Friday's Faces From the Past - DIY Bracelet

I made a bracelet for my mother for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. I printed out photos of my second great grandmothers, Marie Tedder and Karna Nilsdotter Rickard, my great grandmothers Julia Verno and Hanna Persson and my grandmother Ludmila Seck. I glued them onto small photo framependants I found at my local craft store and then attached them to a leather bracelet.

It took some hours to make it, first to get the right proportion of the pictures, I did have to print them out a couple of times before I got them right. Then deciding the design of the bracelet and getting the pendants to stay in place. But I think it turned out quite nice in the end. And now I want a bracelet like that of my own.

*UPDATE*

Christmas Crafts - 9 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

In 2007 I found the Genealogy Gems podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke. In one episode she talked about making your own Family History Christmas wreath and it sounded really inspiring. So I made one and gave to my parents and they put it up every Christmas.

It has small photos of my grandparents and my greatgrandparents.

My Family History Christmas Wreath

Closeup of my great grand mother Maria Liljedahl, my great grand father
Edvard Nikolai Seck and my great grand father Nils Anton Berlin.

And here are the instruction videos if you feel like making your own Family History Christmas Wreath.









During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

My top 3 list - Estonian genealogy

Since my grandmother was born in Estonia I have been "forced" to dig into Estonian genealogy. I don't know Estonian which of course makes it harder. Everytime I see that an page is available in English I am happy since it makes it all so much easier for me to understand.

Looking into Estonian records it also helps if you have knowledge in German and Russian language since you might find documents in those languages as well. The top three sites I use when looking for information on my Estonian relatives are:

 1) Saaga

It is a free site to use but to see the records you need to register and the account is free. At Saaga I mainly look at the church records and something called Lists of resisents of Tallinn. You will find some helpful text at Saaga, like translations of typical record titles, for example Abielumeetrika means Parish register of marriages. One nice feature is that you can add bookmarks with links to records. I use that a lot. Easy to use, add, remove and add information about the bookmark.

Part of my list of bookmarks at Saaga

Here is an example from a birth book. Bottom right is the birth of my great grandfathers sister, Ida Seck.

Ida Seck birth

Ida Seck birth closeup.

Also at Saaga, an easy tool to copy a link to the record, to find the record of Ida Seck birth go to http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1296.1.354:27

Easy to get a link to the online record at Saaga

 2: Estonian Biographical Index

At Estonian Biographical Index it is possible to do searches for example a surname. You will see the result in a list and to look at the record it refers to you might need to pay with points that you buy. For example, 50 points will cost you 5 Euro. For me, it has been worth it. Even if the hit you get when you do a search is in an on-line free database I might not have found it otherwise.

Pricelist points as of January 19 2014

Here is an example where I did a search on the surname Verno. You will get some information in the list and then how many points it will cost you to see it. As you can see, at some places it says "all bought", that is were I have paid with points. Once I have bought it, I will be able to look at it again. With the information of fathers name and other information I am often able to know if the record is relevant to me or not.

Part of search results for last name Verno

Clicking on Voldermar Verno in this case will bring up a link to where the record is found, in this case at Saaga, in the Residents of Tallinn collection. Clicking on the link will take me to the record. Since it is within Saaga, I will have to login with my free account and then I am also able to add the record to my bookmark list.

Link to the record about Voldemar Verno

Voldemar Verno

Estonian Biographical Index have an ongoing crowdsourcing project indexing records where you can sign up as an volunteer. You can receive points as a reward to use in your own genealogy research. If you don't want points, since you did it for free it will also be free for others to look at it.  To read more about this indexing project have a look at http://nimed.ee/ühisloome/sisesta

 

3: Cemetery Portal of Estonia

As I have written about befere, when I was in Estonia in August 2013, I visited three cemeteries to look for headstones of relatives. Without this site it wouldn't have been possible. They have an easy to search database and if you find what you are looking for you will find a detailed map where to find the headstone.

If I use my great grandaunt Voldemar as an example again, doing a search I find out that he is buried at the Metsakalmistu cemetery in Tallinn, exactly at "vana osa, TK, 23/1".

Clicking at the Map button will give a detailed map where Voldemar was buried. I noticed that since I was there, there seems to be GPS-coordinates added.

Zooming out from the map shows that for me it would have been impossible to find Voldermar with out help. The cemetery is huge! I edited the picture below with the red arrow. Even with the help of those great maps I had problem finding the headstone of Helmut and Roosa Uggur which I have written about in another blogpost, http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/09/sibling-saturday-part-5-helena-verno.html. The map was correct but the stone was overgrown by big bushes.

You will also find other relevant information about cemeteries, like history, address, contact information and open hours.

DNA - Friday - will it help solve the genealogy puzzle?

DeoxyriboNucleic Acid, yes, DNA. I got my testresuts from FamilyTreeDNA. And this is all so exciting.

When I was I kid, I loved looking up in the sky at night, at all the starts, going dizzy when trying to understand the universe go on and on and on and on... forever and ever and ever.

Now I sent this little sample, and with that, it is possible to look thousands and thousands of years back, knowing where MY genes first started. They have really been passed on generation after generation after generation for such a long time. And with science it is possible to track them back. I find it so amazing.

I love spending time searching for documents and records, looking for clues, trying to understand and learning the life of my ancestors. But with DNA it is like a whole new dimension opened up. With that, analysed in a science lab,  I know there are people that matches me, that are related to me even if I haven't found that specific document to prove it. Perhaps there isn't any document at all, it might be over 20 generations back in time. But still, that exact person and I are related. And we didn't know.

I had two things analysed. First one is called Family Finder. With that, I can find decendants of my greatgreatgrand parents. I got a lot of matches in the FamilyTreeDNA database. Mainly distant, no ones really close. Still, somehow, I am connected to them in some way.

The other test I had was a full mtDNA sequence. This uses genetic material that is passed down from a mother to her children, both male and female but it is only females who can pass it on. With that, I was also provided with my haplogroup and it dates at least 20 000 years ago.

I am happy I found a totally new angle to look at my genealogy research. I want to learn everything about it - yesterday already. I am totally hooked.

With that, here is a picture of my grandmother and her mother. Hoping with DNA I will find out more about her grandmother and great-grandmother and add some pieces to my genealogy puzzle.

My great grandmother, Julie Verno, born 1887 (married to Eduard Seck), holding her daughter
my grandmother Ludmila, born 1922. Standing next to them is my grandmothers brother, George, born 1916.

Travel Tuesday - I went to Estonia

This year much of my research focus has been on my Estonian side of the family. My grandmother was born in Tallinn. Her father, Eduard Seck, was born in Estonia and her mother, Julia Verno,  in what is today Russia. They all came to Sweden in mid 1940s. My grandmothers first husband was killed during WWII and after she came to Sweden she met my grandfather.

Coming to Sweden I think they lost contact with more distant relatives back in Estonia which became a part of Soviet Union. I need to mention I never met my grandmother (or grandfather). They had both passed away when I was born. My connection to the past has been my mom of course but Eduard died the same year as she was born and Julia when she was only five. My aunt who is five years older and also a cousin have provided me with most of the names and dates. Some I have been able to find out more about some I still don't have a clue.

When I got bitten with the genealogybug in 2007 I also had some focus on my Estonian side of the family. I discovered that some documents was only available in Russian. So, I took a Russian language class. All the time along I have also been meaning to take a class in Estonian language, every spring and fall I have signed up and everytime when the class was supposed to start I got an email that it has been canceled due to too few participants. Well, except this spring, I got an email they didnt have a teacher.

Anyway. I decided I wanted to visit Tallinn. I was in Tallinn in 1989, when it was a part of the Soviet Union. It was a project with young people from all over Scandinavia called Next Stop Sovjet. We had people coming from Soviet in the summer of 89 and then in September we travelled to Soviet. Living with local people in thier homes. First I was in Pärnu, then we went to Tallinn, back to Pärnu and then Moscow. We went by Sankt Petersburg also, well, back then it was called Leningrad.

I felt it was time for a reunion with me and Tallin. One of the first thing that crossed my mind was that is would not really be a genealoytrip. I was not going to visit any archives or do any research.  I was only going to visit two cemeteries looking for three tombstones. But I wanted to find interesting places to see and visit as well.

We were staying five nights with no time for sighseeing the same day as we were leaving. I used Evernote for my planning, a shared notebook. I put copies of the flight tickes, hotel reservastion, maps, links and specially links for genealogy in there. I also made a rough schedule for each day. Some things needed to visited a special day since it wasn't open every day, some sightseeing tours was only a certain day a week, some tours only certain times in a day if you wanted it to be in English and so on. So, I made that puzzle and it looked quite nice. Ofcourse, looking around I found some interesting places to visit. A couple of relatives were into theatre and when there, why not just walk passed that theatre and take a picture. Why not take a picture of the church where my grandmother was christened. Why not in case of time drop by the Music and theatre museum. And ofcourse, after founding on-line, one relative which I had no photo of would have a picture in the Jewish museum. He would also have a small biography in the Encyclopedia of Estonia, the 2008 edition. I was sure I could find that a the national library. I carefully typed down open hours and when I was done I had a couple of more genealogy related must-dos:

• Taking picture of: Nikolai church, Russian Theatre, Estonian Drama Theatre, Russian school.
• Museum: Jewish museum to look at a photo of my relative.
• Cemetery: Visit two cemeteries, looking for tombstones, in case of time, visiting a third one
• Library: Look into the Encyclopedia of Estonia for my relative

Besides from using Evernote to plan everything I also used Google Earth. Since I wasn't at all familiar with Tallin I felt I needed to pin out all the places on a map. That made it easier to see what places that were close to eachother and plan the days. I marked genealogy related things with one color, other places I wanted to visit with another color and I also looked up a couple of restaurants. When I was done with the map I exported it as a kmzfile, emailed it to myself so I could open it on my iPad.

My planning in Google Earth

So, success? Well, I got the pictures all right. Coming to the Jewish museum in the morning it was closed and opened two hours later. That day we had already two different tours booked but we managed to squeeze the museum in between. Cemeteries, check, all three of them. Coming to the library it was closed. That was the last day and I wanted to buy some souvenirs. So, while I did the shopping my nice boyfriend went back to the library when they had opened. When they finally found the right edition of the encyclopedia it was all in Russian and the liberians at the library at the time didn't understand Russian. So no luck at the library.

Anyhow, pictures and more posted in upcoming blogposts.

Sibling Saturday - Alice Charlotte Seck

Alice Charlotte Seck was my great grand aunt. She was the sixth child of Nikolai Seck and Marie Tedder. She was born December 28, 1883 in Rouge, Estonia. Birth record in the birth book below is in German.

Birth Alice Charlotte Seck
Saaga at http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1268.1.390:136

I have a picture of Alice Charlotte when she was young. I think she looks beautiful.

My great grand aunt - Alice Charlotte Seck

Out of the three sisters Seck (Alice, Ida and Therese), Alice was the only one who got married. She married Rudolf Kampus. Rudolf or Rudi as it says in his birth record was born Mars 20, 1882 in Voru, Estonia. His parents was Adam and Marie (Luus) Kampus.

Alice and Rudolf got married in 1906. Their record in the marriage book is in Russian. I like how they have crossed out the preprinted 189 in the headline and replaced it with 1900. Often they did write the names in latin fonts was well, but not always. So this is an example of the Seek variation spelling of Seck.

Marriage 1906, Rudolph Kampus and Alice Charlotte Seck
Saaga at http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1272.1.78:30

As far as I know, Alice and Rudolf had five children, Hilda Ellinor (1883-1979), Erika Erna (1908-1908), Robert (1909-1930), Karl Eugen (1914-?), Adolf (1918-1920).

Alice died in Tallinn in 1922, according to information I have got from my relatives. I think Rudolf died in 1926 and I think he is buried at Siselinna cemetery in Tallinn, Estonia.

Earlier posts about my Estonian Seck-line:

Nikolai Seck, where are you?

http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/03/church-record-sunday-nicolai-seck-where.html

Seck Siblings - Karl Johan Edmund

http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/07/sibling-saturday-seck-siblings-johann.html

Seck Siblings - August and August
http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/07/sibling-saturday-seck-siblings-august.html

Sibling Saturday - Seck Siblings - August & August

August Seck was the first child of my Nikolai Seck and Marie Tedder. He was born in 1869 (June 10), the same year as they got married. He was born in Kopu in Estonia and his relationship to me, great grand uncle. Unfortunatly I haven't found his birth record.

August died in 1872 (April 7) only two months before his third birthday. At the time, Nikolai and Marie lived in Põltsamaa. Marie was pregnant with Therese Emile Marie Seck who was born only a couple of weeks after August had passed away. Below is a part of the death record (in German) of August.

Death of August Seck. Record is availaiable on-line at Saaga
http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1168.1.197:139

It is weird sometimes when you look at your family tree and a familysheet and see a family with perhaps seven children. It is easy to get the idea that was how the family looked like but for example in this case, none of the other Seck-siblings ever met thier older brother. He was born and dead before any of the others was born. That is the advantage with putting it all into a time perspective, like making a timeline (I like timelines A LOT!)

After August had died, Nikolai two daughters, Therese Emile Marie as I mentioned above and Ida who was born in 1874. In 1877 (April 11) they had another son. He was born in Rouge and his name was August Ludwig.

August Ludwig Seck birth, Rouge, April 11 in 1877.
Saaga http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1268.1.68:57

What else do I know about August Ludwig Seck? Well, according to information from my relatives, he died in 1925. Was he married, did he have a family? I don't know.

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

Seck may have different spellings in different sources and documents like Seek, Sek, Seeck.

Earlier posts about my Estonian Seck-line:

Nikolai Seck, where are you?

http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/03/church-record-sunday-nicolai-seck-where.html

Seck Siblings - Karl Johan Edmund

http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/07/sibling-saturday-seck-siblings-johann.html

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

Motivation Monday - My goals for July

I had four genealogy goals for June:

1) Register remaining headstones for Kropp Cemetery at  http://www.genealogi.se/gravproj/Gravsoklist.php
Done!

2) Write minimum two blogposts a week, at least one about my Verno-line and one about my Seck-line.
Done!

3) Order a DNA test.
Done!

4) Order muster rolls for Andrew Richardson from the Wisconsin Veteran Museum.
Not done.

So, July, here are my genealogy goals:

1. Order muster rolls for Andrew Richardson from the Wisconsin Veteran Museum. (15 minutes)
2. Do the DNA test. (15 minutes)
3. Write minimum three blogposts a week. (+ research about 20 hours work).
4. Spend at least 5 hours to organize my digital documents.
5. Register headstones at Fleninge Cemetery at http://www.genealogi.se/gravproj/Gravsoklist.php

There.

Ready.

Steady.

Go!

Unidentified. Probably in Farstorp area, south of Sweden

Surname Saturday - Tedder

Marie Tedder was my second great grandmother. I have mentioned her when writing about my second great grandfather Nikolai Seck.

Marie or Marri was born September 4 in 1840. In her birth record I am able to read that her fathers name is Jürri Tedder. It says she is born in Woroküll which is the German name for Vooru in Estonia.

To look at this at Saaga, the link is http://www.ra.ee/dgs/_purl.php?shc=EAA.1288.1.33:19
 It is free but you need to register an account.

I am not able to read the name of the mother, I think it looks like Kert? And then it looks like Jaan Tedder, ? Arraz and Lüs Tedder who I guess are the sponsors at her christening.

At the age of 22, February 23 1869, she married my second great grandfather Nikolai Seck. In the marriage record that is written in Russian she is called Mari Yurieva Tedder.

I got help with the translation since I don't know Russian ( thanks! :) ) . Well, I did take ten classes a couple of years ago so I am a bit familiar with printed letters. Now I am working on the handwriting. If it is a beautiful handwriting as the marriage record above I can understand a couple of letters here and there but that is about it.

Nikolai and Marie had seven children:

August Seck 1869 - 1872
Therese Emile Marie Seck  1872 - 1868
Ida Seck 1874 - 1946
August Ludwig Seck 1877 - 1925
Johann Karl Edmund Seck 1879 - 1923
Alice Charlotte Seck 1883 - 1922
Nikokai Edvard Seck 1885 - 1948

So, I am working on and looking for information on the parents of Marie, Jürri / Yuri Tedder and Kert?, if she had any siblings and other relatives, cousins, aunts, uncles and so on. My guess is that Jaan Tedder and Lüs Tedder are related in someway. According to information I got from other relatives, Marie died 1912 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Finally, a picture of my second great grandmother:

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

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.