Tell Me Thursday: Firmenich Family

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Thanks to the power of the Internet, I came into possession of this digital photo. I saw via Ancestry.com’s new “Member Connect” feature that another user was researching my 3rd-great-grandparents, Mathias & Paulina Firmenich. I contacted her and we traded information and then she sent me this awesome photo.

As far as I know, my grandmother doesn’t have a photo of Pauline or of the rest of the Firmenich family. That would make this photo the first time I’ve seen Pauline. She had died early on, in 1910, so I assumed there were no good photos of her. I guess I was wrong.

I am told the photo looks to be taken in 1895, probably in Ashland, Wisconsin where the family lived. I’m guessing on the names of the rest of the family here, but using the family list as it looks to be (using the youngest children.) The males in the back are probably Frank and Henry, but I can’t tell which one is older. I assume the two older women in the back are Emma Jane (my gg-grandmother) and Mary. The girl in the middle looks to be the oldest of the younger girls, so I assume it’s Rose. Then from left to right it looks to be Ida, Edna, and Clara. Edna would be the one that looks really bored in the middle. The nice lady who gave me this photo descends from Edna.

The only one missing would be the oldest, Albert. Four of Mathias and Pauline’s children, Hattie, Edmond, Sarah, and Anna, died in 1885 due to an outbreak of what looks to be Diptheria.

So, the moral here (I look to be on a moral kick recently) is to connect and contact everybody that you can that may be researching a common ancestor. You never now what you’ll find. *Cue Forrest Gump and his chocolates*