Blogs which describe people or events related to my maternal line.
This weekend, the execution on 17 July 1918, of the last Tsar of Russia, his family and their faithful staff, will be commemorated by many. There will be posts on social media and, no doubt, articles in newspapers and services in the Russian Orthodox churches remembering this dark day in
There are many items I have inherited from my parents which I have no idea what to do with. Are they worth anything? Do I sell them? If they are worth nothing, do I donate them? And if the latter, who to? Today’s post was prompted by a post on
I find it very frustrating when I look through old family photos and I have no idea who the subjects are. To add to my frustration, I also often have no idea where or when the photos were taken. Even a certain amount of detective work fails to satisfy my
Today I remembered yet another box full of documents and papers which I had put away for sorting. Most of it is loose pieces of paper on which my grandmother, Olga Woronoff, had written notes and stories. Some of them are in English, a fair bit in Russian. The vast
In 1932 my grandmother, Olga Woronoff, was interviewed about romance for The Public Ledger newspaper in Philadelphia. In the article she spoke about her views on romance in the modern age, as well heroism, elopement and the equality of the sexes. It certainly makes for interesting reading! In her words,
Last time our story ended when my grandmother finally learned her mother and step-father had made their way back to Petrograd and how to contact them. She could at last get in touch with her mother. My grandmother had discovered my great-grandmother’s address through an acquaintance of her elder sister,