On July 1st I wrote about the home my Grandpa Rudolf grew up in.  I included this photo I took of this home in 2007, the last time I visited my ancestral hometown of Grossgartach (now called Leingarten):

I’ve been organizing old photos from my grandparents, and this week I found this wonderful photo of the home in 1913:

The caption lists Wilhelm, Rudolf, Maria Lämlen, Frida Zimmerman & little Karl Pfeil in the front in 1913.  Wilhelm was born in 1903, Rudolf in 1899, and Marie in 1891.  They are there with their neighborhood friends.  This is the earliest photo I’ve seen of Grandpa and his siblings.  Grandpa would have been 14 years old.  What fun to see his face peering out of one of those windows!

It’s interesting to me that Grandma Elsa, who lived right across the street from Rudolf left for America on 12 September 1912 at age 17.  It’s no wonder she and Rudolf didn’t really know each other until years later after both had been to America, and then had returned to Grossgartach.  They weren’t married until 1929.

Isn’t it amazing what a treasure one single photo can be?  In today’s world, my kids take and send dozens of photos in any given day or week.  They even take photos on an app called “Snap Chat” that disappears after 10 seconds of viewing.  It will be interesting to see what people in 100 years from now do with all of our photos.  I’m sorry they’ll probably never know the thrill of a single discovery like the one I had this week in the photo with the windows to my past.

Below is this home today (middle of the photo) taken from the church belfry across the street.  Grandma Elsa’s house is the one with the red roof, across the street behind the tree in the lower left hand corner.