Old Lillig Family Photo

This is a very old photo, perhaps from the very earliest days of photography. My grandmother gave it to me but she didn't know who the people were. The back is simply written "LILLIG FAMILY". The original is very faint and has no constrast so I have tried different techniques to try to enhance it. These are some of the results. The original scan is above. Feel free to try your hand at enhancing it. Single click on it twice slowly to get the full file then right click to save it. Let me know how you do.

I have struggled with this photograph over the years. At first I thought the subjects in it didn't fit the family structures of any Lillig family in my records and it seemed like a mystery that would never be solved. But now I think the youngest man, standing on the left, is Peter Lillig senior. It was later when I found death records that things started to make sense. He was the youngest of eight children but only four survived to adulthood. This is only speculation but I think this is as follows: standing, Peter, Nicolas, Mathias, and their father Georg, then seated is their mother, Margaretha and the only surviving sister, Maria.

There is still a problem with the dates that would make this photo date in the early 1840s. If that is truly the case there aren't many photographs older than this. The copy I have is of a later photographic process but it was common to copy old photographs in a newer technology just as we do today. The copy process would explain much of the 'noise' or blemishes. These are not dirt smudges or nicks in the copy but rather appear to be a result of the marks on the older original.

You mention the platform and that made me study it again. If the original photo was as old as I think there would have been no way to produce a good photo indoors. Flash would have come later. So if this was outdoors it would make sense that they would perhaps use an existing wood sidewalk, throw up a drape for a backdrop and use the sunlight to take a shorter exposure photo. I think you helped solve this. Don’t you think that looks like a 1800s sidewalk? You have to think this was outdoors, going against what we think of as a photo studio. A photographer probably went from town to town with his novelty rather than having a fixed studio in the city. Who knows? Maybe part of some travelling troupe?

I have colored the names of the parents and the children who survived here.

Descendants of Johann Georg Lillig

1 Johann Georg Lillig b: Abt. 1777 d: November 13, 1842 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
. +Margaretha Georgen m: Abt. 1802
............. 2 Maria Joanna Lillig b: October 27, 1803 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany d: May 24, 1809 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Anna Lillig b: October 21, 1806 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany d: December 18, 1806 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Johann Lillig b: December 25, 1807 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany d: June 05, 1809 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Nicolas Lillig b: March 27, 1810 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
................ +Anna Maria Harig m: February 28, 1843 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Mathias Lillig b: February 22, 1813 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
................ +Maria Thiel m: February 19, 1849 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Peter Lillig b: August 17, 1815 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany d: July 06, 1818 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Maria Joanna Lillig b: December 21, 1818 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany
............. 2 Peter Lillig b: December 11, 1821 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany d: September 03, 1892 in Kansas City, Wyandotte, Kansas
................ +Regina Michels b: January 12, 1837 in Mitlosheim, Saarland, Germany m: August 27, 1857 in Rimlingen, Saarland, Germany d: February 08, 1907 in Kansas City, Wyandotte, Kansas