My grandmother, Anastasia Przybylski, was married twice. Her first marriage, on 20 September 1909, was to Stanley Lawecki. That marriage produced a son, Daniel. However, the marriage and family were short-lived. Stanley died on 9 October 1910 of typhoid fever. Daniel passed away about a month later, on 2 November 1910 of cholera infantum.

Quite a while ago, I’d gotten a number of digitized photos from a Plenzler cousin and I’ve been slowly working my way through identifying the people in these photos. I had the photo below and posted it publicly to Facebook to see if I could find anyone who could recognize it. I mentioned that the photo very likely had a Plenzler or a Przybylski connection–my Plenzler cousin and I are actually double cousins as we have the same two great-grandfathers.

Marlene from the Toledo Polish Genealogical Society almost immediately responded. Using AI, she asked me a few questions. I wondered if this was possibly my grandmother and gave her another photo of my grandmother when she was probably a bit older, perhaps 25-30.

Using AI, Marlene did a comparison of the two photos, got a date estimate of the two photos, and an analysis of the clothing. AI estimated the photo from between 1907-1909 based on high lace collar, long sleeves, structured bodice, and pre-1920 hairstyle. The later photo was estimated between 1918-1923 based on looser post-WWI fashion, softer hairstyle, and more informal studio pose.

Marlene then asked for a facial proportion analysis that stated facial proportion analysis manual measurement of facial ratios yielded an average proportional difference of 0.50%. This is extremely small, indicating nearly identical structural relationships between eyes, nose, and mouth. Facial proportions remain stable over a person’s life, so this is strong supporting evidence that the woman in both photos were the same person.

Since AI dated the photo around the time of Anastasia’s marriage to Stanley, I was able to safely conclude that this photo was from her first marriage and the gentleman in the photo was Stanley Lawecki.

I’ve also had a photo of a group of men where I was able to identify Anastasia’s brothers Frank and John. However, I had not been able to guess at the others in the photo. This photo clearly showed that Stanley was in this photo, last on the right of the second row. John Przybylski is in front of Stanley. Frank is to the left of Stanley. I later asked AI to analyze the facial structure of Stanley to the gentleman on the bottom row, last on the left. AI strongly suggested they were brothers. Stanley did have two brothers, Antoni and Joseph. Based on the aging, Antoni would have been approximately 20-25 years old. Antoni was a bit to young, he was born in 1892 so, he would have only been 17. However, Joseph was born in 1887 so he would have been 22 years old.I am still working to identify the other three men in the photo. I am guessing this may have been a photo taken the same day as the wedding portrait as the suit and tie Stanley is wearing appears to be the same. Perhaps these were the groomsmen from the wedding. An educated guess I have for the man in the lower row in the middle is Joseph Erdman, husband of Anastasia’s eldest sister, Marianna. I have no other photos in which to compare. But my hunch is that he is the eldest in the group (born 1865, his age at this time would have been 44).

As usual, the Toledo Polish Genealogical Society did not disappoint me and provided me valuable aid in providing me a realistic identification of Anastasia and Stanley. I’m learning how useful AI can be in genealogical research. If you can help identify others in the photo above, contact me.