My Great Grandmother Lina’s Family
This is a picture of her like my father knew his grandmother. My father painted it when he came home after WW II and nothing in his world was like it was before. His family had become small. When he came back his brother Fritz and his beloved grandma Lina were dead. He dealt with his grief by painting his beloved ones. Now this picture is in my house and I’m so glad that I have it. It was painted after a photo, which didn't remain.
Karoline Vesper Albracht; painted by her grandson Georg
The painting is hanging in my bedroom. When I look at it my great grandma's face is strangely familiar to me, because it’s my own face. In a few years when I’m old I will exactly look like this. When my grandmother Anna, her daughter, was still alive and I was a young woman in the mid 20ies my grandma Anna used to get a bit scared in the first seconds when I entered the room, because she thought her mother would come in like she knew her when she was a child, as a young woman. She told me that I could be her double also in the way I move or in the way I use to dress myself. Like her I preferred dark colors, mostly black, and a similar hairstyle.
Lina, or better Henriette Friederike Christiane Karoline Vesper was born on February 20, 1863 in Wethen, as the 8th child of Johann Wilhelm Vesper, who was born in Muenden in the Dukedom of Waldeck on November 11, 1822, and died March 15, 1890 in Wethen, - a teacher - , and Johannette Karoline Doering , born November 24, 1824 in Berich in the Dukedom of Waldeck, + March 20, 1893, only a few days after her granddaughter Anna, my grandmother, was born.
The couple had 9 children.
The first son, Heinrich Wilhelm Vesper, born on May 22, 1848 in Berich, went to America in 1867. There will be a post especially about him in the next weeks. Now only a few facts: He settled down in Shawnee/Topeka, where he ran a bakery and became a pretty wealthy merchant with servants in his house. He and his wife had a lot of children, but as far as I know none of them married which seems to be very, very strange to me. So there might be no living descendants any more. There is a second Vesper-family in the same town and I haven’t figured out if they could be descendants of perhaps a younger brother of Wilhelm or his twin brother. My great grandmother never mentioned her American brother, so it would not be impossible that also another brother immigrated in the USA.
The second son Johann Heinrich Friedrich Vesper, born on May 22, 1848, the twin of son no. 1, must have died early. We don’t know anything about him apart from his date of birth. Or he went to Wuppertal-Barmen. We know that one of my great grandmother’s brothers went to Wuppertal and founded a widespread family-stem there, which had several sort of famous descendants. This is sure. My grandma often spoke about their cousins there. But we only know that one of the sons must have gone to the Ruhr Valley; we don’t know which son it was. Or maybe Friedrich also went to America. I still have to figure this out.
The third child was a daughter, Christiane Friederike Elise, born in 1850 in Berich. Later she married into the Tewes family of Wethen. My grandma got her name as third prename, Elise.
Heinrich Wilhelm, the 4th child, was born on February 21, 1853 in Berich. He must have died young or went to Wuppertal Barmen in the south of the Ruhr Valley. See above.
The 5th child, Karl Friedrich Ludwig, born on July 6, 1856 in Wethen, married a Krantz-daughter of Wethen and became a merchant in the small Westphalian town nearby, were his descendants still live. He was the first child which wasn’t born in Berich, so the family moved from Berich to Wethen in 1856, when my great great grandfather Wilhelm Vesper became teacher in Wethen. Wilhelm worked there at the little village school until 1891. But his death is remarked already in March 1890, so it must be until his death in 1890, when he was 68 years old. His son Ludwig had a large house in the town he lived as a merchant. It is still there, but it changed it’s look completely. My mother still has the wedding gift she got from the descendants of this family. It's a representative bowl with flowers painted on it.
Louis Vesper's house
The 6th child was a girl, Marie Friederike Wilhelmine, but she lived only two years.
Karl Wilhelm, the 7th child, was born in January 13, 1861 in Wethen, and this is all we know about him. Maybe he was the one who went to Wuppertal-Barmen instead of Heinrich, but I suppose that it was Heinrich, who founded a new family-stem in Wuppertal.
The 8th child was my great grandmother. Karoline was born on February 20, 1863 in Wethen. She married Georg Albracht, master carpenter and mayor (* May 6, 1861 in Wethen, + October 29, 1929 in Wethen) on December 11, 1887. Her first son Karl became a teacher (* Dec. 3, 1888), the second child, Lina, lived only 18 days and the third child, Anna Auguste Elise, born 1893, was my grandma and lived 93 years. I still have a letter from my great grandfather Georg Albracht he wrote to his sister Christiane in Erie/Pennsylvania, where he told her about the death of his mother in law Karoline Doering Vesper and where he anounced the birth of my grandma. He wrote that he and his wife didn’t want more than two children (well, they got three) and that they hope that this time her daughter would survive after her first daughter died so quickly after her birth. Their 4th child was little Georg. I still remember him very well, when he came into my grandma's kitchen every morning smoking one of his big cigars.
Lina Vesper Albracht, Anna Albracht, little Georg Albracht, Karl Albracht, Georg Albracht
The 9th child, Anna Wilhelmine Henriette Friederike Vesper, born on March 5, 1867, married a cousin of Muenden, Louis Vesper, in 1896. The couple stayed in Muenden as far as I know. Anna Vesper was responsible for my grandma's first prename Anna.
The photo is titled "Vesper siblings": The persons must be Elise or more likely Anna Vesper, my great grandfather Georg Albracht and Karoline "Lina" Vesper (from left to right). Unfortunately my grandma didn't remark who they are like she normally used to do on the backside of the picture.
Lina Vesper Albracht
My grandmother described her mother Karoline Vesper as a very kind woman. She was very generous to the poor. Everybody who knocked at her door got something to eat. But she also was very thrifty, which was nothing extraordinary for the period of time she lived. People haven’t had much and they didn’t throw much away. All was used again for some purpose and people dealt carefully with their resources. My father, who painted whenever he had an opportunity and wherever he was, always got paper and pencil from her. But he should not sharpen the pencil too often and too early, because this would have been waste in her eyes. She didn't miss telling him this. On the other hand she wasn’t a good merchant. It was her who ran a little foodstuff store in the village at first. But she gave too much away, because she was kind-hearted, so my great grandfather wanted her to quit the business. Her sister in law, the youngest sister of my great grandfather, Wilhelmine, took over the little store and since then it is ran by her descendants.
Karoline Vesper Albracht died on May 12, 1943. So her death anniversary was yesterday. This is 65 years ago.
Lina Vesper Albracht and her husband Georg Albracht in the 1920ies. I love this photo.
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Pictures:
All rights reserved; picture of the house of Louis Vesper from a friend, all other pics belong to Georgia.
































































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