Old photographs kick-started my family history research. Old family belongings continue to pique my curiosity.

Among other miscellaneous items that apparently came from the household of my husband's Irish-American grandparents was an old-fashioned hair clipper. Markings on the handle of this particular set of clippers read: "Lauterjung, Germany." Lauterjung is a German company famous for its knives. 

I rely on Wikipedia explanations when I want to learn something quickly: "Hair clippers comprise a pair of sharpened comb-like blades in close contact one above the other and...which slide sideways relative to each other...The clipper is moved so that hair is positioned between the teeth of the comb, and cut with a scissor action when one blade slides sideways relative to the other... Hair clippers are operated by a pair of handles which are alternately squeezed together and released. Barbers used them to cut hair close and fast...Manual clippers were invented between 1850 and 1890 by Nikola Bizumić, a Serbian barber."

Once again, I'm left with questions about the item's original owner. (You may recall my posting earlier this month about an old railroad key, which I conclude came from John Quinn, one of Bill's grandmother's brothers.)

A younger brother, Frank Quinn, was a barber, and he's my best guess as to the owner of the hair clipper.  I blogged about Frank Quinn in 2014, after finding a quit-claim deed signed by his siblings after his death. Frank operated a barbershop in Minneapolis with a partner, “Gebo and Quinn.” Frank never married or had children. His death certificate showed he died 22 March 1933, at about age 52, of acute alcoholism. The Minneapolis Star reported Frank’s body had been found around midnight in a boxcar at Main Street and E. Hennepin Ave. Bill's grandmother, Catherine Quinn Hickey, seems to have been the keeper of family memorabilia. Here I am, 85 years after Frank's death, holding the clippers and thinking about his short life.