Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Lvov is in the Ukraine, isn't it? It's a bit of a clue that you used German spelling of the city name too.
hahaha... I had to learn all about that too. If you look at the bottom of the frame of the first photo, you will see that it says Lwow. Some of the other photos have preprinted things on the back and they also have it spelled Lwow. So I did some asking about this and found out
Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів L’viv, IPA: [lʲwiu̯] ( listen); Polish: Lwów, pronounced [lvuf]; Russian: Львов, L'vov; German: Lemberg and Yiddish Lemberg. Nowadays city of Lviv is called Lviv by the Ukrainians, Lwów by the Poles, and Lemberg by the Austrians
Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
I have no idea why your forebears would have lived there, but been associated with the Habsburg empire. Maybe I am lacking something in my history skills. Did they emigrate to the USA?
My grandmother was born there when it was still Austria. She moved here in 1907. Several of her aunts and an uncle moved here as well, some before and some after her. After she died two years ago, we found all these letters that she had kept that were written in German and a number of photos had writing on the back too, like postcards... others had no information at all and we are clueless as to who the people in them are. It's really sad as she had gone over most of the photos with me several times over the years and I tried to document them, but then after she died, we found all of these and even my dad had never seen them before and now there is no one left around to ask.

Quote Originally Posted by it-ogo View Post
It 's tricky.
The kind of cap and collar on the second photo is typical for Austria-Hungarian Empire. The medal looks like one of The Crown Jubilee Crosses of 1908.
First photo probably is a kind of civil service uniform.
it-ogo, wow, that looks very close to what he is wearing. it is a shame the photo is not in color so we could match it up to the grid. I did not see anything on the page about his belt.

About the medal, you also seem to be correct.. I found this out:

Het kruis voor militairen


Voor de strijdkrachten was er het “Militär-Jubiläumskreuz.
Het Kruis voor militairen werd ingesteld op 10 augustus 1908. Het decreet werd op 18 augustus 1908 gepubliceerd. Het kruis was bestemd voor alle officieren, onderofficieren en soldaten van de Oostenrijks-Hongaarse strijdkrachten. Ook de militaire ambtenaren op het ministerie in Wenen en bij de verschillende staven kwamen in aanmerking voor het militaire kruis. De reserveofficieren kwamen niet voor het kruis in aanmerking.
In het zeer sterk in rangen en standen ingedeelde Oostenrijk waren het leger en met name de officieren die een eigen "kaste" binnen de maatschappij vormden zeer in aanzien. De monarchie van de Habsburgers steunde op de trouw van deze officieren omdat de landen van de Habsburgse keizer politiek en maatschappelijk zeer verdeeld waren.
Het criterium voor verlening was een periode van drie jaar in dienst van het leger of de marine in de periode tussen 2 december 1898 en 2 december 1908. Er was nog geen luchtmacht.
Ook de overlevende veteranen van de veldtocht tijdens de revolutie en burgeroorlog van 1848-1849 en alle personen, waaronder ook de civiele medewerkers van de verschillende militaire scholen, instituten en militaire weeshuizen ontvingen wanneer zij op de steekdatum 2 december 1908 in dienst waren het militaire Jubileumskruis.
Het werd ook toegekend aan de derde en hogere leergangen van de verschillende Militaire scholen. Zij moesten om in aanmerking te komen voor het kruis ten minste 2 jaar militaire training hebben ontvangen.
Ook de aspirant-officieren die als reserve-officieren werden opgeleid tijdens het vervullen van de militaire dienstplicht kwamen, in wat hun “Zweites Präsenzjahr”werd genoemd, in aanmerking voor het militaire kruis.In de Eerste Wereldoorlog werden nogmaals militaire kruisen toegekend aan reserveofficieren die in 1908 wel tot de reserve behoorden maar het kruis niet hadden ontvangen
Google translate of the above...
The Cross for soldiers

For the armed forces was the "Militär-Jubiläumskreuz.
The Cross for soldiers was established on 10 August 1908. The decree was published on August 18, 1908. The cross was for all officers, NCOs and soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian forces. The military officials at the ministry in Vienna and at the variousbars were eligible for the military cross. The reserve officers were not eligible for the cross.

In the highly classified into ranks and positions Austria were the army and especially the officers who own "caste" in society were very much in appearance. The monarchy of the Habsburgs relied on the loyalty of these officers because the countries of the Habsburgemperor politically and socially very divided.

The criterion for the grant was a period of three years in the service of the army or navy in the period between December 2, 1898 and December 2, 1908. There was no air force.

The surviving veterans of the campaign during the revolution and civil war of 1848-1849 and all persons, including civilian employees of the various military schools, military institutions and orphanages when they received the knitting date December 2, 1908 were employed by the military Jubilee Cross .

It was also awarded to the third and higher courses of the various military schools. They had to qualify for the cross at least 2 years of military training has been provided.
The prospective officers as reserve officers were trained during the performance ofmilitary service were, in their "Zweites Präsenzjahr" was called into account for the military cross.

In the First World War military again crosses awarded to reserve officers in 1908 it belonged to the reserve but the cross had not received