Every once in a while descendants of some of our German farm families will pass on their unidentified photos with the hope that someone can put a name(s) to the people in the photo. I post these photos on the the Schaumburg Township District Library’s Digital Archive in the hopes that another family member may own the photo and can help us out.
I now have a collection of these photos for three families–the Meyer, Panzer and Sunderlage families. How do I know these photos pertain to the individual family? I can’t be absolutely certain but the family member or interested party has usually had the photos for a while. They can either put a name to some of the faces or the photos are clumped with others from the family.
For instance, the Meyer photos were passed on to me by someone who tracks Schaumburg Township genealogy. A gentleman from the Meyer family knew of the genealogist’s work and gave him a photo album which he, in turn, passed on to me. The Panzer photos were shared with me by a member of the Panzer family who had the photos in her possession and was hoping someone, anyone, would help her with the identifications. As far as the Sunderlage photos go—these were passed on by the Sunderlage House Archives of the Hoffman Estates Historical Sites Commission.
The Meyer photos consist of three newly married couples from the early 1900s, one child, a young man, two young women and four confirmation photos of 13-14 year-old young ladies in their white confirmation dresses. The wedding photos show the brides in white dresses—something that didn’t happen until after the turn of the century.
The Panzer photos consist of five individual children, two sibling photos (one with five siblings dressed in their finest), three wedding photos, an older couple, a young lady, five confirmation photos of 13-14 year-old young ladies and one confirmation photo of a 13-14 year-old young man.
The Sunderlage photos have fewer children and all appear to be taken in the 1800s. They consist of two individual children, two photos of the same man that appear to to have been taken on the same day, one young woman, one young man, one mature woman, a sibling photo with a boy and two girls, a possible wedding photo of Herman and Catharine (Rustman) Sunderlage and, lastly, a somewhat unique photo of August E. Sunderlage with three other men who might be family or might be friends. It’s a bit on the dark side but it’s an intriguing photo. (See it above)
I have posted some of the photos here but the bulk of them are on the library’s Local History Digital Archive. If you are a family member and curious or have never paid a visit to the Digital Archive, start here.
You can navigate to the photos by the following path:
>Browse Photos
>People
>Families
>Go to the individual folders for the families. You will see thumbnails of the photos and can click on each of them to increase the size.
If you are a family member and can make an identification, please contact me at jrozek@stdl.org I’d love to be able to move that photo to another folder—and report the change back here.
Or, take a look around and see if anything else catches your eye. Maybe you have photos that we could add to the Digital Archive? We are always looking for anything related to Schaumburg Township with no limit on the date. History is history. Businesses, homes, events, people, dignitaries–we’re interested in it all. Contact me at the above email address if you have something you’d like to share.
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
History of Schaumburg Township 