UPDATE: The Vierhuffs’ photo has been returned and has gone home to a direct descendant.

Meet mother Wally Vierhuff and her children Karin and Gert.

I found the photo in Estonia. They were Baltic Germans, a minority that resided in the Baltics for over 700 years up until 1939.

I’ve found the mother and daughter on the platform geni.com (click on the name to land on the person’s Geni profile). Anna Mary Wally Vierhuff née Schulinus was born in 1888 in Latvia to parents Arnold Alfons Joseph Schulinus and Elisabeth Marie Schulinus. She passed away in 1949 in Klotzsche, Germany. Her children’s father was Leonhard Gotthard Vierhuff.

Karin Vera Vierhuff was born in May 1913. She passed away in 1966 in Leverkusen, Germany.

While I did not find much on the mother and daughter, I did find many references to Gert Vierhuff on Ancestry.com.

Gert Vierhuff was born in July 1922 in Latvia. It is very likely that his family resettled to Germany before WWII broke out. His wife Margitta née Hauptmann was born in August 1926 in Germany. Their two sons Thomas (born 1952) and Christian (born 1956) were born in Essex, Great Britain, but I find no other reference to their life in Great Britain. Gert and his family set sail to America on board the vessel “Berlin” departing from Bremerhaven, in 1959. The sponsor to receive the Vierhuffs in America was a certain Mr. William Watson from Bison, South Dakota. I’ve not been able to establish the obvious reason of his sponsorship of the Vierhuff family.

Gert and Margitta became US citizens in 1964 in Anchorage, Alaska. He died in August 2008. He had been a widow for 23 years.

According to the paper trail, both sons Christian and Thomas Vierhuff seem to be alive today. There are some records of Christian living in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1990s. And his brother Thomas might be living in Achorage, Alaska. I’ve found one e-mail address and reached out to one of them in the hopes of them wanting this photograph. No reply yet, keep your fingers crossed that I found the correct email address and the email reached him!

If you know a family called Vierhuff, please let me know and let’s return this photo!