Photos - Borchers, Jackel, Fett and More

I recently inherited seven binders and many photos (most are labeled) of my Borchers, Jackel, Fett, and a few more lines.  This is my mom's German ancestry line.  She is half German and many of her ancestor line ended up in Missouri, Minnesota, onto Dakyin, NE and North Dakota, and finally to Napa, CA.  Many of our immigrant ancestors arrived in Baltimore, MD.

As for photos, I have many now.  I love photos.  They are so telling and truly worth a thousand words.

Frederick Jackel circa 1890

Fred Jackel, Henrietta Fett Jackel, and Augusta Jackel 

Frederick Jackel (pronounced Yak-el) was my great great grandmothers adoptive father.  Anna Maria Jackel (Borchers married name, biological surname was Kern) was adopted by Fred Jackel and his wife, Barbara Rausch, sometime in the 1860s.  We do not know what happened to Anna's biological parents but she indicated her birth surname was Kern.  All of her own children knew she was adopted.  This is a good thing since her son William Borchers married Augusta Jackel.

In the second photo, you see Fred, Henrietta and Augusta Jackel.  Fred married Henrietta Fett after his wife, Barbara, passed away and after Henrietta's first husband, Conrad Fett, passed away.  They each had older children by this time in their lives.  Their union produced a child together, Augusta Jackel.  She is pictured with her parents.  It is not known at this time what Henrietta Fett Jackel's maiden name actually was.  I've tried to find that but it is not to be located in records that I have access too.

Photos are pretty amazing.  Putting the name and their story to a face makes working on your family tree that much more interesting.  These people were a huge part in the lives of my great grandfather and his parents plus Augusta moved to California and was the aunt of my grandma.  They were not strangers but part of a community and one that moved west, at that!