What does this say?

I’m always amazed when I look and look and look at something and then one day, something new pops up out of the blue.  This picture is the newest example. 



The adorable young girl is my great grandmother, Bertha “Birdie” Schwartz, with her parents, Louis and Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz, and older brother, Joseph Schwartz.  Birdie looks to be about 5 years old here so I would guess this photo to be from about 1877 or so.

I found the photo after cleaning out my parents’ storage unit four years ago and surprising even myself, immediately scanned it.  I’m normally not that organized but for some reason, I felt compelled to get it done right away.  Phew.

My husband has been dabbling in matting and framing and is always happy to frame whatever gem I find and want framed.  So I put this photo, along with some other things, into a pile on the dining room table for framing at a later time.  My guess is that in a moment of cleaning the house and needing to clean off the dining room table for guests, the pile of things to be framed was stashed away and try as we might, we couldn’t remember where we’d put them.  Come on, you know you’ve done this, too.

Finally, last week my husband was cleaning out a closet and there it was!  Not somewhere we would have ever guessed (getting old sure sucks) but it didn’t matter, the missing items were no longer missing!  So he brought them back out so I could tell him how I wanted things matted and framed.

And then I turned over the picture and saw this.  How did I not remember that it was there?



So what does it say?  Is it an address?  Name?  Both?  I really, really think this could be a clue to Louis’ family that he left behind in Shildberg, Prussia when he left home in about 1851.  And since I know virtually nothing about that family, I hope my hunch is right.

Anyone?