Born: Alexander Sandor Svoboda Other: A. Svoboda Other: Alex Svoboda
Born: 1826 - Ottoman Empire, Mesopotamia [now Iraq], Baghdad Died: 1896 - Ottoman Empire, [now Greece], Chios Gender: Male Active: India, Turkey, England
Painter and photographer who travelled widely. Bombay (now Mumbai), India 1850s; Baghdad, Ottoman Empire (now Iraq) 1857-58; Smyrna (formerly Izmir), Ottoman Empire (now Iraq) 1859-?; London 1880s and 90s; Constantinople 1895+ Turkey. In the 1850s providing travel albums of photographs to tourists.
(Bronwyn Higgs , pers. email, 29 November 2022) {it is often stated that he was of Russian origin] There is, however, no evidence that he was of Russian ancestry. Rather he was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1826, the eldest child of a Hungarian father and an Iraqi mother (of Armenian heritage). Many sources incorrectly identify Svoboda's heritage, variously describing him as Russian, German, Hungarian etc. Yet, his father was Hungarian, as were his grand-parents and great grand-parents. His father, Anton Svoboda, was a glass merchant specialising in Bohemian crystal, who travelled to Baghdad in the early 19th century to sell glassware, married a local Iraqi woman and raised a family of eleven children in Baghdad. The name, Svoboda, is of Czech-Hungarian origin (definitely not Russian). See references below.
Genealogy of Alexander Svoboda
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
