1907 Strolling Pose

A few years ago, when I was just beginning my family research, I asked my Aunt Rochelle for copies of any documents she could send me. She asked me what I wanted. I told her to send me the things that she would want her great-grandchildren to see. In addition to the birth announcements and wedding invitations, she sent me a photocopy of this newspaper photo. It is a picture of my gg-grandparents Solomon (Shlomo) and Rebecca (Rivka) Lutzky/Lutsky.

The text is in both Yiddish and English so I assume it was published in a Yiddish newspaper sometime in the mid to late 1930s. I wish I knew which newspaper so I could get the entire article and understand better the context in which the photo was published. There's also no way to know if this was a photo taken by the newspaper back in 1907 that was kept on file or if my family submitted it for this story. One of Solomon and Rebecca's sons was C. Israel Lutsky who was becoming famous during the 1930s on Yiddish radio so, if the photo was submitted in the 1930s, it might be related to Uncle Israel somehow.

What did I learn from this photo? Solomon arrived in the US in March 1905 and Rebecca arrived in December 1906 so this may have been the first photo they had taken in the US. They would have been in their late 30s at the time of the photo but they look closer to 50. I believe this is the earliest photo anyone in the family has of them. The one thing I did learn is that an unidentified photo I have in my album is definitely NOT Solomon & Rebecca. The only other photos I had of them were much later and it's sometimes hard to compare older faces to younger faces in an attempt to make a match. I still can't identify that unidentified photo...maybe I will someday by process of elimination.