On this day, 102 years ago, my grandmother, Olga Woronoff, began a diary which documents their last months in Russia and their movements during the Civil War. My grandfather, Paul Woronoff, was fighting with the White Army (the Volunteer Army) and my grandmother had travelled to the south of Russia
Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, wrote those words. I’m sure they were written from experience. My grandparents, Paul and Olga Woronoff understood how important hope is to life. If they had not had hope they might not have survived through the tumultuous years that their homeland of Russia threw
Millions died in Soviet Gulags during their time of operation from 1918 – 1953. Luckily my great uncle was not one of them. I have written previously about finding letters and documents concerning my great aunt, her husband and their daughter. However, I was interested to know more about my
When my grandfather, Paul Woronoff, died in 1969 my grandmother, Olga, was devastated. She was 76 years old when he died, and they had been happily married for fifty five and a half years. Olga was not quite 21 years old when she married Paul and he was her whole
Some documents can be helpful when you are tracing the history of your ancestors. Obviously birth, marriage and death certificates give you plenty of information as do immigration documents and census records. But even unofficial documents can help discover what sort of lives your ancestors lived – like their resumes.
My grandmother, Olga Woronoff, was elegant, fashionable and loved her hats. By the looks of it she owned a few! The photos above show her wearing some of them. My grandmother, her husband Paul Woronoff and her sister Tata, made their escape from Russia on board the British ship “Hanover,”