The lady pictured, Hannah Masie, was a respected and well-known personality in Königsberg at the turn of the century, as she ran the kosher “Hotel Masie” in the Hintere Vorstadt 51. Hannah Masie and her husband Hirsch came from Mir (today: Belarus). Around 1859 the young couple went only 50 km further west to Nowogródek and left the Pale of settlement after 1860, and settled 450 km further west in Königsberg. Two more sons were born there. Königsberg had many Jewish immigrants of similar origin around the turn of the century.