I am going to have SUCH a party (when another cousin comes along and positively identifies the women in this photograph)

L-R: One of four Foxman (Fuchs) daughters, Usher Anshil Foxman (Fuchs), unnamed second wife of Usher Anshil.

Thanks to Amy Neifeld, a new-found cousin, I am posting yet another version (I'm up to three now, I think) of this venerable photograph. In previous versions the photograph was cropped at about hip level. I am excited to get to see the older woman's hands and skirt, the man and younger woman's shoes, and the pattern on the floor.

Oh course, it creates more questions than answers. For instance - what is the young woman holding? What's the container on the man's lap? Where are they? At home? In a studio?

Most importantly, and only slightly more tantalizing now than in previous versions - who are they, really?

I can only make an educated guess on the identity of the man in the picture, re-enforced by information passed down to living relatives. The four sisters were Fanny Tsisi, Yetta, Esther Faige, and Ethel. One of my recently discovered cousins resembles this young woman closely, so she, the young woman in the photo, may be Yetta, as that's her (my counsin's) great-great grandmother. But that's a guess. A lot of genealogy is educated guesses, backed up by hunches, some of them accompanied by the hair standing up on the back of someone's neck.

And the older woman? My great Uncle Izzy wrote a short family history crediting Usher Anshil's second wife with bringing up all the Foxman (Fuchs) children, which also included three sons, but he neglected to name his step-grandmother. Usher Anshil's first wife and the mother of his seven children was Sussa Ruchel. Esther Faige was the youngest, born in 1883. According to Uncle Izzy's story Sussa Ruchel died at an early age - if it was not long after Esther was born then probably Sussa Ruchel was only 35 or so when she died. Another guess - this photograph is probably later than 1885, which supports the idea that the older woman is the second wife.

Positive identification of these women would be a pretty awesome party starter. Just sayin.