Joseph Cohn (b. 1832) and his wife Johanna ('Hannchen') Jacobsohn (b.1831) were both from Filehne, in Posen, Prussia (now Wielen, Poland). Their son, Heimann ('Heinrich') Cohn (b. 1864 in Aschenbude, Posen) owned the clothing business 'Warenhaus H Cohn' in Filehne. Heinrich Cohn married Ella Lesheim (1878-1955). They had three sons: Harry (1902-1916), Herbert (1904-2002) and Paul (1906-1985). Ella's parents were Aron (b. 1845) and Hedwig Lesheim (née Sussmann, 1848-1939). Hedwig helped Heinrich and Ella leave Poland to keep their German nationality in 1920 by requesting that they be able to stay with her in Berlin.

Ella's brother Bruno Lesheim and his wife Anna lived together with Bruno's sister Betty (b. 1879 in Jacobshagen) and her husband Leonhard Simonsohn. They had a daughter, Margot. Ella's brother Bruno Lesheim and Betty's husband Leonhard Simonsohn (1879-1941) owned the furniture company, Carl Böhm.

Ella Cohn was the only one of her siblings to survive the Holocaust. Betty was murdered at Riga concentration camp in 1942. Ella's brother Bruno was killed in 1941. Ella and Heinrich emigrated to England by ship via Genova to Southampton in 1939. Heinrich died in London in 1947. The collection does not reveal how their sons emigrated. However, Herbert, who changed his name to Curtis, died in London in 2002 and Paul Cohn died in Amsterdam in 1985.