I have no system yet for sorting through the many photographs, documents and letters I have inherited from both sides of my family. Much of the time I cannot even read them as they are written in either Russian or German. Sometimes, when I pass them onto translators, even native
In my opinion the best gift you can give a child is a book. There is nothing I love better than shopping for books for my grandchildren. I can spend hours browsing through the titles in the children’s section of bookstores. Sometimes I know exactly what I am looking for
Being married more than once seems to be a familiar pattern for the males on both sides of my family. On my father’s side, my great grandfather, Otto v. Fircks, was married twice. On 10 January 1854 he married Catharina Hilda v. Oelsen, who died in 1868. On 29 April
When I closed the door for the last time to my father’s house, I took with me boxes of documents, certificates, letters and bits of paper with scribbles on them. Most of these were either in German or Russian. I can order a coffee in German. I can count to
Most of the time my mother was a mediocre cook. This wasn’t her fault, she learnt from her mother who had to teach herself. Almost every meal consisted of some form of red meat or chicken with well steamed vegetables or a side salad and a mountain of mashed potatoes.
Ask your family. I’m lucky. My cousin on my father’s side of the family compiled a comprehensive genealogy of our family, wrote books on the subject and developed several family trees. My aunt wrote a journal which, despite being in German, is a valuable resource for me. I’ve also asked