Long overdue update

Well, after a series of failed deadlines, the Estonian research has been completed and sent to me. My only real complaint is the inability to complete the service in a timely manner. I had to inquire about the progress in a series of emails to get them to move on the project. It certainly seems as if I not continued to inquire with them it may never have been completed. I had first contacted them in early 2010 and ordered the translation some months later. I agreed to pay them a very reasonable fee (from my perspective) to acquire the documents from the Estonian archives and then the scanned them and sent them to me without asking for payment. I did tell them that I would be asking them to translate them, so I am sure they relied on that and I know they added on the fee after the whole process was completed early this year. After reviewing them, I considered their fee structure, and said that I'd like 10 hours of translation services. I specified which pages to translate first and what would follow. As you can see, I've attached a few of the pages that were scanned and sent to me prior to their translation.

I have no real ability to comment on the quality of the translation services, specifically, though I can say that there were very few gaps in the pages that they did translate, so I presume they were skilled in reviewing and translating German handwriting. The fee for everything worked out to a little over $200. They wanted me to send my credit card information by fax and specified that I not send it by email. I also could have wired it to their bank, but I learned that the bank fee for doing that was quite high. Because of that, I chose to pay it via Western Union. I received the completed translation the following day.

What did this whole process further in my research? The following events occurred in the early 1880s.

I had figured my relative, Eduard TRUSCHINSKY, was being sued by his landlord, but I was wrong because he sued the owner of a mill with whom he had an agreement for a few years. He sued the landlord for failing to comply with the terms of the lease. This landlord was Baron KRUDENER and it occurred merely a few miles north of the present Latvian-Estonian border and along the Baltic coast. Those terms required the landlord to maintain the property, provide materials for the tenant to make any repairs, etc. From the statements gathered in the court process, it seems that the landlord was wholly negligent in this matter so Eduard sued for damages. Eduard passed away before the legal process had concluded. After Eduard's death, his attorney indicated that Eduard's widow wanted the case to continue. The last communication from the attorney is a second request for a document and in that request the attorney notes that the case cannot proceed without the specified document. There are no further communications present in the series of documents, implying that the other party didn't supply the needed document. Perhaps that is a coincidence or perhaps it is not. What would you do if you had received that last document from the party who was suing you??

A second and in some ways a more exciting benefit is the identification of the attorney acting on behalf of Eduard TRUSCHINSKY, August KRUMING. In a correspondence, he identifies himself as the attorney and brother-in-law of the plaintiff, Eduard TRUSCHINSKY. What that bit of information does is confirm a whole group of TRUSCHINSKYs which I had documented and strongly suspected -but been unable to definitively confirm- as being related to Eduard. Because of this information I can add at least 27 other TRUSCHINSKYs, their spouses and descendants. Further, it provides the possibility I can link this line of Truschinsky's in the past to "Trusinskis" in the present who are still in Latvia. That is useful, because the other, more established line of research doesn't link to any TRUSCHINSKIS in Latvia today, though it does to some other relatives, albeit not with the surname TRUSINSKIS. Unfortunately, it still doesn't solve the problem of getting a few different people in Latvia with the name TRUSINSKIS to reply to my inquiries.

If any of you TRUSINSKIS in Latvija are reading this, do you have any heritage from the Leipaja region of Latvija? If so, we may be related. If you are unsure, perhaps you could ask an older relative who might know...

Overall, though a bit tedious, I am glad to have used the Estonian research service. It provided a more interesting story on one of my relatives on my paternal side AND, perhaps more importantly, provided a link to a whole new set of relatives which -in the future- I may be able to link to TRUSINSKIS in present-day Latvia.

Truschinsky documents have arrived!

As mentioned in an earlier blog, there are documents in the Estonian archives related to my earliest confirmed ancestor. This guy is certainly the most interesting distant ancestor. He died of "St. Edward's Fire" and was sued for failing to fulfill a contract to use a mill, as he was a miller. All of these documents (about 60 pages) are related to that issue. The documents are primarily in German with the exception of two pages which are in Estonian. I expect to find some great information. I would be VERY pleased to see if they refer to him or his family at any point as Kurschinsky.It will be quite expensive to get all of the documents translated, but I expect it will be well worth it.

To the rights is the cover page to the series of documents. I have found other members of my family tree on the Estonian website noted above, but certainly nothing this juicy!

Till research isn't going anywhere

I found the Till death record to which I had referred in my last post -well, one film of the two that cover that time period in that community. I did, however, find the death record of the Till who had died in 1827 and was born sometime in the 1770s. It didn't provide any further information -such as where the guy was born. I won't find anything more in birth or death records until I review the Revision lists. They are explained and will eventually be posted here.

No Truschinsky records in the two other films that had arrived. *sigh* I do hold out some hope for some Truschinsky records that are on order for another community. All of the dates that I would like to be covered are not available, but I would like at least one...preferably the one that is for Eduard Truschinsky's birth. That would be huge. It is very unlikely I will find that record, as he was born two years after the last available date of the records to arrive. As will Johann Till, I may have to get some luck with some Revision lists.

Truschinsky frustration

I totally understand that one will inevitably hit roadblocks in genealogy research, but this is a bit crazy. I waited three months to get the information on my great grandfather, August Truschinsky, and after I finally get it, I run into a new roadblock in less than one day! UGH!!! August was born, according to his death record, in Salisburg. This town is now called Mazsalaca. There is no record of his birth in that location. So, I look in surrounding locations and then I do find his birth record. The birth record gives the names of his parents and they are the same as another I found in Truschinsky birth record for a town called at that time Alt Salis (but is now called Salacgriva). I had found the father's death record in Alt Salis a few days earlier and it indicated a birth location in Kurland -Aswiken. This community is now called Aizviki. I searched in the records in nearby, slightly larger towns and, thus far, there are no records. Another person who either died or got married listed their birth location as Diensdorf in Kurland. That community is now called Dinsdurbe. No such luck in my search there, either. What is interesting is that this family has four different communities in which they lived or were born. I still haven't found two supposed brothers in this family, but I did find an unknown female named Olga -though I have not confirmed a relationship.

*sigh* the search goes on...

Truschinsky

I was searching that Latvian website yesterday and found 3 Truschinskys. Needless to say, I am QUITE pleased about finding them. One was of a marriage record in Riga, but that record had listed the gentleman's birth location so I dug through those records and found his birth record. His first and last name coincided with my grandfather's uncle. Of course, that birth record listed the father's name. That's two Truschinskys. The third Truschinsky was found in a record for a female in the town where I found the birth record I mentioned earlier. I had never heard of her, so it might be an interesting chase to find her relationship. In fact, after this posting, I think I will try to find her birth record and see if there is a relationship with the Truschinsky I had just found.

The search goes on...

Oh, one more note: in two of the three records I had just found it shows an alternate spelling of Truschinsky. That is not particularly common. I have found AT LEAST four different spellings for my last name, Trusinsky.