My great grandmother Irene in 1919, age 16. She captioned this "With love, Irene."

Source: Taideteollinen korkeakoulu, Aalto-yliopiston arkisto

Credit: Coloriginals

My grandfather was British and got a ship to the US joining his sister on the west coast. He trained as a draughtsman eventually serving in The Great War and settled back in the UK. My great aunt settled in San Diego and lived until the 1980s. Something I only find out about last year. I also lived in CA for ten years but suspect my journey there was very different from his. He died in the early 60s.

This is my great-grandmother Kaja, with my grandfather and his brothers. She was my grandfather’s mother. He never knew his father, and this is the only photograph he ever had of his mother.

They were Hungarian, and this photograph was taken in Zagreb, at the time when Croatia was still part of Austria-Hungarian empire.

Their mother brought them to Zagreb and paid to have this photograph taken. As you can see, the boys were dressed in what looks like rough burlap or sackcloth. They were extremely poor.

After the photograph was taken, she took them to an orphanage in Zagreb and left them there. She returned to Budapest, where she later married a soldier and had two more children with him.

My grandfather Viktor was separated from his brothers. One of them was sent to another town to learn a trade, while my grandfather remained in Zagreb, where he was also trained in a trade. I don’t know what happened to the third child.

My grandfather carried that pain with him for the rest of his life. He never found out who his father was, and his mother had abandoned him and his brothers when they were children.

These were incredibly hard times. Poverty, wars, families being torn apart, children growing up without parents. And then the trauma was carried from one generation to the next.

This is the only photograph he had of his mother.

He was with one of the Iowa regiments during the Civil War. Was a Captain.
Second picture is me some 146 years later, trying to recreate his picture. We have a few characteristics that are similar, but most say I look more like great-great grandmother.