The Stoic Family of Eight by Istvan Locker

An old family photo with 6 boys standing behind a man and woman who are sitting. One of the boys holds a photograph.

What We Know

  • Nothing was written on the back of this photo.
  • Photo was taken in Munkács, Austria-Hungary.
  • “Locker István” is the photographer.
  • One of the boys is holding a photo of two unidentified people.

Hypotheses

  • Family Unit: 2 parents and 6 sons OR 2 grandparents, 2 fathers, and 4 grandsons
  • The unidentified people seem to be a man and woman, but the photo is blurry. It could be a photo of the two oldest people before they had children.

István Locker

After googling this name, I found a couple other photos taken by the same photographer.

volodia222 (eBay)
Munkács Beregszasz

The mounting of this cabinet card is similar to the mystery photo. The logo is identical.

ggaabboo (Flickr)
ca. 1892

Eperjes, Hungary is known today as Prešov, Slovakia. He also could’ve had multiple photography studios, or he might’ve moved at some point during his life.

Nóra Mészöly (Flickr)
Cousins of the Lovcsányi Family

According to Nóra (Nori) Mészöly’s post, Istvan Locker was born 1872 and died 1953. Part of the background in this photo is identical to my mystery photo.

If we assume that István didn’t start his photography studio until at least age 18, the photo was taken between 1890 and 1953.

The older boy on the right resembles Anton, slightly younger than when his military photo was taken. The military photo was taken between 1914-1917, and Anton was born in 1896. His approximate age in the mystery photo is between 13 and 21.

If this boy is Anton, that narrows the date range to between 1909 and 1917.

Anton’s known siblings are:

  1. Minnie (born 1883) immigrated to Duluth in 1903.
  2. Michael (born 1885) immigrated to Duluth between 1904-1908
  3. John (born 1887) immigrated to Duluth between 1910-1911
  4. Josef (born 1891) was still in Czechoslovakia when the 1921 census was recorded. He was the head of household. His mother Anna, wife Anna, brother Anton, and son Johannes (born 1920) were living with him.

Theory

The photo was taken around the beginning of WW1. I think that the two oldest people sitting down are Anton’s parents, Anna and Anton. The older boy on the left is Josef, on the right is Anton. The four younger boys are Josef’s children.

This is only a theory.

Do you see something I missed? Recognize the people in the photo?

Comment down below.