A RESEARCH NOTE (below) includes a brief biography of the baby boy.
This postcard photograph shows a plump baby boy with a thoughtful expression.
We can learn somethiing about the winsome infant because a thoughtful soul inscribed the baby’s full name and age on the reverse.
That the photograph was made by an identified studio enables to us to learn much more about “Frank Samuel Groff”.
Frank is seated upright, wearing a white outfit with tiny white shoes.
He is holding a round object, but I cannot discern if this is a ball, a ball of yarn, or some other round thing.
It is probably unwise to ascribe a character to a 9-month-old infant, but the boy seems to have a personality.
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The photograph was made by “D. W. Faulk, Artistic Photographer” in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
Coatesville, once a Lenape village, is now a city on the Brandywine River in Chester County of southeast Pennsylvania.
The city grew up on the “Lancaster -Philadelphia Turnpike” which extended westward through this area from Philadelphia -39 miles to the east.
In the early 20th century, the Lukens Steel Mill dominated the city’s economy and appearance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatesville,_Pennsylvania
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RESEARCH NOTE
In April of 1919, Frank Samuel Groff was born in Coatesville, PA
He was the son of Ira Park Groff (1886-1961) and Grace Alberta Foltz (1883-1959).
Ira and Grace had been married in October of 1911.
Frank had two older sisters who lived past 1990, but his younger brother died at age 15.
When Frank registered for the draft in 1940, it was noted that he stood 5’11”, and weighed 145 pounds.
He had black hair and blue eyes; he was employed by a machine company (I believe it was a printer – based on a type-setting patent application of the business owner).
In July of 1947, when he was 28, Frank married Doris Esther Douglas (1925-2014).
The couple had no children.
After their marriage, the life of Frank and Doris is hard to trace through records.
Frank died in Clearwater, Florida in July of 2012.
Doris died in Locust Grove, Virginia in 2014.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/GGM6-34P
