Photograph

The photograph was taken in an atelier: two women and two men, in a model of an automobile. According to the description by Stefania Maybaum (Marzyńska, née Grossman), these are her parents - if we read the inscription correctly - that is Jan and Ewelina Grossman, with the Kon couple, that is Doctor Edward Kon and his wife Augusta, née Pretka. The first woman on the right seems to be quite similar to Ewelina Cohn from photograph MPOLIN-A25.1.77, although the inscription is not clear - it can be read as Mama or Mamia or Mania. Similarly, the reading of the second word - Tatino or Tatunio [Daddy] - is uncertain. | The addressee of the letter is Jadwiga Kempińska [...], Villa Erna, via Hamburg, daughter of the Kon family (more on this below). The letter begins, however, with an address to another woman: Dear Jadzia and Helo - Hela (Helena) here could be the Grossmans' daughter, and Stefania Marzyńska's sister. | The content of the letter: I send you a cordial bow together with our likeness in the car. I would like to bring you Jadzia here, let's talk about it. Your Augusta. There is no stamp, postmark with a fragment of the inscription MARIEN[BAD] and date beginning with the digits 17. | Augusta and Edward Kon are described in the Częstochowa residents' book, kept in the State Archive in Częstochowa. Augusta was the daughter of Majer and Muna (née Kamińska) Pretka, born in Bolesławiec in 1854. Doctor Edward Kon came from Wieluń. His Jewish name was Ajzyk. He was the son of Józef and Natalia, née Popsler, and was born in 1848. According to the above-mentioned book, the Kon family, who lived in Częstochowa, had connections to Nasielsk, where four of their five children were born. It mentions a daughter, Jadwiga Kemplińska, and four sons and their families: Leon (b. 1879, husband of Alina, née Likiernik, born in Warsaw in 1890), Bolesław (b. 1881, husband of Helena, née Brat[?], born in 1888, place of birth unrecorded), Stefan (b. 1884, like his father a doctor, husband of Erna, née Tempel, born in Kraków, Poland). Tempel, born in Cracow in 1890) and Norbert (born in 1887, married to Malwina/Marusia née Rojkis, born in 1898 in Mikołajewo - unfortunately, we don't know if this is a village near Łęczyca or near Sochaczew). | Jadwiga Kempińska is described as born in 1885 in Częstochowa, marked as a divorcee (which is attractive as divorces were not very common at the beginning of the 20th century) and a trader. | With reference to this photo, it is worth mentioning one more aspect: what connects the Grossmans and the Kones? It may be hypothesised, although more extensive genealogical research would be needed to verify this assumption, that Ewelina Grossmanowa née Cohn (Kon) and Edward Kon were related. Namely, Edward's father, Józef Kon (Józef Herszlikowicz Kohn, son of Lewk and Gitla, was born around 1823), may have been related to Ewelina's father, Mojżesz Cohn (born in 1820).