Need help deciphering a letter written in German in 1887

Question

Google (of all things) came up with a letter possibly addressed to a current "person of interest", written in 1887, the year she (supposedly) (finally) got married. I Can't Read The Dratted Handwriting, but I think the letter starts off with the letter-writer expressing happiness about some news,  so it's all ...annoyingly enticing.

https://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/wbrobv02/content/pageview/3403309

I don't need to know everything it says. I just want to know if it looks like the right person (Johanna Thavonat, 1843-1904, baroness, wife of Albert Szent-Györgyi [no, not that Albert]), and if it is, whether it says anything about her marriage.

(I have the dismissal-and-announcements entry from the Hungarian Reformed church on Calvin square in Budapest [because the groom was of that faith], which is dated 30 Jan 1887, but that just tells me when and where the wedding wasn't.)

Answer 1

That's an interesting piece of the past, albeit a bit hard to read.

It is definitely addressed to Johanna Thavonat and calls her by the nickname "Hansi".

From what I could decipher, he (the one writing the letter) is very happy for her about a certain decision, and I am pretty sure he is talking about her marriage, as he talks about her new "Hausstand" (household) and on the last page he tells her to greet her "Gatte in spe", meaning the "husband about to be".

Then he talks about his wife being sick, apparently of a severe depression of some sort if I understood it correctly ("Nervenverstimmung und Melancholie" = nervous affection and melancholy).

You may also be interested to know that the letter is signed "Großpapa" (grandpa), but I can't read the name after that. So this could have been her grandfather writing and congratulating her - but he uses the polite form (Sie instead of du) and also talks about his daughter, which should be her sister? I am a bit puzzled by that...

Comments

The archive attributes the letter to one "Robert Byr", apparently also known as Carl Emmerich Robert (von) Bayer (or various bits and pieces of same), and I can see a reading of "Bayer" for the signature. (Not easily. But it is a signature.)

The daughter of one's grandfather would be one's aunt or mother, but Johanna's mother was Eleonora Stettner. (That's one of the few things I can sort of make out from the birth/baptism record.) I think the relationship with the letter-writer must be some sort of "honorary grandpa" thing, because if the archive is right, he was only eight years Johanna's senior.

There's another letter from him (or, well, someone with exactly the same handwriting), from 1888, addressed to "Lolo", whom the archive identifies as "Lolo von Thavonat", but I don't know based on what. The bottom of page 2 of that letter says something about "Szentgyörgyi" (https://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/wbrobv02/content/pageview/3403364). It appears to be signed "your old Bayer" (or something like that).

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Ah yes, aunt or mother, I got confused there .

Maybe the grandpa thing refers to the fact that he himself just became a grandfather, because he briefly mentions in one sentence that his daughter gave birth, which seemed to have caused some distress; the passage on the second page reads "Wir glaubten, nach der Niederkunft meiner Tochter über alles Beängstigende hinweg zu sein [...]." (We thought we were over everything scary after my daughter's delivery.).

This letter also mentions someone named Lolo on the last page, asking Johanna to greet her and: "Sie sollte sich an Ihnen ein gutes Beispiel nehmen." (She should take a good example from you.) - which probably means that, in his opinion, she should get married, too.

The signature could be Bayer or Bayr.

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In the other letter, he talks about vacation plans and that he does not know, where Szentgyörgyi wants to go that year. It is indeed signed "Ihr alter Bayer" (your old Bayer).

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BTW, Robert von Bayer has a German wikipedia article: Robert von Bayer

He was an author and Robert Byr was his pen name.

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Yesterday I tried to decipher the first letter, but it was hard and I couldn't take too much time …

But follow a bit your discussion and your results is very fascinating …

Thanks!