Friday's Faces from the Past: Charles Coff

Today's face from the past is Charles Coff. There are three photos of Charles  my great-grandmother's Minnie Crane's album from 1917.  Two are duplicates of a formal portrait of Charles and the third is a family photo of what looks like him and his siblings. Both images have an inscription in the back, yet I have no idea who he is. I don't know the nature of his relationship to Minnie was, besides a "deep friendship" as he describes. My guess is that he was another of her suitors. He looks quite young in these photos.

Here is what Ancestry has to say about Mr. Charles Coff:

Charles Coff lived in Hartford as early as 1914, at first with his sister Sophia and then with the rest of his family, his mother Rose (widow of Moses, brother Samuel and sister Anna. Charles worked both as a barber and a clerk. His two sisters were dressmakers and his younger brother was a student.

Hartford City Directory 1914

Hartford City Directory 1916

Hartford City Directory 1917

Charles, or rather Charels Moses Coff, registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. He was born in Cherson, Russia, on March 18, 1894, making him 23 years old when the above photos were taken. Minnie would have been 21 then. He has not yet become a US citizen. Here he listed himself as a salesman and single.

Charels Moses Coff, 1917 Draft Registration Card

In 1919 he is listed as a student. This means he most likely was not drafted nor did he enlist. He also did not die during the influenza epidemic of 1918 which took the lives of so many young men.

Hartford City Directory 1919

After this I loose Charles and the rest of the Coff clan. I can't find them in the 1920. It's very likely the family moved.

These are such nice quality photos, I bet his descendants if he had any, would love to see them.

Have a wonderful weekend!