Old family photos

[Carol I]

Here is a series of old family photos on which I would appreciate any information you may have (uniforms, units, ranks, medals and other insignia). Thank you in advance.

 

Two photos of the same man, taken a few years apart, the first one in Bistrita and the second one in Sarajevo. He seems to have gone up in rank between them, but I am not familiar with AH-ranks and insignia.

 

Photo taken on leave, in 1903? I would very much appreciat a translation of the letter if you can read the writing.

 

Unit photo (undated) - none of the men look like the ones in the other photos.

[Christian1962]

The first pic shows a "Korporal".

 

Regards

 

Christian

[Carol I]

22 hours ago, Christian1962 said:

The first pic shows a "Korporal".

 

Regards

 

Christian

Many thanks, Christian.

[Farkas]

Hi Gents,

I was thinking this fella in the middle might be the same man…

I think the medal on the left might be a KTK Karl cross which would make the photo 1916 onwards. That’s a long time after 1903, he might have aged a lot in those years!

 

tony 🍻

[Christian1962]

6 hours ago, Farkas said:

Hi Gents,

I was thinking this fella in the middle might be the same man…

I think the medal on the left might be a KTK Karl cross which would make the photo 1916 onwards. That’s a long time after 1903, he might have aged a lot in those years!

 

tony 🍻

 

@tony: I agree with the KTK and would add a "Tapferkeitsmedaille 2. Kl.".

 

Regards

 

Christian

[Carol I]

On 06/08/2024 at 22:57, Farkas said:

Hi Gents,

I was thinking this fella in the middle might be the same man…

I think the medal on the left might be a KTK Karl cross which would make the photo 1916 onwards. That’s a long time after 1903, he might have aged a lot in those years!

 

tony 🍻

Thanks, Tony, for the suggestion, but the rank does not correspond to the timeline in the other photos.

[Farkas]

On 18/08/2024 at 09:50, Carol I said:

Thanks, Tony, for the suggestion, but the rank does not correspond to the timeline in the other photos.

That’s fair enough, worth a try, at least the awards appear to date the undated photo 1916-18.

 

I was thinking along the lines of him, as an older man, recalled/called up as manpower shortages kicked in later in the war but if it doesn’t fit what you know then  it’s not. ☹️
 

Keep us posted…

 

cheers

tony 🍻

[Carol I]

Thanks for the suggestion, it is quite reasonable with the age vs the period. However, the decorations of the fellow in the photo would indicate him as a combatant, while the earlier long service ones I mentioned earlier are missing. Furthermore, bits of information that trickled through generations mentioned that he was posted in Prague in 1916-8. One could speculate that it was a military posting due to manpower shortages and the likes, however I would think the posting was on the civilian side as he was there with his family (his teenage daughter had certificates showing she finished at a couple of high school years in Prague).

 

I can conclude that the photo was sent by a friend or relative and the details are in a long-lost letter. Nevertheless, it is quite some detective work to reconstruct details based on undated and uninscribed photos from more than 100 years ago, but thanks to the knowledge on this forum I could put a few bits in the puzzle.

 

P.S. Now I feel sorry that I have opened two threads on the topic, but at first I thought there are different fellows in the photos. On closer inspection it turns out that it was true only for the last one.

Edited August 21 by Carol I