Sibling Saturday - Part 5 Voldermar Verno

What is more satisfying than when you find the right key to the lock and are able to open the treasure chest filled wonderful items? Well, figuratively speaking. I am talking about names. I have spent many hours searching for my ancestors finding nothing, and then suddenly, with the right name, there they are. One of the first was my great granduncles-and aunts who emigrated to the US. I was looking for Nelson, Neilson, Svenson, Swanson, Richard, Holmer, Holmberg - you name it. Until I at Minnesota Historical Society found one death certificate with the name Richardson on it. Richardson was the key to get more information, census records, death certificates, muster rolls, obituaries and finding out one of them was in the Spanish-American war. And finding living relatives in the US.

I got a new key a couple of months ago. This time it was about my great grand uncle Volodja Verno, born 1900 in Pskov, Russia. I have known fairly much about uncle Volodja and I have some nice, identified pictures of him.  When you know who is on the picture, perhaps you don't spend much time trying to figure out what that thing that is written on the photo really means. Especially if it is written a foreign language like Russian in cyrillic handwriting. I just assumed his full name to be Vladimir.

Couple months ago, I got help with translating the text:

"To my dear niece Lucie. Uncle Volodja.
Nömme 1932"

"To my dear niece Lucie. Uncle Volodja. Nömme 1932". The niece is my grandmother. The other photo that, besides that is is a really nice picture, doesn't seem to have more information than a name, which probably would be Volodjas.

Voldemar Verno

Well, not Vladimir or Volodja, but Voldemar Verno. I didn't realize it at once, but after spending some time searching I understood finding out his name was Voldemar was not just like having access to a key, but close to having a master key.

I found a database on-line I didn't have knowledge of, Estonian Biographic Index, http://www.nimed.ee. Sure, I did spend a couple of euros buying points to see the records, but it was so worth it. And after a while a also noticed the record I was paying for, was free to look at in the main database but the convenience of only needing to search at one place is nice. Especially since those findings tend to show themselves late at night right when you were thinking of going to sleep.

So, besides finding out on what cemetery uncle Volodja is buried (and a map exactly where at the cemetery) I found out the date when his wife died. I found in interesting document in Estonian with his name on it.

I found out he got divorced from a woman named Linda Rosalie in 1931.

Now, this was all about Volodja but it didnt end with that. I found similar documents about other of my Verno line and also on my Seck line. Those documents I wouldn't have found (at this point) unless I had not got knowledge on his name.

Uncle Voloja, born in 1900. In 1925 he married Linda from who he divorced in 1931. He was one of the sponsors when my grandmother was christened in Tallinn, Estionia 1922. As you can see in the nice pictures he was into theatre and dancing. He later married Alice Cernova, or as I have found out, also called/spelled Aleksandra Tschernova who was a dancing teacher.

Voldermar Verno and to the top right, Alice Cernova (Aleksandra Tschernova)

When I was in Estonia and Tallinn last summer, I went to the cemetery to look for his grave and I found it.

Headstone of my granduncle Voldemar Verno at
Metsakalmistu cemetery in Tallinn, Estonia

The blogposts about the other Verno-siblings:
Part 1 - Sonja Verno (Oeberg)
Part 2 - Maria Verno (Belinski)
Part 3 - Valentina Verno (Kiljar)

Part 4a - Pavel Verno

Part 4b - Pavel Verno update

The Verno siblings: Julie, Voldemar, Helena, Valentina, Maria, Pavel and Sonja / Sofie

Tombstone Tuesday - Iru Kodu Rahula

When we were in Estonia on vacation earlier in August this year we visited a couple of cemeteries. One was Pärnamäe. Walking around looking for the tombtone of my relatives I took a picture of this view. If anyone know anything about this specific area, please let me know.

Iru Kodu Rahula - Pärnamäe cemetery, Tallinn, Estonia

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

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:

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).