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| NASC01 |
Circa 1874 in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan. The dark
haired man on the left end of the middle row was Josef Andersch. His
half-sister Anna Maria Andersch was married to Alois Rasch of Wright Township
and the original photo belongs to descendants of that family. Josef Andersch
was married to Marie Anna Riemer and several of their family were very musical.
Two sons ran GR music schools and played in symphonies in Vienna part of the
year. Noted on the photo is blond-haired
Eduard Andersch, Josef's brother who died in 1875.
The older man in the middle is Valentine Richter, a hotelier
who owned the Ohio House in GR. He also was an investor in several Bohemian
owned businesses in town. Valentine was married to Bertha Riemer, the older half-sister
to Josef Riemer and Marie Riemer Andersch.
The man in the right end of the top row is Josef Riemer who
was married to Anna Theressa Schitky. He was brother-in-law to both Valentine
Richter and Josef Andersch. He was our contributor’s 2nd Great grandfather
who died in 1876. All these named men have this in common..... they came from
German-speaking Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire. Some came after the
Revolt of 1848, while others came during the next 25-30 years. They were all
from Kratzau, Bohemia, now known as Chrastava, Czech Republic. That leaves me
with no names for the other men. Our contributor suspects they were from other
known Kratzau families who came to the Grand Rapids area. Some families moved
between GR, Grand Traverse County, and Chicago. Families from Kratzau and
environs included: Alger, Andersch, Ansorge, Arnold, Blumrich, Breuer, Betz,
Elger, Friedrich, Frohberg, Froebel, Greilick, Greulich, Herkner, Hanisch,
Jantsch, Lichtner, Leitelt, Leutelt, Neumann, Pettersch, Riemer, Richter,
Schitky, Schutky, Schindler, Scholz, Schwertner, Siebeneicher, Siegel, Sitte,
Simon, Sommer, Urich, Worm, and Werner.
If you know who this is, please contact us.
Please add your photo number for ease of identification.
