Blogs which describe moments in my life, or the lives of my family.
Unlike Ivnia, the estate owned by my maternal side of the family, which I wrote about here, Nurmhusen, the estate owned by my father’s family, has had quite the positive change in fortune. I’ve written previously about Nurmhusen here. Since my last visit in 2017, the estate has seen major
Millions died in Soviet Gulags during their time of operation from 1918 – 1953. Luckily my great uncle was not one of them. I have written previously about finding letters and documents concerning my great aunt, her husband and their daughter. However, I was interested to know more about my
Mental fragility – it can happen to anyone and is often triggered by traumatic events. Last week I wrote about my grandmother’s grief and depression, which gave me food for thought – perhaps she had always suffered from mental fragility? I thought I would explore this idea. I know my
When my grandfather, Paul Woronoff, died in 1969 my grandmother, Olga, was devastated. She was 76 years old when he died, and they had been happily married for fifty five and a half years. Olga was not quite 21 years old when she married Paul and he was her whole
Some documents can be helpful when you are tracing the history of your ancestors. Obviously birth, marriage and death certificates give you plenty of information as do immigration documents and census records. But even unofficial documents can help discover what sort of lives your ancestors lived – like their resumes.
During and after World War II, both of my father’s sisters were nurses. My Aunt Sigrid, the eldest, six years older than my father, began training as a nurse at the age of 18, in 1931, – the minimum age at the time. At the time my father’s family were