Who Is This Beautiful Girl, This Veritable Queen?

The heavy cardboard frame with folding cover is in mint condition.  The frame is glued down solidly over the photographic print;  we cannot take a squint at the back.  There are no labels.

Indications that she is a First Holy Communicant include the white gown, hose, and shoes; white veil; Missal and Rosary.  Absence of a candle, such as we have seen in FHC portraits of EJZ and JFZ and MPZ, is not a contraindication in my mind, as candle and veil are an unwise combination, so it is best to let the boys tote those big candles.

Suggestions that this might instead be a Confirmation portrait include her mature appearance:  typical age at FHC is 8 years, while typical age at Confirmation is 13 to 14 years.  Additionally, her shoes have enough of a heel for a teenager, too much for an 8-year-old.  And look at that gold wristwatch over her elbow-length gloves!  Again, it seems unlikely for an 8-year-old.

I've never heard of veils for Confirmation.  Has anyone else?

Is she my Matynka grandmother, Clara Haremska?  Our CHM was born in 1903 or 1909, depending on to which document we give our trust.  Eight years of age would then be 1911 or 1917.  Fourteen years of age would then be 1917 or 1923.  Those all seem plausible to me from the look of the portrait details.  Also, CHM and all the Haremska women have high brows like this mystery girl.

Clara Haremska married Adam Matynka in 1925.  My Mom, our CAMZ, labeled the back of this 16" by 20" photographic print with the names and the date.  Thanks, Mom!

The print is curled and tattered with age, but remains impressive.

Adam Matynka and Clara Haremska Matynka, 1925

So, again, the woman above and below is CHM, my Grandma Matynka.  Is she our Mystery Queen Girl?  What do you think?

Clara Haremska Matynka, 1925

Now let us consider the Mostkowska -Zdrojewska options.  Here is the wedding photo of our JPZ and Julia Mostkowska.  The date approximately 1920; Dad, our EJZ, was born in 1923.

John Peter Zdrojewski and Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska, circa 1920

Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska, circa 1920

Mayhap Mystery Queen Girl is my paternal grandmother, Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska.  What do you think? Her face seems more square, though.  And here, alas, we have another covered forehead.

Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska

Is Mystery Queen Girl my paternal aunt Melania Zdrojewska?  Melania was born in 1933 and died about 8 years later according to the story from Dad/EJZ.  I suppose the portrait could be from 1941, but it seems less likely.  If Melania actually lived to age 13 and this was her Confirmation photo, then the year would be 1946.  Again, just from the look of things 1946 seems too recent a date for the photo portrait.  Finally, we know that Melania died in the 1930s while Dad/EJZ was a high school student at Orchard Lake.  So, scratch the Melania/Confirmation possibility with confidence.  Melania/FHC remains a possibility, if we allow Dad/EJZ to have misremembered, and that Melania died in 1941 when he was a college student at Orchard Lake, not a high-school student.

I hope somebody actually recognizes this photo.  If so, please let me know!  If not, then I invite the spirits of my ancestors to visit me and set me straight on this.  Let's talk, OK?

"Johnny" Update

JFZ writes clarification of the previous post.: "The two other kids are my Auburn Kotwas cousins, Dick on left and Ken on the right."

"I think the man of the couple with my mother and me was my father's cousin of sorts. We met in Niagara Falls, Ontario. They were apparently mid-20th century immigrants from Poland and had to immigrate to Canada because of post-WWI marked immigration curtailment of people from eastern (and southern) Europe. Apparently they were anxious about coming to the US to meet for reasons not self evident to me. The reason I'm aware of this is that years later, when I was older and more savvy my father and I once again met them at the same location."

So the lady is not a relative of Eleanor.  Still, nice dress.

Julie

Johnny

I really need to fill out those insurance forms.  But there's other stuff on my desk!

Hell with it.

Not gonna make it to the Dalmatian Coast this year anyway, so I may as well take a virtual tour in time and space.

John Francis Zdrojewski was born in 1947.  Don't believe me?  Check it out at Familiae Personae Zdrojewski.

Neat how at Christmas we mix the Christian and the pagan elements together.  We have Saint Nicholas, and the Manger; we have Odin or Robin Goodfellow, precursors of the Saint, as well as evergreen trees and wreaths.  As individuals we are not atomized or isolated: we are  inheritors of history.

Nice wallpaper, too.

What's that on the mantel?

Święty Mikołaj!

So, John, you figure you're one year old, or two?  Is this 1948, or 1949?  Donna, what's your judgment?

"My Daddy likes Buster Keaton, and so do I !!"

Are these rivets?  Snaps?

Wow!  Santa Claus did come!  Looks familiar, too.  Can you imagine Clara gluing those cotton strips onto Gene's eyebrows?

Who knew Santa Claus had such a handsome nose?  And check out how he's got a good hold on his little bro; not letting him go.  Johnny's tie is terrific.  John, do you still have it?  Take a look around.  It might turn up!

And their hands.  Hand to hand; brother to brother.  What is in that little box? What?  What?

Who are these two other kids?

Who are the mystery lady and gent, first and second from the left?  The lady looks like Eleanor, who is there with Johnny.

Never in my life have I fashioned an article of clothing; - even in 7th grade Home Ec, my friends did all the thinking for me - nevertheless I did imbibe some tailoring terms while growing up.  Here in this collarless dress we have:  cap sleeves, black piping, contrasting buttonholing, appliqué, and a double row of rickrack.  How'd I do, Donna?

Whoops - when I click to enlarge, I see four rows of rickrack, two dark and two light.

Happy picnic to all, and to all a good weekend.

Julie

Hot Times, Hot Dogs

Okay I'm invoking Curator's Privilege to travel, even lurch, forward in time here.  It's going to be 97 degrees today, so here for your sympathetic delectation we present "Jahew in the Summer."

That's Eleanor Zdrojewski's caption to this photo.  Too bad the Beach Boys never heard it; they could have run with the lyric.

So, John, can you verify for us that this is summer 1948?

Can you identify the location?  See that classic wood door in the left background?

See the update to this post!

On to hot dogs:

Hang on tight, here we go . . . 1954?  Is that Marty, or Mark, in the terrific hat with pom-pom?  He's chowing down with such verve that I can't really see his face.  Good work, kid.

John, is something the matter?  You're, what, six years old and you have a hot dog.  What could possibly go wrong?

Who is Mystery Boy, coolly regarding the photographer whilst tending properly to his own lunch?  And no mustard on that suit jacket yet!

And where is this taken?  Looks like a log cabin in the background, with tourists milling around.  A Santa's Village somewhere?

I invite you to send me photos of summer fun.  Our family is scattered around now, so it would be gratifying to be able to post pictures of all branches of the family.

Matynka - Haremski Mystery Photo, or "Excuses, Excuses"

Here at the Coot Hill Preservation Society HQ, work slows on occasion, such as those occasions when the Directress tends to indoor plants, following the example of her paternal grandfather, John Peter Zdrojewski.  JPZ customarily started tomato plants in cut-down milk cartons set on the windowsills at 175 May Street, Buffalo, New York.

Here we've got some cauliflower, hot peppers, seedless watermelon, and Digitalis.

There are other jobs, as well.

Nevertheless, when the Haremski Iconograph was discovered the other day (see the post itself) CHPSHQ felt that the time had come to bring to light the Haremski-Matynka trove. Here it is, exploded all over the worktable.

This stack is of things from the high-school career of Mom, Clara Adamina Matynka Zdrojewska, CAMZ.  She was a fine-arts major in high school.  See the folio?

History, literature, and religion:

One large print was tucked in with a collection of snapshots Mom (CAMZ) took at summer camp whilst a teenager.  I brought it down.

Two facts help us here:  Clara was born in 1929.  There was color film from the 1930s, yes indeed.

Verso, we see a plain but stout cardboard backing.  Not professionally done, but carefully and deliberately done.

The buildings in the background of the new find resemble the buildings in the background of the Haremski Iconograph.  Don't they?

Looks like the photographer was of shorter stature than her subject.  Did the teenage Clara snap this photo?  Did she have it developed at her school?  I feel certain she did the backing - she kept on doing that all her life, up to and including with photos of her grandchildren.

Who is this man?

Was he the hired man at the Haremski farm?

Was he a neighbor of the Haremski family, or a family friend?

Was he Clara's father's father, Adam Matynka's father, visiting his in-laws at a family party in the country?  If so, this is the only photo we have of that man, whose name we do not know.

Was he a relative of the Zientarska?  He does look like her.

Watch any Polish historical dramas lately?  That face is in there among the Polish fighters resisting the Tatars or the Teutonic Knights, in a Wajda film.

And of course the mustache is pure Pilsudski.  Wow, look at his face, also!

Suppose Clara, Mom, CAMZ, did take the Haremski Mystery Photo.  If so, then she probably took the Haremski Iconograph as well, and thus that is her shadow on the grass behind the Zientarska.

Furthermore, say she was 15 years old at the time.  

1929 + 15 = 1944.  

Clara grows up during 1939-1945, saving tin and aluminum and listening to the radio news - including news about distant cousins on the other side of an ocean.