For the most part it has been easy for me to find family documents. I am lucky to have inherited birth certificates, school reports, identification documents and death certificates, amongst others, for both sides of my family. Documents I haven’t inherited, I have found online. The difficult part is trying
I am lucky that despite war, revolution and immigration, old photographs from my maternal family have survived. I do not know how some of these photos made it through the Russian Revolution. I do not know who grabbed them and threw them in their luggage as they were fleeing Russia.
I remember a friend once telling me that, after the deaths of her parents, she found only an empty envelope in their safety deposit box. I found rubber bands and paper clips in the safety deposit box my parents had, although I admit that wasn’t all that was in there.
This photo shows my maternal grandparents, Paul and Olga Woronoff on their honeymoon in 1914. Before her marriage, my grandmother was Countess Olga Kleinmichel. All I know about how they met, their wedding and honeymoon I have learnt from the book my grandmother wrote, entitled ‘Upheaval’. However, she was not
You never really know what you are going to find when you begin to search the archives of newspapers. This past week I have uncovered a few treasures. At the beginning of the week I used Trove to find more information on an Australian WWI soldier who I am researching
I am the only child of an only child. I know of several reasons why I have no siblings. I know my father, after his experiences during WWII, decided not to bring any children into a world which could create such misery and destruction. Before he agreed to marry her,