The Balcarek Family

[davecapps]

Let´s take it from there:
The deutsche Verlustlisten (casualty lists) from 3.12.1915, WW1
list a Paul Balcarek, fallen, place of birth,  Altdorf, Pless

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2124/images/31924_b042323-00529?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=106980688fd6cc207597dd0b3783ebaa&usePUB=true&_phsrc=hKF1&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=2747226

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3449461

a soldier in the Preussen Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 11

Altdorf, County Pless in Silesia
https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/10028064

[Elliven]

davecapps

This is really brilliant.  I don't know the scale of the old map but Pless and Jankowicz (witz) don't seem to be too far apart so it looks like the right man.

From responses I have had from the other site, they are dating the photo about 20 years earlierr so I am beginning to think that the man in the photo is not Pawel but might actually be his father.  I will let you know if I find anything else

[davecapps]

I asked my forum members what period they thought this photo was from.

They all said that the hairstyle and clothes fit into a period 1894-1900. definitely not later than 1910

others remarked that:

1. the children had no shoes on and that the background wasn´t typical for a professional photographer. This meaning it was a family photo.
Maybe they were´nt well off.

2. a young lady wouldn´t wear a dress that was out of fashion when being photographed
and that the puff sleeves were in fashion from around about 1890, and out of fashion by 1900

Womens fashion 1890-1905
look at page 72,73,74
https://www.berliner-fotografenateliers.de/pdf/StephanieThom_Bachelorarbeit.pdf

[Elliven]

davecapps,

All of that fits in with what other people have been saying both here and on the WW1/WW2 site and your dates fit in pretty well too.

1894 fits as the earliest possible date because the shooting badge/lanyard was first issued then and Pawel would have been just a small boy at the time.

I am trying to find out more information from the local museum

[Wiggy]

Good on you for all the digging and going for the RIGHT answer!!

Sterling job you are doing.   

Wiggy

[Elliven]

Wiggy,

When you set out to write memorial biographies. and especially on behalf of the families, you have an absolute responsibility to get it right.

I would rather scrap weeks of work than knowingly publish something that was wrong

[Wiggy]

Wiggy,

When you set out to write memorial biographies. and especially on behalf of the families, you have an absolute responsibility to get it right.

I would rather scrap weeks of work than knowingly publish something that was wrong

Indeed!     

[davecapps]

This could be Paul´s marriage 22 april 1893 in Hohenlohehütte
nr 13
https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=S&w=12sl&rid=S&search_lastname=Balcarek&search_name=Paul&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=&to_date=

click on skan on the right hand side
this will take you to the original

https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/20555085

go to scans 28/29 / record 13

Paul Balcerek born 22 march 1870 in Laurahütte
Franzisca Gwiosdzik born 13 november 1874 in Brynow

if you think this is your man, let me know and i´ll transcribe and translate it for you

Dave

[Elliven]

davecapps,

This looks very much like the man I am looking for.  If you are right, then the man in uniform in the original photo would be one generation further back - making him Wilhelm's grandfather rather than his father.  That would make sense of the ladies fashion in the photo and the man would probably have been the  right age to have won a marksman's lanyard in the early days of its existence.