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*

Surname Saturday - Верно (Verno).

Greatgrandmother, Julia, was born on April 30 1887 in.. well, that part of the family is a bit tricky. The city is called Pskov (Псков) in Russian, in older Russian, Plskov, Pihkva in Estoian and Pleskau in German.

The most tricky part in the spelling of the surname. I have seen so many variations in different documents. My relatives seems to have preferred the spelling Verno but even if that happens to be the right one, it doesn't help much when searching since one have to search for all variations being sure not to miss anything. And lets not forget doing searches in Russian either.

The name doesn't seem to be all that common, but common enough for making me confused how all the Vernos I find with different spellings are related (if they are at all). It doesn't seem to be a name of Estonian origin and neither Russian.

When my greatgrandmother applied for Swedish citizenship this is how the form was filled out:

This document is an extract from the houseexaminerolls and the name is spelled Vörmö, but under the name there is a question mark.

At FamilySearch.org there are indexed documents of Births and Baptism in Russia. In this document regarding Paul, brother of Julia, his name is spelled Worno.

Valdemar Verno, another brother of Julia, called Valodja by the family, was into theatre in Tallinn. Here is a photo he has signed with beautiful, Russian handwriting, using the spelling Верно - Verno. 

His headstone in Tallin has the same spelling. - Verno.

Greatgrandmothers sister Sofie is on this document called Werno.

Same sister at funeral records of San Franscisco, her fathers name is spelled Verno.

So, anyone out there with more information about the Verno surname, please let me know.

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

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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

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

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