This week I thought I would continue to write about unidentified
photos – this time from the maternal side of my family. But perhaps someone reading
this post will be able to give me a clue by looking at their uniforms. I am no
expert at uniforms but I am sure someone out there is.
All I can tell you about these men is that the photos were
all in the same photo album. It is an album which was put together either by my
maternal grandfather’s sister (so my great aunt) or perhaps her daughter, my
grandfather’s niece. She was my mother’s cousin, does that make her my second
cousin??? I always get confused. So, the Voronov / Woronoff side of the family.
Although some of the photos could be of the Shulkevitch family – my great aunt’s
married name. According to a note in the album, the photos were all taken in Russia
and China. During the Russian Civil War my grandfather’s sister and her family
escaped to Harbin in China, so that makes sense. However two of the photos have
dates in the early 1900s written on them, so I assume they were taken in
Russia.
The first photo (above) does have some writing on the back –
but it is in Russian and in a handwriting I cannot easily read. As far as I can
make out there is perhaps a name, followed by “brother of grandfather” and
dated 1906. Now here comes the tricky part. My great aunt’s grandfathers on the
Voronov side were brothers – yes her father (who was obviously also my
grandfather’s father) married his cousin. So, does that mean the man in the
photo was Nikolai Voronov – the only other brother?
However, as the photo was taken in 1906, perhaps it was my
grandfather’s niece who wrote on it, which would give us the pick of four
brothers – Peter, Alexander, Nicholas, Konstantin or Vladimir. I cannot decipher
the writing, nor can I even make an educated guess.
The next three photos are total unknowns. Only one has any
writing on the back, again I cannot decipher it but the date is 1909, or
perhaps 1902…
Unfortunately I do not believe there is anyone still alive
who can identify these photos for me, although I do know some people who could
probably read the writing.
It is frustrating to have albums of family photos which are
unidentified. But it also makes me wonder how, in this digital age, do we identify
all the photos we take? Will my boys end up with thousands of unidentified
photos on my phone and computer when I die? Let’s face it, will they really
have the patience to sort through all the random photos of plants, cityscapes,
food etc in the hope of finding one or two which are relevant? And I do not
take as many photos as other people I know.
What are your thoughts?
