This is an intriguing postcard:  The sender wrote her message in German in very small writing, starting at the top of the bell, and continuing on all of the holly leaves. I think the message needs to be translated by someone fluent in German, as the writing is just too small to make out without one being already familiar with the language. It starts out  “Liebe Louise,”  (Dear Louise.) After that, yikes! But how very skillful of the sender! On the card is printed,  “A Merry Christmas,”  and then the sender wrote,  “for my dear friend Louise with love from Emma.”  The top right holly leaf contains the address, “New York, 1[??] W. 45th St.”  Too bad the full street number got smudged.

Searching for Emma in the city directories on Ancestry.com in Manhattan, with a keyword of “W. 45 St.” and with a street number in the 100 range, did not bring up any matches. The next possibility would be to search for the Enumeration District for the census records of 1900 or 1910, for W. 45th Street. Fortunately, there is an excellent website that helps us narrow down the EDs. Click here to search the site. Searching for 100 – 199 W. 45th St. in Manhattan shows eleven EDs for the 1900 Federal Census and ten for the 1910. So, without knowing the exact street number, it would be a long and tedious search process, unless one were to get lucky and hit on the right ED early on. We’ll leave the search for the sender then and move on to the addressee:  “Mrs. P. Franzel, 323 Marguerite Ave, Portland, Ore.”

This one was easy:  Peter and Louise Franzel and their daughter Louise V. Franzel show up at the above address on the 1910 Federal Census for Portland. They were not living at that address on the 1900. The couple are listed as born in Austria, Peter in about 1869 and Louise in about 1879. Daughter Louise, who is ten months old, was born in Oregon, about June 1909, as the census was taken in April. Peter’s occupation is Cement Contractor, his immigration year is 1881, and the couple has been married about three years, so they must have been married in 1906, since the card is dated that year. A search for the marriage shows the date as October 30th. Finding Louise’s maiden name was a little tricky, as it turned out there was a typo for her first name in the index, showing “Souise.” But she is Louise A. Kisswetter. (A correction was submitted in Ancestry.com.)

Undivided back, embossed, used postcard. Publisher unknown. Outgoing postmark December 24, 1906 from New York, New York. Incoming postmark December 28, 1906 in Portland, Oregon.

Price:  $15.00

Sources:  Year: 1910; Census Place: Portland Ward 7, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: T624_1288; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0187; FHL microfilm: 1375301. (Ancestry.com)

Oregon State Library; Oregon Marriage Indexes, 1906-2006; Reel: 1; Years: 1906-1910. (Ancestry.com)