Pictures of Mom’s family from the 1900s to 1920s, with a few later. Some historical information is included with the pictures. More can be found in the accounts of Paul Kortsch Jr., Paul Kortsch Sr., and Ferdinand Kortsch.
Nana as Young Woman
First, a nice picture of Nana as a young woman in her late teens or early 20s. She arrived in America with her family, including her parents, five sisters–a sixth having died before emigration–and one brother, on May 22, 1898, when she was eight. Nana’s picture was taken by Otto Linke, who operated a studio at 711 3rd St. from 1882 to 1928.
Mom’s Grandparents
The next pictures are the only known portraits of Mom’s grandmothers. Margaret Maune Guiney’s dates are 1858-1924. Of Mom’s other grandmother, nothing has come down to us except these three pictures. The ‘Guiney Family’Â post has more pictures and some genealogy.
World War I
One of the archive’s surprises is the discovery that Grandpa Kortsch served in World War I, something I don’t remember he, Mom, or anyone in the Kortsch family ever mentioning, and something he tried to avoid by claiming a deferment based on having an essential occupation. More information about this time in his life can be found in his separate post.
The ages of Mom and Pat in the pictures suggest they were taken in 1918. The second picture, showing Grandpa Kortsch wearing cloth puttees, confirms the date.
The US Army adopted wool spiral puttees in the spring of 1918 after canvas gaiters proved better suited for the parade ground than the mud-filled trenches of World War I. The next three pictures show examples of the new cloth ones and the canvas leggings they replaced.
Several of the pictures show the family in Florida, where they moved in 1916. They lived in Pensacola, which is probably where the stately house in the second picture is located. The first tells us the family had arrived in Bay Minette, AL, though arrived from where isn’t known. It may have been a trip from Pensacola to the Bay Minette rosin manufacturing plant of the Newport Rosin and Turpentine Company, where Grandpa Kortsch was working at the time.
The “Geo.” mentioned in that picture’s caption is probably the “Geo Moore” of the second picture. George Moore and Patsy do not appear elsewhere in the archive’s pictures nor in what could be discovered of the Kortsch family genealogy. The picture of Nana sitting by the side of a log cabin with Pat and Mom was probably taken soon afterward, based on Mom’s age. For more genealogical and historical information, see Grandpa Kortsch’s post.
Unknown Kortsch
The first picture below looks like it may have been taken at the end of the 19th century. It’s possibly Nana aged three or four but there’s no information to make that more than a guess.
Alice Kortsch (Mom’s Sister)/Michael Kortsch (Her Uncle)
The first five pictures below show Alice Kortsch, Mom’s older sister, who died young. Dorothy, the infant in the first four, is Mom’s cousin, daughter of Mom’s uncle, Michael J. Kortsch and his wife, Hazel M.
Maria’s identity isn’t known. Dorothy Claire Kortsch was born in 1915, her brother, Ross Michael, in 1917.
Michael and his brother, William, took over Kortsch Moving and Storage in 1921 following the death of Paul Kortsch Sr., who started the company in 1890.
The two brothers clashed over how to run the business, and not even the presence of their mother Dorothea as company vice president was enough to smooth the waters. When Dora died in 1937 Michael and Hazel Kortsch almost immediately moved to Maywood City, just to the south of warm, sunny Los Angeles. In 1940 he was working as a restaurant proprietor-waiter and Hazel as the cook. Ten years later, Michael was employed as a stock clerk at a glass manufacturing company, and Hazel a clerical worker in a department store.
Michael Kortsch (1890-1965) and Hazel Ross Kortsch (1893-1987) are buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, CA.
Both of their children, Dorothy and Ross, young adults by the mid-1930s, chose to remain in Milwaukee rather than begin new lives in California with their parents.
Dorothy Claire
The baby in the pictures (above), Dorothy Claire, lived at 2418 N. Murray Avenue in 1940 with her husband, Bernard Burgess, a time keeper at Blatz Brewing Company, whom she married in 1938. In 1950 Dorothy C. and her husband, who by then was a senior-level manager at the brewery, had two daughters, Lael, age 9, and Lynn, five, and were living at 3811 N. Farwell in Shorewood.
Dorothy and Bernard’s lives ended suddenly in a car crash on the Ohio Turnpike in 1961 when their car clipped the back end of a truck carrying a load of bacon.
Ross
Like his sister, Ross Kortsch (1917-1989), stayed and raised a family in Milwaukee. He married Lois Drewry Kortsch sometime before 1943, when his military enlistment tells us he was married. By 1950 they also had two daughters: Ann (age 7) and Laurie (age 3). In the same year he was working as a sales manager for a cemetery. What he worked at later in life isn’t known. He’s buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.
Picture Gallery
The remainder of the early Kortsch pictures are below.
