Friday's faces from the past - Madame Nicoli

Have you ever heard of a lady called Nathalie Nicoli? She was a clothes designer and lived in San Francisco and she had her own clothes brand, Nathalie Nicoli, in the (as far as I know) 1940s and 1950s.

I am not related to her, but my great grand aunt who came to the US in 1950 worked for Natalie Nicoli.

In an newspaper article from 1946 I read about Nathalie Nicoli: "She looks like the type of person who would wear the clothes she creates - a woman of poise and sophistication, more concerned with the good lines and appropriateness of the costume to the occasion for which it is designed than with its high style."

Nathalie Nicoli came to the US after World war I. The article continues: "She and her family were political refugees and she turned to the art she knew best - fine dressing."

Article by Joan Gardner in Spokane Daily Chronicle about Nathalie Nicoli.
Published August 19 in 1946. Link to the article, found in the end of this blogpost.

After finding that article I wanted to know more.

Nathalie Nicoli, or Nathalie Nicolaevsky was born on June 26, 1900 in Russia. That made my heart jump a little, since my greatgrand aunt was born in Russia as well. Perhaps they knew eachother before they both came to the US? Or perhaps my great grandaunt was recommended to Nathalie?

Nathalie came to the US in 1923 together with her husband, Leon Leon Nicolaevsky. He changed his name to Leon Nicoli. He was born on February 18 in Russia.

Together with Nathalie and Leon also came Nathalies parents: Vladimir Anichkov and Mary (maidenname unknown). Vladimir was born around 1871 and Mary about 1876. A brother of Nathalie, Anatol Anichkov came to the US as well. He was born December 20, 1897. Anichkov surname was changed from Anitchkoff.

It was Leon Nicoli who founded the company Nathalie Nicoli as well as a company called Mode de Paris.

One great resource in the case with my great grand aunt leading me to Nathalie Nicoli was the funeral record. That is where I found out my great grand aunt worked for Nathalie. The funeral record of Nathalie was filled with a lot of information and documents. For example her obituaries. That is where I found out she was a lifetime member of NAWCAM - National Association of Womens and Childrens Apparel Manufactures. I also found a letter from George D. Molinsky, President of Batesville Casket company. He sends his condolences and also writes there will be a tree planted in memory of Nathalie.

Nathalie Nicolai Obituary.

Like my greatgrandaunt and her husband, Nathalie and her husband Leon and thier daughter Irene are all buried in the Serbian cemetery. When looking through a couple of funeral records on one of them were written that everyone at the Russian Center used N.Gray and Company funeral service.

Link to the article about Nathalie Nicoli in Google News Archive

Sibling Saturday - Pavel Verno - Part II - Paul Worno

June 15 I wrote about one of the Vernosiblings, Pavel Verno, brother to my great-grandmother Julia Verno. I had no information about him whatsoever, no birthdate, birthplace, death date, no, nothing what so ever.

Today I did some random searches on familysearch.org and guess who showed up? There he was, my Pavel Verno. Well, it said Paul Worno, born March 24, 1885 in Plescau, Russia. Son of August Wilhelm Worno and Anna.

I found him in a record collection called "Russia, Births and Baptisms, 1755 - 1917".

Awesome! And I had no idea his father August was called Wilhelm as well. And he was born in Plescau / Pskov / Pikhva just like some of his other siblings.

This is the old post about Pavel Verno: http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/06/sibling-saturday-part-3-pavel-verno.html

And the posts about the other Verno-siblings.
Part 1 - Sonja Verno (Oeberg)
Part 2 - Maria Verno (Belinski)
Part 3 - Valentina Verno (Kiljar)

Sibling Saturday Part 5 - Helena Verno

This is part five about the Verno-siblings, siblings of my great-grandmother Julia Verno. This is about Helena Verno. She was born July 30, 1889 in Pskov, Russia. As with the others of the Vernosiblings I don't have much information.

She married Jan Christian Ugur. He was born October 30, 1883 in Estonia and later on moved to Pskov where they he and Helena got married on January 15 in 1918.

They had three children:

Heinrich - born Pskov (Russia) April 15, 1919
Eduard - born in Pechory (at the time Estonia, today Russia) August 25, 1920
Magdalena - born in Pechory (at the time Estonia, today Russia) November 12, 1923

Helena Verno with husband Jan Christian Ugur and thier
three children Heinrich, Eduard and Magdalena

So, when I started my family history research to me the children was known as Genja, Eddie and Magda. A couple of years ago I found relatives of Eduard at geni.com. In thier documentation Genja was known as Heinrich. I got it explained to me that since they lived in an area where Russian was the main language he was addressed Gennadi, or short, Genja, even if his given name was Heinrich.

When we went to Tallinn in Estonia in August this summer one of the genealogyrelated things I wanted to do was to visit the Pärnamäe cemetery. Heinrich and his wife Roosa was supposed to be buried there. Estonia has a really nice database for locating tombstones, http://www.kalmistud.ee/Cemetery-Portal-of-Estonia. Not only if you are lucky to find what you are looking for, there are zoomable maps where the tombstones are marked out. I had both printed out maps and screendumps of the maps in Evernote on my iPad. Pärnamäe was the second cemetery we visited and I am glad we had the maps because even with maps this tombstone was really hard to find. Walking around that cemetery there were many stones with photographs of the person/s and I was thinking that perhaps there would be a photo on Heinrich's stone as well. Now, I am happy we found the stone at all. We found the area where it should be, but no stone. Spent at least 30 minutes looking around like 50 stones. On the map you could see exact row and what number it should be but it was not there. Well, not until C decided to look inside an overgrown bush. There it was, totally invisible from the path. There were no photos on it but I was so happy we had found it.

The tombstone was hardly visible.

Heinrich Ugur 1919 - 1983 and his wife Roosa 1920 - 1994

Earlier posts of the Verno siblings:

Part 1 - Sonja Verno (Oeberg)
Part 2 - Maria Verno (Belinski)
Part 3 - Valentina Verno (Kiljar)

Part 4 - Pavel Verno

Sibling Saturday - Seck siblings - Johann Karl Edmund

I have written about my great-great grandfather Nikolai Seck in an earlier blogpost, Nikolai Seck where are you?. As far as I know he had seven children, four sons (August, August Ludwig, Johann Karl Edmund, Nikolai Eduard) and three daughters (Therese Emile Marie, Ida, Alice Charlotte). I am trying to find out as much as possible about them.

Lets start with Johann Karl Edmund Seck. He was born, July 7 1879. Birthplace, Rouge, Vorumaa in Estonia.

This record is found at Saaga at http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1268.1.70:82

Headlines in the birthbook are in German

This book is in German. As you can see, the name is spelled Seeck. Sometimes you see that spelling, othertimes it is Seck (as my great-grandfather spelled it). There is also a Sek, Sekk and Seek spelling version.

A couple of other things to notice in this record. First of all, I am unable to understand what is written infront of the name of Nicolai. I guess it would be his occupation.

Occupation?

Then, there is the surname of Nicolai that is Seeck. But before that it says Alexander which would be the name of Nicolais' father. So far, so good, but under Alexander it is written "oder Nicolai's". So, does that mean that his fathers name was either Alexander or Nicolai?

Alexander Seeck is father.. oder Nicolai?

Then is the word griech, which means Greek in German and would mean that Nicolai belongs to the Greek Orthodox faith.

Below we have Mari, born Tedder, mother of Johann Karl Edmund. She is a Lutheran, it is written luth after her name.

A list of three names, I guess they were the sponsors at the christening. I have trouble reading what it says.

Sponsors?

1) ? ? Johannes ?
2) ? Edmund Reichard
3) Maria Thalberg, ?


I haven't found anymore records specific of Johann Karl Edmund, but I have found him with his family in a couple of other records.

From Saaga at http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1268.1.394:355

Here we have Nicolai Seeck (fathername is Alexander). What "gan. Ahrens" under his names means I have no clue. Far to the left there is something written as well. Can't make it out except for Schloss something. Birth and christening dates for the children August Ludwig, Johann Karl Edmund and Alice Charlotte.

Further to the right there is a column with this headline and this is what is commented on August, Johann and Alice, in that order.

In the last column I think it says "Ab und wann er (sie) die Gemeinde verlassen, oder als Slied derselben gestorben" which I guess means when he / she left / moved or died.

So, trying to read what is says, "alle drei kinder ab nach Helme mit ?? ?? ?? 1 August 1890 no 400" which would be "all three children moved to Helme with ?? ?? ?? August 1 1890 no 400".

I think it corresponds with this document. You have the date, the number 400 and moving from Rouge to Helme.

From Saaga at http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1296.1.440:100

What happened do Johann Karl Edmund Seck, my great-grand uncle? According to information I have got from relatives he married a woman called Katja Onni, they had a son and Johann Karl Edmund Seck died in 1923.

Quick fact sheet : Johann Karl Edmund Seck

Sibling Saturday - Part 4 Pavel Verno

The Verno siblings are my great-grandaunts (Helena, Valentina, Maria), uncles (Voldomar, Pavel) and my great-grandmother Julia. Thier parents were August Verno and Anna Lindeberg (spelling?) My grandmother was born in Estonia but the generation before her seems to come from a part that today belongs to Russia. I don't know very much about that part of the family and that makes it so much more interesting. Also, mainly all information is in Estonian and Russian, two languages I don't know and that ofcourse makes it a little (well, much to be honest) harder to find information and takes a lot more time. On the other hand, great pleasure everytime a tiny bit in the puzzle is solved.

The sibling I know the least about is Pavel Verno. I don't know when he was born, if he was married or when he died. He is a white spot on my Vernomap. He might have been born i Pskov / Pihkva /Pleskau / Pleskava / Psków (same place many names in different languages)

Pavel Verno

Verno Siblings

Verno siblings:
Part 1 - Sonja Verno (Oeberg)
Part 2 - Maria Verno (Belinski)
Part 3 - Valentina Verno (Kiljar)


Free silhouetteclipart found at  http://www.arthursclipart.org/silhouettes/silhouettes.htm

Follow Friday - Find Lost Russian & Ukrainian Family

I have ancestors from Estonia and possible Russia. I have been looking for resources for a couple of weeks about Russian genealogy and yesterday I found a really nice blog.

Its called Find Lost Russian & Ukrainian Family - Uncovering the secrets of finding family and records in the former USSR. Well, it couldn't be more spot on, exactly what I was looking for. Since I only found it yesterday I have many blogposts ahead of me to read and many links to explore and much to learn. Super exciting!

http://lostrussianfamily.wordpress.com

Sibling Saturday - Verno siblings part 3 - Valentina Verno

The Verno siblings are my great-grandaunts (Helena, Valentina, Maria), uncles (Voldomar, Pavel) and my great-grandmother Julia. Thier parents were August Verno and Anna Lindeberg (spelling?) My grandmother was born in Estonia but the generation before her seems to come from a part that today belongs to Russia. I don't know very much about that part of the family and that makes it so much more interesting. Also, mainly all information is in Estonian and Russian, two languages I don't know and that ofcourse makes it a little (well, much to be honest) harder to find information and takes a lot more time. On the other hand, great pleasure everytime a tiny bit in the puzzle is solved.

Valentina also known as Valja is just like her sister Maria much of a mystery to me. I don't have her birthdate, marriage date or death date. I know she got married to a man called Wilhelm Kiljar (uncertain on how to spell that). I know they had a daughter Wilhelmina who died when she was a child. They might have had an other child as well, perhaps a son, I don't know any name of the eventually second child.

Valentina Verno married Kiljar and daughter Wilhelmina

Part 1 of the Verno siblings Sonja Verno married Oeberg

Part 2 of the Verno siblings Maria Verno married Belinski

Sibling Saturday - Verno siblings part 2 - Maria Verno

The Verno siblings are my great-grandaunts (Helena, Valentina, Maria), uncles (Voldomar, Pavel) and my great-grandmother Julia. My grandmother was born in Estonia but the generation before her seems to come from a part that today belongs to Russia. I don't know very much about that part of the family and that makes it so much more interesting. Also, mainly all information is in Estonian and Russian, two languages I don't know and that ofcourse makes it a little (well, much to be honest) harder to find information and takes a lot more time. On the other hand, great pleasure everytime a tiny bit in the puzzle is solved.

In part 1 I wrote about Sofie Verno, who married Leo Oeberg, born in Moscow (http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/05/sibling-saturday-verno-siblings-part-1.html)

I dont have much information on Marie Verno. No birthdate but her sister Julia was born in 1887, her sister Sofie in 1896 and her brother Voldemar in 1900 so sometime around those years.

All I know is that she was married to a Michail Belinski (spelling?) and that they had the following children: Anti, Geronom (spelling?), Juulia, Mihail and Veronica.

I don't know the exact spelling of Belinski either, it might be Balinski, Belenski or any other spelling I am not even aware of. I don't have any pictures of them. I haven't found any kind of document or record either, no marriage record, no birth record or death record. Nothing.

I dont know if they stayed in Russia or Estonia or maybe emigrated to some other country.

Maria Verno married to Michail Belinski

Lots of questions marks but I am sure I will find them someday, one way or another.

Motivation Monday - My goals for June

Usually for my genealogy and family history research I have no motivation problems.. it is all the other things that needs to be done.. fixing in the garden, clean up the house, grocery shopping, doing laundry and of course work - nah,  just kidding, I have a bit of a hard time to focus on research if the house is a mess...

But for June I am going to try something different, I am going to put up some goals. I usually take a look at the trees Im researching and then pick something I find interesting. Or if I am bored with my own research I pick a headstone and try to find out as much as possible or try to help someone with questions on some genealogy forum.

So, June, here are my goals:

1) Register the remaining headstones at http://www.genealogi.se/gravproj/Gravsoklist.php for Kropp cemetery. I signed up as a volunteer to do this and I have done a lot but now I feel I need to finish it.
Deadline: June 16 (probably 5 hours of work)

2) Write minimum two blogposts a week. At least one should be about my Verno-side of the family and at least one about my Seck-side. Those are the sides of the family where I don't have a lot of information and I need to focus. My Seck and Verno side are right now (four generations back) in Estonia and Russia.
Deadline: June 30 (probably 20 hours of work, including research)

3) Order a DNA test. I am so curious about the possibility to get a DNA test for genealogy purposes. I understand the basics but as soon as I try to get a deeper understanding I give up. I am thinking that if I get a test done it will be easier to understand if I have the real result, letters and numbers infront of me.
Deadline: June 30 (30 minutes of work)

4) I also need to finally get the muster rolls of Andrew Richardson from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Andrew Richardson was my great granduncle who emigrated from Sweden to the US and for some reason ended up in the Spanish-American war.
Deadline: June 30 (15 minutes of work)

Those things are what needs to be done. Besides that, as much research as I feel like :) :)

Somehow connected to my family.. don't know who, where or when

Sibling Saturday - Verno siblings part 1 - Sofie Verno

The Verno siblings are my great-grandaunts (Helena, Valentina, Maria), uncles (Voldomar, Pavel) and my great-grandmother Julia. My grandmother was born in Estonia but the generation before her seems to come from a part that today belongs to Russia. I don't know very much about that part of the family and that makes it so much more interesting. Also, mainly all information is in Estonian and Russian, two languages I don't know and that ofcourse makes it a little (well, much to be honest) harder to find information and takes a lot more time. On the other hand, great pleasure everytime a tiny bit in the puzzle is solved.

Verno siblings, Julie, Voldemar, Helena, Valenrina, Maria, Pavel and Sonja

Sonja Verno was my greatgrandaunt. Sonja (or Sofie as she was known as in the US where she immigrated) was born December 18, 1896 in in Pskov (Псков), today in Russia. The Estonian name is Pihkva. She was the daugther of August Verno and Anna Lindenberg, both of them born in Russia.

Sofie Verno (aka Sonja)

According to a document from 1920s she was an Estonian citizen and she was an actress (näitleja). Perhaps that is how she met her husband who was in the same businesses, Leo Oeberg, an actor. They got married in Tallinn May 1, 1921.

In Estonia Sofie was an actress

At my grandmothers christening in 1922 in Tallinn Sofie and her brother Voldemar were sponsors so even if I don't know much about them they seem to have been close.

Sofie and Leo arrived with USAT General W C Langfitt in New Orleans, April 6 1950. They settled in San Francisco, California where Sofie worked as a dressmaker.

In 1956, a year after her husband Leo died, she became a US citizen. She lived at 400 Pierce Street.

400 Pierce Street in 2011 (Google maps)

Sofie died October 31 in 1961. Most of the information about places and dates I got from two different  documents, her funeral record (found at ancestry.com) and her petition for naturalization (at Familysearch.org). Those records are  is really a great resources, telling place and date of birth and death, parents names and birthplaces, occupation, when, where and how she came to the US and martial status. In the petition you can read that Sofie had eye color grey, brown hair, was 5 feet and 3 inches tall and weighed 136 pounds  (about 160 cm and 75 kg).

Part of funeral record

The funeral record also says the funeral was November 2 1961. She and her husband Leo are both buried at the Serbian Cemetery in San Francisco. The Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco have among other things a picture of the headstone and I got permission to use their picture in my blog.

Leo and Sofie Oeberg.
Photo is used by permission from Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco

Sofie and Leo didn't have any children.

Sofie Verno timeline

Talented Tuesday - actor Leo Oeberg

I don't know much about this man, Leo Alexander Oeberg. He was born in Russia, June 29 1891,  to Alexander Oeberg and Paula Ludagovsky. May 1, 1921, he married my great grand aunt in Tallinn, Estonia,  Sonja Verno.

In 1950, Leo and Sonja emigrated to the US. In USA Sonja was known as Sofie.

March 16, 1955 Leo dies in San Francisco. In the funeral record I found at Ancestry.com, it says his occupation was actor (stage).

Leo Oeberg funeral record

So, thats all I know. I would love to find a picture or any information on where he might have been an actor, any play he might have been in, anything.

Leo and Sofie (she died in 1961) are buried at Serbian Cemetery (Colma, San Mateo).

Church Record Sunday - Nicolai Seck, where are you?

These last couple of days I have been looking at Estonian church records. My grandmother was born in Estonia so I have been looking into Estonian genealogy a little but now I decided to really focus for a while.

I have some dates and places but I haven't seen the sources so thats where I started.

And the place for me to start since Im doing it online is at Saaga where you can find a lot of sources, like church records. It doen't cost any money to use it but you need to get an account and log in to see the actual church record pages. It is a great resource. Unfortunatly I don't know Estonian. I have been trying to sign up for a beginners class for at least four years but every time it got canceled since there wasn't enough interest. Well, except this year when suddenly they didn't have a teacher.

Be sure to check out Saaga for your Estonian ancestors

Now Saaga has an English version of the page as well which is of great help and a little cheat sheet with translation of the different record titles.

Helpfull cheat sheet

I started to look at my grandmothers fathers siblings who are born in the second half of 1800. First out was August, born 1869 in Kopu according to my notes. Unlucky me, didn't find any birth records for Kopu earliner than 1892. August died as a young child a couple of months before his third birthday in Poltsamaa. Looking at he death records in Poltsamaa, I found him. And the church records are written in German.

August Seck, my great grand uncle 1869 - 1872

Only fifthteen days after the death of August, my great grand aunt Therese Emile Marie was born.

Birth of my great grand aunt Therese Elmile Marie Seck in 1872, Poltsmaa

The third child, Ida, was born in 1874 and yet in another place, Helme.

Birth of my great grand aunt Ida Seck in 1874, Helme.

Then there are two more children, August Ludwig born 1877 and Johann Karl Edmund born 1879. They are said to be born in Rouge but I cant find them. But thier younger sister Alice Charlotte born 1883 I find in Rouge.

The last child, born in 1886 is my great grandfather, Nicolai Eduard and the birth place is supposed to be Polva, and I cant find him there.

Since there were so many different birthplaces I used Google Earth to pin out the places to get a visual view. I marked the places / actions of which I have a source document with yellow dots. White dots are according to the notes I have but where I myself haven't seen a source document. Doing this you could really see the family moving around in a quite big area of Estonia.

Note: födelse is Swedish for birth, död is Swedish for death

One of the nicest thing I found so far was the birth of my second great grandmother, Mari Tedder, born 1840 which gave me two news names to write into my family tree.

I had seen a notice in one of the records that she was born in a place called Woroküll. I couldnt find it so I went and asked Google about it. Google was nice and showed me a page with German names of Estonian places and Woroküll is Vooru. Suddenly, there she was:

Birth of my second great grandmother, Marri Tedder, 1840, Vooru

Now to the title, Nicolai Seck, where are you? My second great grandfather is said to be born 1842 in Tartu. Friday evening I spent hours browsing birth records of different parishes of Tartu looking for Nicolai. It would be so nice to find him and see the names of his parents. In some of the books there was such a nice handwriting and I was thinking "please let him be in this book where it is really easy to read the handwriting". But nope. Haven't found him yet, but he is there, somewhere, waiting to be found, by me or by someone else.

One last thing I what to share in this post. The birth record of my first cousin twice removed, Hilda Ellinor. She was born in 1906 and by then the Estonian records are in Russian with Cyrillic letters. Still they wrote the name in Latin letters as well, making it much easier to find. And I think this record looks just really beautiful.

Birth of Hilda Ellinor in 1906

 I did take a couple of Russian classes a few years ago. I didnt get to study Cyrillic handwriting (only printed letters like in the headlines of the record) but still I am pretty sure sponsor number 1 in the record above says Eduard Seck, my great grand father.