Monday, April 29, 2013

Mystery Monday -- Three Unusual Photos of Grandpa Peterson

These were in the photos that belonged to my grandmother, Edna Peterson Egli. Peter Peterson was my mother's maternal grandfather.


Peter is seen in the second column from the right  Mom did not know why these unusual photos were taken or who any of the other people are. She thought it might be related to his job - perhaps they were his coworkers. He worked at the local grocery store.

One great thing to note about these pictures is that while most of the photos are rather serious, in the very bottom photo of each person, they are (for the most part) smiling.


The following photo is another mystery to me. While this picture is labeled signifying that Peter is in the photo -- standing second from the left --  they give me no clue as to why he is in the photo or what is going on. Theses men appear to be policemen but as far as I know, Peter was never a policeman. 

And I feel certain someone will recognize what organization he belonged to in this third photo. Peter is in the middle row, far right. Peter was born in Denmark but he married a Swede and they attended a Swedish Lutheran church.


Anyone have any ideas about these photos? I'd love to learn more.

4 comments:

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  2. My Peterson cousins have been working on this and contributed the following:
    "Grandpa belonged to the Odd Fellows until it disband. Grandma Annie belonged to the Rebecca's. The other picture was The Woodsman and they were like volunteer firemen. She had no idea about the group pictures but said it might have been a group of business people and some of their employees. I was glad to see these pictures as I had never seen a picture of Grandpa except wedding and as an old man. Hugs and Thanks."
    A big thank you to Susan, Karol, Maryanne and Sandra!

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  3. I agree about the volunteer fireman - for one thing, they appear to be standing in front of a building with large doors such as found in old firehouses (my husband's family had firemen), and their uniforms are not police, but still official.

    The small photos may be for passports or naturalization records. One courthouse in Kansas where I've done research had one of those printed bound books with all the naturalization applications intact and most of them had photographs of the applicant.

    Fronia

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    1. Fronia,
      I hadn't thought of passports or naturalization. That is an interesting possibility. And you made a great observation about the doors behind them on the other picture. Thanks!

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