Hi! I just inherited this picture from my grandmother. She has severe dementia, which is why I cannot ask her this question. Here is my great-uncle in his military uniform. The frame says he was in the Polish army, which can't be true, since the picture was taken in 1900 and there was no Polish army during that period. My family is from Krakow, which was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but I am not sure if he joined this army or not, since I do not know where he lived in Poland during this time period. Due to its age, its very hard to tell, and while I have a degree in german with a focus on Austro-Hungarian empire, I do not know their uniforms., though I can tell you how the Habsburg dynasty got its start. lol I am just trying to solve a family mystery and understand this amazing family heirloom i just received, since my grandmother sadly can no longer and no one thought to ask before. And yes i know these are shitty photos. Its extremely old and faded and I am trying to be careful with the light to not degrade it further. I apologize.
That looks like the uniforms worn by cavalry regiments of the army of the kingdom of Galicia, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. After losing their war with Prussia in 1866, the Hapsburgs made major concessions to the Hungarians and substantial concessions to the Polish portion of their empire. The Kingdom of Galicia did not have as much independence as Hungary, but it did have a lot of autonomy in local affairs and used Polish as the official language for government functions. Norman Davies devoted the second longest chapter to the Kingdom of Galicia in his book "Vanished Kingdoms: The rise and fall of states and nations" (2011).
http://www.KuK-wehrmacht.de/img/oe1898_04.jpg
Here is a picture (http://imgur.com/blaV3SQ) of my Great-Grandfather and my Great-Great-Grandfather posed together during World War 1. They came from a small town named Zolochiv that currently is in Ukraine, but then was in the Austrian Hungarian Empire in the Galicia region. That town is about 5 hours due east of Krakow.
My family always referred to them as being in the Polish Army as well which my guess is referring to one of these legions listed in this wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Legions_in_World_War_I
My great-grandfather and his father served in different divisions, as you can tell by their different collars and hats.
Both of them have what seems to be a khaki uniform on while your great uncle looks to be wearing Navy.
