I sent the photo to the website creator Chris Dale who was able to tell me the following:
I would say your great grandfather was an NCO in a Dragoon Cavalry Regiment. The white cuff decorative lace and white helmet plume shows us it is one of two regiments-
- 2. Garde-Dragoner-Regt. Kaiserin Alexandra von Rußland (Berlin) Garde-Korps
- Dragoner-Regt. Königin Olga (1. Württembergisches) Nr.25 (Ludwigsburg) XIII Armee Korps
You say he was Prussian? Then it’s probably the first of those options based in Berlin.
He also suggested that I post the photo to the Pickelhaubes forum. So as I wait for my account on the forum to be activated I’ve been trying to use what information I’d gotten to find some military records on Ancestry.
TRANSLATION: Rahn, Ernst Friedrich, Field = Secretary Post u. Head d. Fieldpost = Expedition
1. Cavalry = Division
|
The above I found under Germany & Austria, Military and Marine Unit Histories, 1760-1930 in my Ancestry military records search, but the record was published 1870—about the same year Ernst was born.I was thinking that maybe it could be his father or something.
I also found which was under Rank and District of the Royal Prussian Army, 1890; it provides information on what I think is the 1. Kaiserin Alexandra Garde-Korps, but I think I could be wrong about that.