| Titel | Discs 3 & 4, JPEG 5, From left to right, circa 1916, at Hamilton, Ohio, sit Katherine ("Kate") Lotz Burkhardt; Anna Maria (Mary) Donges Burckey (1835-1920), who was born at Erda, Kreis Wetzlar, Prussia; and Anna Maria Lotz Schieke (1847-1928). COMMENTS: Bruce’s revised caption of Sept. 19, 2018: Although Bruce Garver has written the plausible caption below, he asks that it be considered tentative and subject to further revision upon the acquisition of additional information or photographs in which related individuals are identified. He suggests that this photograph from Hamilton, Ohio, circa 1900 to 1916, probably depicts Anna Maria (Mary) Donges Burckey (1835-1920), who was born at Erda, Kreis Wetzlar, Prussia, in the German Confederation. Plausibly identified Anna Maria (Mary) Donges Burckey is sitting between two other elderly ladies who are tentatively presumed to be two of the five longest-lived of the eight sisters of Henry (Heinrich) Lotz, Sr. (September 13, 1835, to June 8, 1906) who married (Katherine) Elizabeth Donges (September 27, 1838, to January 16, 1916), the younger sister of Anna Maria Donges Burckey. In this photograph, the middle lady believed to be Anna Maria (Mary) Donges Burckey has refined facial features and dark brown hair similar to her younger sister (Katherine) Elizabeth Donges Lotz. But this lady has styled her hair differently from the “parted-in-the-middle” hairstyle consistently preferred by Elizabeth Donges Lotz in all of the many photos we have of her. The other two elderly ladies have a decidedly "Lotz" appearance and may well be two of Henry Lotz’s five sisters who lived into the 20th century. All five of these sisters, like Henry Lotz, Sr. and his two brothers and three other sisters were born at Aßlar, Kreis Wetzlar, in the Kingdom of Prussia: (1) Louise Elizabeth Lotz (Mrs. John Dietrich Wellner, February 1834 to February 16, 1901); (2) Elizabeth Lotz Seybold (Mrs. Jacob Seybold, July 12, 1837, to December 10, 1901); (3) Wilhelmina Catherina (“Catherine”) Lotz (Mrs. Philip Schneider, April 1835 to October 4, 1914); (4) Christiane M. Lotz (Mrs. William F. Reiff), known to her great-niece Ruth Ernestine Morton as “Aunt Reiff”); and (5) Anna Maria Lotz (Mrs. Julius C. Schieke, July 13, 1847, to November 22, 1928). The five above-mentioned Lotz sisters, their husbands, and two of their three brothers, Henry Lotz, Sr., and William (Wilhelm) H. Lotz (June 3, 1839, to December 6, 1902) and Herman E. Lotz (March 25, 1849, to January 16, 1910) are buried in Hamilton’s Greenwood Cemetery near their parents, Magdalena Lotz (April 4, 1806, to March 30, 1890) and Wilhelm Lotz (1807 to July 5, 1878). In this photograph of the three elderly ladies at Hamilton, Ohio, the lady seated on the left somewhat resembles Henry Lotz, Sr., himself and also his and Elizabeth Donges Lotz's daughter, Mary (Anna Marie) Lotz Johnson (1866-1948), and son, Edward George Lotz (1875-1952). Bruce Garver tentatively suggests one of several possible occasions for the making of this photograph. At the funeral of Wilhelmina Catherina (“Catherine”) Lotz (Mrs. Philip Schneider, April 1835 to October 4, 1914), the following three ladies would surely have been present, the first two being at that time the only surviving siblings of the deceased: (1) sister Christiane M. Lotz (Mrs. William F. Reiff, February 11, 1841, to September 5, 1915), (2) sister Anna Maria Lotz (Mrs. Julius C. Schieke, July 13, 1847, to November 22, 1928). The third lady present has already been plausibly identified as (3) Anna Maria (Mary) Donges Burckey, an older sister of (Katherine) Elizabeth Donges Lotz (1838-1916), the widow of Henry Lotz, Sr., who was the oldest brother of Christiane M. Lotz and Anna Maria Lotz. Present too, but not depicted in this photo, would certainly have been (Katherine) Elizabeth Donges Lotz. Bruce is fairly confident that he has identified Anna Maria (Mary) Donges Burckey (1835-1920) as the lady at the center of this photograph but can only suggest tentatively that the two other depicted elderly ladies are among Henry Lotz, Sr.’s five sisters who lived into the early 20th century. Suggestions for improving the above caption are solicited. |
