Art Inspiration from Ancestors: Austria/Germany/Hungary/Poland/Russia/Ukraine Embroidery

I like to look at traditional textiles and embroidery to learn about color and pattern. All of these countries contribute to my Ashkenazi heritage. 

So far, my father's paternal ancestry has been traced back to 1737, but the quest for understanding where the family is from is complicated. The province in which my paternal gggg-grandfather was born is now in Poland, but Poland didn't exist at that time. Genealogist cousin Bill explains: "The area was repeatedly partitioned between the Kingdoms of Russia, Prussia, and France. Members of each of the three Friedlob clans could have been born in the same Provence, and have been variously under Russian and/or German occupation at the time - the borders changing with time, without the towns relocating. (I thought I just heard the plaintive strains of the theme from Fiddler on the Roof playing somewhere in the background?)"

Turns out my paternal great-grandfather, who immigrated to the US in 1880, declared Russia as his place of birth. 

My paternal grandmother's parents emigrated in 1883 from Austria. In the 1920 census, they declared that their native language was German. I remember being told that her family was from Austria/Hungary. Boundaries changed often in that area, too.

When I was searching for images to post, I was surprised that so many vintage pieces were not able to be identified specifically by country. Posters would list two or three possibilities. Sometimes arbitrarily imposed national boundaries just don't mean much when you're looking at arts/crafts -- or family histories!

Austrian

Austrian

German

German

Hungarian

Hungarian

Polish

Polish

Russian

Russian

Ukranian

Ukranian