A few weeks ago my father, Robert Vogel, received some pictures from my second cousin, Bonnie Thomas in Arizona. Bonnie was cleaning out some things of her mother’s, Frances Mutsch Besch, who is the daughter of Pauline Vogel Mutsch, my grandfather’s older sister. (I know that it’s confusing, but stay with me on this, it gets better.)
One of the photos Dad received was a lovely 5X7 wooden framed portrait of his grandparents, Michael and Katarine Vogel. (These are the great grandparents that link Bonnie and I as cousins.) Michael and Katarine came to Mansfield, Ohio with my grandfather in 1905 when they were in their late forties. The portrait Dad received appears to have been taken around 1915 to 1920. We estimate the year based on how they look, dress, and the fact that we have a 1928 photo where they look much older.
When my parents took the photo out of the frame to photocopy, and share it, they found another photograph that had been hidden inside for perhaps 80 years. It is a family photo that may have been taken at the marriage of my Dad’s Uncle Henry, which occurred about 1908. The photo that Mom and Dad found was cut to fit in the frame behind my great grandparents portrait. The matting on the top and left of the photo was saved, but the picture was slashed off to fit in the frame. It is a professional photo of a wedding party. We think that the bride and groom are Henry and Rose Vogel, who lived in Detroit and had no children. Henry is my grandfather, Michael Vogel’s, oldest brother. There was 20 years between them.
According to the records I have found, Henry came to the U.S. in February of 1906, when he was 24. The rest of the family came earlier. The 1930 U.S. Census says that Henry and Rose were married when he was 27 and she was 19, which would have been 1908 or 1909. I have not yet determined whether they were married in Mansfield or Detroit. I am also looking for Rose’s maiden name and the rest of their family history.
The discovered photo has a row of small children in the front. My Dad and I think that the boy on the far left is my grandfather, Michael Vogel when he was around 8 years old. We are pretty sure that the boy on the far right is his closest brother, Nick Vogel. The women are difficult to identify, but the man immediately to the right of the bride appears to be a youthful, Michael Vogel, the sire of our U.S. family.
