Some More Info about the Kraatz Family Photos

I just wanted to take a minute to post another e-mail I received from Ray Kraatz about the photos that we were able to identify. Here’s what he wrote me:

“Hello Stephanie;
Thank you for saving these pictures, that copy of the family photo is the same one that I have, and the individual picture of Agnes I also have a copy of. The picture of Laura I had not seen before, and yes she is the daughter of William and Agnes. As far as the boy in the picture, as you compare the two boys in your pictures could very well be Carl instead of Louis. Louis was the name on the back of the picture but was written well after the fact in an attempt to identify people in the picture.
Did any of your pictures have any indication of when these were taken? My estimate is based on Walter being in the picture as he died in July of 1910.
Did you have an individual picture of Viola Fleschner from that same group, or information of the Fleschners, she would be Arthur's second wife, they were married in 1912.
I have a picture of William and Agnes in front of the tailor shop that I am including as well as pictures of William, Arthur and Walter.
Thank you again
Ray”

And these are the newest pictures that he sent:

William and Agnes Schaefer Kraatz; & William Kraatz:

Arthur Kraatz; Walter Kraatz:

(William and Agnes' sons)

So, the fact that his copy of that original Kraatz family photo said that Anna Spohr’s son in the picture was named Louis made me doubt that it was actually Carl, Louis’ brother – even though all the ‘clues’ from my photos from that day pointed in that direction. But now knowing that the names on the back of Ray’s photo were not written there originally when the photo was taken, I’m feeling much more confident that it is in fact Carl Spohr (my great grandfather) in the photo with his mother Anna and the other Kraatz family relatives.

And although none of my photographs had any writing on the back of them to indicate what year they were taken, the individual shots of the women are real photo postcards. When they made those postcards, there was usually a symbol printed in the top right corner where you would place the stamp, and those symbols changed over the years. So by looking online for information about dating real photo postcards by their stampbox markings, you can find lots of information describing each marking and what range of years that marking was used in. So we can easily identify the stampbox marking on this photo as “AZO, 4 triangles pointed up,” which was used between 1904 and 1918. Although that doesn’t narrow it down to a specific year, at least we know we are on the right track with Ray’s estimate of 1909 or 1910. I’m afraid that may be as close as we’re going to be able to get to an actual date for these photos, though, (unless we happen to be lucky enough to find another relative with copies of the same photos with writing on the back – who knows, it could happen).