When I began my journey into my maternal family history I had practically no knowledge of my maternal ancestors. I was no different to many other family historians when I took the first step back in time by Googling my maternal grandparents. I was definitely not prepared for what I
Wow! I have certainly been “missing in action” for awhile now. But I have not stopped researching my family history or writing about it. In fact this year I started working on a Master of Research in Literature and Creative Writing, focussing on the history of my grandparents. It has
The image above is of a postcard in my possession. It is entitled “On their way to war” and was taken from a painting by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia. Olga apparently painted this artwork in the early 19th century, perhaps at the beginning of World War I. But
As some of you might know, or remember, I have been working on updating my grandmother’s memoir Upheaval to include explanatory notes and her diary from 1919. Upheaval describes my grandmother, Olga Woronoff’s life as a young aristocrat in Imperial Russia and details the impact of the Russian Revolution and
It is 1918 and Russia is in the last stages of World War II. On the 3rd of March of that year the newly formed Russian government, under the leadership of Lenin, signed a peace treaty with Germany called the Brest-Litovsk treaty, ending Russia’s involvement in the war. For the
That is the gist of the letter I found among my grandparent’s possessions. It was written by my grandfather, Lt Pavel Voronov (Paul Woronoff). This letter is most likely a draft as words and sentences have been crossed out. In the image below I have crossed out most of the