The Covid-19 pandemic and the recent lockdown here in Melbourne had me searching through my grandmother’s papers. I knew that she had kept notes on the diseases which devastated southern Russia in 1919. It was the time of the Civil War in Russia and my grandfather was fighting with the
Major General Alexei Aleksandrovich Voronov was my maternal great-grandfather. I have written about him once before here. Since then I have discovered a bit more about him. Alexei attended the Pavlovsk military school, graduating in around 1870 as a “Harness Junker”, which appears to have been a rank of senior
Although I have written about his two marriages before, I have not yet looked for more information about my paternal great grandfather, Otto von Fircks – pictured above. Despite having plenty of genealogical information about him, I have not been able to find out much about him as a person,
I find it very frustrating when I look through old family photos and I have no idea who the subjects are. To add to my frustration, I also often have no idea where or when the photos were taken. Even a certain amount of detective work fails to satisfy my
In 1932 my grandmother, Olga Woronoff, was interviewed about romance for The Public Ledger newspaper in Philadelphia. In the article she spoke about her views on romance in the modern age, as well heroism, elopement and the equality of the sexes. It certainly makes for interesting reading! In her words,
I thought this would be a relatively straightforward post when I began to write it. A picture of the Fircks family Coat of Arms, a description, a bit of history and the job is done. But the more I looked into it, the more I felt like Alice in Wonderland,