three Hedwigs and a baby

Every picture tells a story No. 32

As I mentioned in episode 22, Hedwig the milkmaid was persuaded into moving in with her in-laws as her husband was conscripted to fight in WW2. Her mother-in-law was also called Hedwig, and I am guessing that the third adult in this pair of pictures may be her youngest daughter, also called Hedwig (or Hede). I may be wrong, but the only other daughter of the family was married by then, and also quite a bit older, so that leaves young Hedwig as the most likely person to still be around.

So there were three Hedwigs in the house, and to make matters worse, all three of them also shared the same last name at that point in time, so all three were called Hedwig Gellrich. In my family history adventures, I always refer to people by their birth name to avoid confusion, so in my nomenclature we have Hedwig Scholz, her daughter Hedwig Gellrich, and her daughter in law, Hedwig Geppert. Much easier.

Here we have first Hedwig senior (and invisible granddaughter) with her daughter (or somebody else) hiding in the open door:

Then the two younger Hedwigs (NB Hedwig Geppert is confirmed, the other one is not) with the baby born 1941:

If you look at the leaves of the vine, the pictures were clearly not only taken at the same place but also at the same time.

This photo is also on flickr.

Every picture tells a story series so far:

1. string quartet Wuppertal Elberfeld 1927
2. greetings from Adamsweiler
3. Gastwirthschaft Ferd. Weirich
4. quartet times three
5. Neumühl 1923
6. Tangermünde railway station 1889
7. a singing lesson
8. bei Wilhelm Geppert
9. a bakery at Lorsch 1900
10. Consumgeschäft von Julius Düsselmann
11. Hanna and Ruth
12. a young chemist
13. school's out at Reichenstein, 1886
14. a patchwork family in East Prussia
15. the case of the missing grandmother
16. checkpoint Glaner Brücke 1929(ish)
17. finding Mimi
18. five sisters, five decades
19. happy at home
20. gone milking
21. steel workers
22. field work
23. what to wear at Porta Westfalica
24. a classic convertible
25. at the bottom of the steps
26. a forester's family
27. the Kaiser visits Allenburg
28. teaching the 'deaf-mute'
29. a guard dog called Schluck
30. party like it's 1956
31. the case of the mysterious uncle
32. three Hedwigs and a baby

Alternatively, you can use this twitter thread as an illustrated table of contents.

In a somewhat roundabout way, this series relates to my research for the family history music memoir I have now completed in a first version.