a tooth when she fell off of a horse.

Although Tatjana grew up in Tambov, she attended university in St. Petersburg. There, she studied chemistry. After my family moved to the States, Tatjana lived with us. She used to do the cooking because my Mom worked at a full-time job. Tatjana collected her recipes in a classic, 1950s, Mead composition notebook. The notebook was black with white speckles, and it had a sewn binding. Tatjana added the chemical formulas for different ingredients in the margins of those recipe pages.