06 May 2008

I always thought they were Short

It seemed to me that most of my branch of the Trautvetter clan were not very tall. It appears now that I was mistaken. In looking at the Illinois "old men's draft" cards available on FamilySearch Labs, I found my great-grandfather's brother, Henry Trautvetter.




The first image here is the front of the card, providing information on his name, place of birth, and employer.






The back side of his card indicates he was 6 foot 4 inches tall---a height I was not expecting. I didn't think any older members of this family were that tall. And his weight was only 140 pounds. Thinking there might be an error and that he was actually 5 foot 4 inches tall, I decided to view his World War I draft card.



Sure enough, that card, while not providing a specific height, indicates he was "tall." The image at the bottom of this post is Uncle Henry's World War I draft card. It is a little difficult to see, but his height is marked in the upper left hand corner of the back of the card (right half of the image) as being tall. So the entry on the World War 2 draft card likely is not an error.


I won't comment on the fact that he only weighed 140 pounds....





Henry is a brother to George Adolph Trautvetter (1869-1934), my great-grandfather.