A family portrait

So, it's not an actual family portrait, or even a picture in the normal sense of the word, but to me, it paints a picture in words of a large and close family.

In the June 27, 1907 issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, there's a wedding announcement for George W. Mooney and Lilly A. Kucker. Up until this past week, I had never heard either name before, but I was using www.fultonhistory.com to look up newspaper articles with either the name "Ed Haase" or "Gus Haase" (I don't remember which one - they both appear in the wedding announcement), and this story turned up because Gustav Haase, my great great grandfather, was the best man and the groom was his cousin. Besides saying who performed the ceremony and what the bride wore, the announcement goes on to list many of the people in attendance and that list is a veritable smorgasbord of Haases, Reinhardts, Meinbergs, and Ricklefs. Any relative of George and Gustav's that was alive at that time seems to have been there, and even relatives of relatives who neither of them were related to, but who I am. You see names listed so often and grouped only with immediate family so often that you sometimes forget that people are connected to an extended, multigenerational family who lived near each other, lived with each other, and celebrated the special moments in each others' lives together.

So, among those present were:
Gustav Haase, my great great grandfather
George Mooney, the groom, who was Gustav's cousin
George's parents, Edward/Edwin and Louise (Haase) Mooney - Louise was Gustav's aunt, sister to his father.
Edward and Eva Meinberg Haase, Gustav's parents and my 3rd great grandparents
Frederick and Florence Haase - Frederick was Edward and Louise's brother
Louis and Elizabeth Haase - Louis was Edward, Frederick, and Louise's brother
Joseph and Nettie (Haase) Steiner - Nettie was Louis, Edward, Frederick, and Louise's sister
George and Josephine (Haase) Silberberg - so, with Josephine, we have all the children of Charles and Barbara (Reinhardt) Haase accounted for at this wedding. But there's more...

We also have, John Steiner, Jr. - George and Gustav's cousin
Mrs. Hellman - that would be Catherine Nehr Meinberg Hellman, my 4th great grandmother, and mother to Eva Meinberg Haase, the groom's aunt by marriage
Mrs. B. Haase - Barbara Reinhardt Haase, my 4th great-grandmother and grandmother of the groom (and best man)
Mrs. B. Haase is followed by Mrs. Lutz, Mrs. Thomsen, and Mrs. Schaffer in the list. Those would be Barbara's sisters - Kate Reinhardt Lutz, Wilhelmina Reinhardt Thomsen, and Elizabeth Reinhardt Schaffer.

There is also a Miss Ricleffs listed, who, since they got married five months later, would probably be my great-great grandmother Meta, who was the girlfriend/fiancee/future wife of the best man, and then also Marion Williams, the flower girl, who was the adopted daughter of Barbara Haase.

Now, in addition to that, there are several names on the guest list that are familiar to me, in particular Henry Merwin, who was a witness at Gustav and Meta's wedding, but looking up other newspaper stories it appears that Gustav Haase, George Mooney, John Steiner, the boys' other cousin George Silberberg, and wedding guests Henry Merwin, Robert Elliott, Charles Mack, and William Kucker (brother of the bride) all ran in the same circle and belonged to the same group of friends. Not only is it kind of cool to see that several of these Haase cousins were friends with each other, but for some reason it really strikes a cord in me to see not only family but good friends celebrating this milestone in the life of one of their own.

Like I said, not a picture per se - but a nice family portrait nonetheless.