This postcard belonged to the Mulder family. As you can see from the reverse side, it was addressed to a Mulder, but which one? What is that bizarre looking letter in front of the surname? Is it C for Charles? For Clara? Is it CC for Charles and Clara? My great-grandparents were Charles and Clara Mulder. Or is it a weird M for Mister? N. Boltwood Street, City. But what city? If I could read that postmark, I would know, but I can’t.
When I look at the 1910 census, I can see that Charles and Clara Mulder lived on Boltwood Street in Hastings, Michigan! They boarded with another young couple, Otto and Mildred Jahnke. Great-grandpa was a machinist at the time–not yet a farmer with his own farm.
It almost looks like a self-addressed card. But not necessarily. If it is, I can take a guess at who the new arrival was: my grandmother! Lucille Edna Mulder was born April 17, 1912. It is also possible that a friend had a baby that same year, and that this was their birth announcement, but I like the idea of it being my grandmother’s.
It was amusing to see that the stork brought the baby through the roof. I’ve never noticed that idea before, figuring that Santa had the roof market to himself. But it makes sense. Storks, with their nests on the roofs of the buildings, are part of the folklore of the Netherlands. That said, the card was printed in Germany, and the family of Grandma’s mother Clara was German, whereas the Mulders were Dutch. So I looked up storks in Germany and, while they do have storks in Germany, they are more common in Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Note: this postcard uses the same way of addressing that the one last week did: using “city” instead of the name of the city itself. The assumption is that it’s used for intra-city correspondence.
The Family Kalamazoo 
I was going to say C or G, comparing it to the C in city. (And it is interesting that “city” was sufficient!) Your comment about Santa having a monopoly on roof access to homes made me chuckle! And that picture—it’s a little scary!
My Dad’s Name was Edward. He made his “E” like a large backward 3 with a line and a squiggly mark through it. I wonder if the card could have been addressed to your grandmother for her to have later? Did she go my Edna? Just a thought?
I love the painting; so much detail. The “C” is what I see and giving the post card to the mail man at some farm so that it is taken into the city sounds right. I wish they would have filled out the front of the card where there is a place for name. Oh well it is a nice mystery that will have to be solved by your ggggrandchildren when they have access to a time machine. I am sure by then they will have figured out how to time travel.
How sweet to have this!! so cute
Another mystery — partly solved! I love that stork and baby picture! I agree — “C”as in City.
C for Charles and Clara then. I like the “E” theory, too, for Edna. I wonder if that was a custom–to send oneself or one’s child a birth announcement as a memento.
It wasn’t that the *card* was only for intra-city mailing, but simply that is was *used* that way. I was born in 1942 in Baltimore, and some of the Welcome Baby cards my parents received were addressed that way – simply “City”. By the time I was in the fourth grade and sending notes from boarding school to my parents and grandparents, Baltimore had one or two digit postal codes. We lived in Baltimore 29, and then moved to Baltimore 6. Zip codes – the five digit ones – came along in the early 60s, if memory serves me.
Sorry. I do tend to wander!
So interesting to see the timeline of changes! I guess city was easier to spell out than a city like Caledonia or Kalamazoo!