No inscription. Cabinet card from Louis Gamer, Omaha. These children are Petersens but could be Omaha kids, or offspring of Petersen relatives who remained in Schleswig-Holstein, or even Petersen relatives in Sandusky, Ohio. It was possible to copy cabinet cards but it should have been labeled..

Bessie Legare Melchers of Charleston, South Carolina about 1917. She was the youngest daughter of Louis Melchers (son of Theodore Melchers and Helena Müller) and Minnie Eugenia Reeves.

Alfred Gohr with his younger sister Valeira, about 1914 in Chicago. Looks like they were photographed during the winter season.

There really was a paper moon and you could pose on it in the 1930s. Marie Petersen (left) and her daughter Louise found an opportunity for a unique photo in Chicago about 1935.

Lawrence Petersen, son of Peter Heinrich Petersen and Martha Krohn Petersen, about 1927 in Milwaukee. He died a year later of pneumonia. He looks so much like his dad. Wonderful portrait.

My mother Lorraine feeding her dog Muffy while the visiting Jatho family from Chicago in 1950 admires her enthusiasm. The Jathos were my mother's in-laws. From left: Lorraine, Ruth Schallanberger Jatho (wife of George Jatho on the right), George Jatho Jr. and his wife Dorsey Trumblay Jatho.

New Orleans brothers in 1932: Kenneth, Joseph Charles, and Edgar Jatho posing in their New Orleans front yard. An older son, Norwood Jr., was not pictured. They were sons of Norwood and Adelaide Gadpaille Jatho, our cousins.

My aunt Marie MacLaughlan and her beau Walter Miller Ronchitte, Chicago 1941. Walter dropped Ronchitte and used Miller after high school. He's more Scottish than we are (we aren't at all), born in Glasgow, Scotland, as was his father. He also had Irish and possibly Italian ancestry. A sweet photo.

A gorgeous portrait! Little Dorothy Glawe and her older sister Mildred, about 1916 in Chicago. The were my maternal grandmother's nieces.

My mother claimed that great-uncle Rudy Gohr spent his life sitting on the front porch catching flies. Census records refute this tale. Rudy was a pressman in a printing operation and was a regular visitor to all his sisters in Chicago, particularly Anna, whose daughter is in the background here.

My family isn't known for musicians but these folks seem to be having a great time playing. This trio includes Maggie Müller Campbell (grandchild of Rev. Louis Müller of Charleston, South Carolina), her husband Wade Hamilton Campbell, and an unnamed accompaniest. This was probably taken about 1905.

"Those aren't your memories, they're somebody else's." Love "Blade Runner" but now realize it's a genealogical movie. Yes, dystopian, & humans vs. replicants trying to control their savage nature, but Deckard has a nice collection of vintage photos. They love their pictures, that love connects them.

My only Irish connection is by marriage. Theresa, Owen Patrick, baby Lizzie, and Mary Murphy, photo by the Mann Studio in Bangor, County Down, Ireland in 1886. Their family emigrated to Chicago a year later. In 1909 Owen married my great-grandmother's niece Emma Hasse in Berrien County, Michigan.

A pretty bride: Karen Marie Johansen, a Danish lass, about 1889, married my great-grandmother's younger brother Andreas (Andrew) Petersen. The ceremony was in York County, Nebraska but they settled in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I love her jewelry, especially the then-popular diamond crescent collar pin.

This 1940 census for my Jatho clan in Charleston SC has some significant errors. William Magwood's wife was Pauline, not Georgia. Seven year old Simon Magwood was listed with his aunt Olga [Jatho] Quin, he was not Simon Quin. Sisters Georgia and Maryliesse Jatho are properly enumerated, however.

A birthday outing to our local garden center resulted in a few new additions to the morning room houseplant collection: Streptocarpus, Cape Primrose. These are cousins of African violets and do well in the same conditions.

A majestic house finch displays his colors at the bird feeder today.

Here's one way to keep a toddler in place for a portrait: give her a cookie! Audrey Torpie was about one year old in this 1928 image from New Orleans. In 1943 she married Joseph Charles Jatho and became a member of our New Orleans Jatho clan.

It's like a painting but it's a photo. This was my great-grandmother Jennie Müller Jatho's cousin, Marie Emilia Melchers, daughter of Theodore Melchers and Helena Müller Melchers of Charleston, South Carolina. Marie was about 17 here and married William Hummel Messervy a few years later.

My mother was ready for a night on the town about 1942 in Chicago. She was quite a glamor gal.

Until this photo was cleaned up I had no idea that my dad was standing in a hotel ballroom around 1937 with a champagne flute in his hand. The original photo is so foggy that you can't tell where he was. What was the occasion? A 21st birthday party? Some other family celebration? Who can say?

Two versions of the same baptism from original and duplicate parish records. Johann Julius Kramp, 63rd child born in Klein Massowitz in 1831, a younger brother of my 2x-great-grandfather Friedrich Heinrich Kramp. We see calligraphy and spelling variations but one backs up the other very efficiently.

This lady northern cardinal anticipates an early dinner on a day where the temperature barely reached twenty degrees Fahrenheit. The detail of her feathers is gorgeous. She doesn't know that she's an Internet star.

Emerging from the fog of time! Margaret Ann Welling Reeves of Charleston was the mother of Minna Eugenia Reeves Melchers, the girl with the faraway eyes that I posted a few days ago. This portrait is probably from about 1870. Some details have disappeared but she still has a calm, peaceful visage.

Seeds have arrived, plus a nice new catalog. I can't plant the seeds for a month yet, otherwise they'd be ready to plant out before the weather is right for them. But it's a nice way to anticipate the future gardening year.

So symmetrical! This photo detailed the 1920 marriage of my great-aunt's younger brother Albert Kruschke of Eau Claire, Wisconsin to Emma Wendt. The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram tells us that the color scheme was white and pink and that there were over 100 guests who attended the wedding supper.

This bluejay has an all-knowing look.

Minna Eugenia Reeves, Charleston, became a member of our Melchers/Müller clan when she married Louis Alexander Melchers in 1887. The studio portrait captured Minna with a far-away gaze and a slightly disheveled hairstyle, but she was much more conventional decades later pictured with her husband.

This is only the third-ever photo I've seen of my great-uncle Louis William Jatho (older brother of my grandmother Marie Jatho MacLaughlan), seated at right along the kids' row. His wife Martha Kruschke Jatho, wearing a black dress, is standing behind Louis. Early 1930s in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

This young lady is Louise Catherine Schmidt, daughter of my great-aunt Marie Petersen and her ephemeral husband George Henry Schmidt. Louise posed for her confirmation in Chicago about 1934. Beautiful paper photo frame too.

So many birds this winter. This is a female northern cardinal but we also have male red cardinals, chipping and song sparrows, house finches, and black-eyed juncos. Lots of seeds for everyone.

This gold-topped cane was a Christmas present from Pauline Jatho Foster to her husband Marcellus Preston Foster in Charleston, 1887. Pauline, born in 1854, was the daughter of my great-great-grandparents G.W. Jatho and Elise Schuckmann Jatho. Marcellus was an attorney in Charleston and Atlanta.

Paul has beautiful paws.

My gerat-grandmother Catherine Petersen had an older sister, Helena Petersen Burmeister, who remained in the town of Sillerup in Nordfriesland. Helena and her husband Fritz ran the Burmeister Guest House in Sillerup and Helena was the hostess. This is from about 1895.

This male northern cardinal gives us the option: front view vs. side view.

I was curious why there seemed to be a gap between the births of Sören Hansen Mikkelsen (1843) and younger brother Thomas Mikkelsen (1850). No gap, just 2 more children unaccounted for: Christian Mikkelsen (1845) and Sophia Margaretha Christine Mikkelsen (1847). We have more descendants to explore.

All I've ever had of the Mikkelsen brothers was a photocopy of a lost original group photo. My husband has been doing some impressive restoration on this image, it's really stunning. Thomas Mikkelsen (standing), and his seated brothers Søren and Casper, circa 1885 in Leck, Nordfriesland.

Author Jane Austen was born on this date in 1775, baptized a day later in Steventon, Hampshire, where her father was the parish clergyman. For someone born 250 years ago Jane has had remarkable staying power.

I find this young lady fascinating but I don't know who she is. She's from a Jatho/Gratz family collection of photos in Chicago (my grandmother was a Jatho). The headdress looks 1920s but it could be dated much later if she was wearing an heirloom veil. Anyone want to identify her?

It's a cold day with lots of snow, but this song sparrow stopped by for brunch and a portrait.

First night.

I wasn't sure who would be the subject of our 500th online photo, but it ended up being the Petersens, of course, the family that I most wanted to know about. sakionline.net/family-folio...

We have begonias, croton, camellia sinensis, brunfelsia, and cyclamen in the greenhouse but tonight's temperature will be 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius!). The greenhouse heater can't handle that so the plants are going to spend a couple nights in the basement where they'll be warm.

She looked angelic at her 1903 confirmation but my great-aunt Maggie Petersen died by suicide, age 15, just a short time later as an anonymous runaway after a series of bad decisions and missteps. I don't think anything affected my grandfather's family more profoundly. sakionline.net/family-folio...

In 1926, softly focused, Fritz Peter Petersen and Anna née Goohs were married in the town of Belum near Cuxhaven, surrounded by family. It proves my point that Petersens love felines: the young Petersen girl at left wanted her cat in the portrait. I'm not sure who wanted the white duck at left.

A handsome young man with a cat: Pete Petersen in Arizona, about 1940, gives his cat some special attention. I have a theory that all our Petersens in our family have an affinity for cats.

The snow is melting and we're still getting visits from eastern bluebirds.

Genealogy alert! There are updates to my online photo gallery website: You can browse all images or filter by family name. You can also click on the surname badge to read more about that particular family. And if you click on any photo, you'll see even more details. sakionline.net/family-folio...

Cozy Phil, ready for bed.

Never get tired of it.