Eight addresses in as many years – tracing my grandparents’ footsteps

It’s been two months since I last posted, but I have a reasonably good excuse. I’m putting my apartment on the market and have spent these weeks sorting, packing and cleaning, as well as overseeing tradesmen. This week my apartment officially went on sale, which doesn’t mean I can relax but at least the majority of the work has been done and I now just have to keep everything clean and tidy.

As many of you already know, next year I’m planning to walk in the footsteps of my maternal grandparents, Paul and Olga Woronoff, to follow their journey from Istanbul to Paris and then to various places in the south of France. I have been noting down as many addresses as I can find for them and have so far found that, from March 1920 to June 1928, they lived in at least eight, and perhaps nine, different places, and that’s not including shorter stays in hotels. Now I have also relocated many times in my life but certainly not that many in such a short time frame!

Of course there is a big difference between the moves my grandparents made and the one I am making. At the time my grandparents had very few material belongings, they certainly didn’t have a house full of furniture to organise. They had escaped from Russia at the beginning of 1920 with not much more than a handful of clothes and a small amount of jewellery. Unfortunately, as my grandmother noted in her memoir, she left most of her jewellery in a bank in Russia, thinking it would be safer there.  And, as my grandparents didn’t own the properties they were leaving, they didn’t have to go through all the rigamarole that selling involves. They would have simply packed their bags and left for the next furnished rooms or apartment.

Although I know their reasons for leaving a couple of the places, I wish I knew what prompted them to leave some of the others. So far I haven’t found many clues in the notes my grandmother left behind. I can surmise that at times they relocated to be closer to family, but I am not sure. Perhaps my grandparents were forced to relocate often because of circumstances I know nothing about. I doubt that following in their footsteps will give me any answers, but I’m looking forward to seeing the places they lived.

I am fortunate, I don’t have to move. My reason for selling is simple, I want to downsize. This apartment has been wonderful for the last 10, nearly 11 years, but it is now too big for just me. Hopefully I can find something suitable in the same area, because I really like where I live. I’m close to the city but also walking distance to parks and a lake. The only thing I will miss is my kitchen, but with any luck I will be able to find something just as nice!

The photo above is of one of the places my grandparents either lived or visited. The young girl is my mother. Hopefully I will be able to find this house on my travels.