Hanging in the sunlit parlour of my grandparents’ Madrid flat was an elegantly framed sepia-toned photograph that showed a family of comfortable means seated and standing before the painted backdrop of a photographer’s studio. It had been taken in 1882 by Augusto Baroni, a prominent nineteenth century photographer based in the Italian Alpine lakeside resort of Riva del Garda. Behind it, my grandfather had identified each of the subjects with his small, precise handwriting. But apart from their names, I knew very little about them.
Who were these people? Where did they come from? What happened to their lives and who were their descendants?
A PORTRAIT IN SEPIA
This book traces the Wöhler family of Gotland from its earliest known origins in the Harz mountains of 16th century Germany, through the tumultuous events in the 19th century that took it first to the isle of Rügen, then to the Grand Dukes’ courts in Ludwigslust and Schwerin, to the Revolutionary Parliament of Frankfurt, and finally to Sweden, where it prospered and grew. Through the genealogical records compiled by don Carlos Wöhler, Civil Engineer and lifelong resident of Spain from 1915 to 1982, their lives and those of their descendants are examined, as are the various lineages that combined to make up their bloodlines.
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THE PHOTO ALBUMS
(2012, 28:16 minutes)
Thirty years after my grandfather passed away I opened the boxes of family documents and photo albums that he left me. This film tells the story of the life and times of an expatriate Swede in Spain made entirely from images found in his personal photo albums.
