What’s your family history mystery? One of mine has to do with this photo.
BACKGROUND: In October 2017 my last grandparent died. Anna Loewen Barg was born during the Russian civil war in 1920 in the city of Orenburg. She fled with her family to Canada in 1926. After starting a family in Alberta in the 1940s, she and her family (including my mom Olga), moved to BC’s Fraser Valley in ???. Ben and Anna Barg raised a family of eight children, and each family has in turn had many kids and grandkids of their own. In late October we had a large family reunion to honour Anna memory and legacy.
THE MYSTERY: Among her things Anna had a photo. Hilda Barg gave it to me. Anna did not tell her what she knew about its significance. I suspect that two of the men in the picture (the tallest standing in the middle and blocking part of the text on the wall in the background, and the man on the furthest right side of the photo) are featured in larger photos that Hilda and Dan Barg have on wall (inherited from Anna and Ben). What’s going on in the photo?
MY SUSPICION: I think the photo was taken in Russia in the early 20th century, just before part of my family left for Canada. Because of the inscription on the wall behind the men, and the books on the table, I suspect that the men pictured were part of a social and economic reform club.
REASONS: … (to be updated) …
The German reads:
Progress is life;
tradition is death.
The books on the table include German translations of: Sylvanus Stall, What a Young Boy Ought to Know (1907 = German trans.); and Mary Wood-Allen, What a Young Girl Ought to Know (1910 = German trans.)
I suspect that the inscription and book titles suggest that the men belonged to a club to promote social purity (the ideas of the Americans Wood-Allen and Stall) and land reform (the ideas of Michael Flürscheim and Henry George). My reasons for thinking that the men in the photo were land reformers or economic innovators is due to the quotation on the wall behind them. … (more coming) …