13 August 2010

Stalin's housekeeper?

I came across a genealogy discussion forum which was focused on the name TILL. My post was the only one in TEN YEARS that inquired or even alluded to TILL in Latvia (except one other...) Pretty much all of the others involve the US, Germany or Great Britain.

The only other mention was the following quote:

"Name Carolina Till is mentioned in a book "Twenty letters to a friend" by Svetlana Allilueva. She says that their " apartment in the Kremlin was run by a housekeper, a German from Riga, Latvia, named Carolina Till..." " She was a charming old women, neat and immaculate and very kind..." The year was 1929-1933. G, Elrod

I have two TILL females with either a first or middle name of Caroline and they were born around 1860. That would make them about the right age to be described as a "charming old woman". So...I google this Svetlana person and I soon learn the it is the sole daughter of STALIN! She is still alive and lives in rural Wisconsin but is quite the recluse.

I would guess that since I have never come across another TILL in my research of documents focusing on Latvia that this person is one of "mine"!