h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's something in complete contrast to my last journal, which I posted absolute minutes ago.

Today I had a call from Mum. Cousin M's been doing some research and she's found out what happened to my great-uncle in 1940; the Soviets shot him as a spy, in accordance with an old piece of pre-revolutionary legislation that prohibited 'crimes against the Tsar'. Never mind the anachronism, at least now Mum's cousin (who I'll call Juri)knows that his father didn't spend decades in the gulag.

It's only been 68 years. I wonder what else we'll find out in time.

Anyway, it looks like Uncle was genuinely a spy. He'd even been given a medal by the Estonian government. He apparently found out some of the details of Stalin's invasion plans - but it wasn't possible for a nation of barely a million people to stop the Red Army, even with prior knowledge. I'd like to think that his work helped in some way with moving national assets to safe places like Sweden before the blow fell.

Now I see why my great-aunt Leni was reluctant to say anything about her husband, even to his surviving child. Leni died in early 1995, not knowing what had happened but possibly hoping that he'd had a quick end and not suffered in Siberia. It's a strange world where execution is preferable to continued existence.

It seems that cousin Juri's been using a false surname all his life. It's probably a bit late to change it back now.

Families are full of surprises, aren't they?

Wow! So cool things to find out!

It's just so very weird, finding out things like this after all this time.

I need to get Uncle's full name from Mum so I can do a bit of my own research. Apparently there's at least one book in which he features. Mum, in turn, is waiting for details from cousin M...

What can I say - people have been finding out many things over past 15 years or so.

Let me know if I can help you in any way.

Once I get the name, I'll see... Hati, I might ask you to do some general searching and translating. I wonder what level of detail M has found out. She'll be visiting Mum in April, so I should find out something after that, if not earlier.

I'll be happy to help you. And curious, too.

Really? Anyone would think you were a journalist.

*giggles*

It's just such a strange thing to find out with no prior warning. But it's fair to assume we won't be finding any living relatives, not after all this time...

You never know really. The other thing is whether you want to find any.

How fascinating!

I know nothing about my ancestors. I really should ask my uncle J to show me some of the stuff he's dug out with his geneaology software. Maybe I should do some digging of my own.

I'm also interested and curious to hear more about your family history, Ivan.

Hati, you're right - I'm in two minds about whether I'd want to find living relatives. The dead, on the other hand, should be remembered and there's less chance of awkwardness. What happened, happened.

Pc, I'd say more about the familiy history - and maybe one day I will - but I need to find out more before I can find a central narrative that is likely to be true. All of the older generation were economical with facts and were also good at embroidery; in this case it's easy to see why.

Hi, Ivan,

It seems all families were the same, especially going back a generation or two. I have a 'skeleton' in my cupboard judging by dropped hints, but unfortunately the only people who could enlighten me are no more, or have senile dementia. I haven't the time or energy to go digging, and I would have such a long way to go back to get to grandparents, let alone great grandparents.

To anyone interested in their family history, I would say start finding out now, before it is too late, or you will always wonder.

Websailor

Fascinating!

How amazing, Ivan.

I have cattle reivers and murderers, fishermen and ministers, at least one admiral and one brig. general in my ancestry - amongst many other things. I'm sure there are extraordinary tales for all of us if we have the time to find out. And one day our stories will amaze our descendants

I'm just wondering what secrets my grandmother and her sisters knew, and what they took to their graves with them. There are gaps in the 'official version' of family history. Some of these gaps are explained when one knows that there was a spy in the family and that this left the whole family open to the risk of reprisals.

It's intriguing, Ivan. I wonder if there is any way of finding out? Do keep us up to date

I'm expecting facts to come to light at odd moments, possibly for the rest of my life.

Once I get definite facts from cousin M, via Mum, I'll be able to see what I can find out by myself. Probably not much - I don't read Estonian - but Hati does...

The things I know already are interesting enough. And then there's the documents in Mum's possession. My grandmother's after-curfew pass from the German occupation; a document from 1947 naming her as 'a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Estonia in political exile'; and strangest of all her pre-war passport, with the Estonian arms overstamped with the hammer and sickle, and then that blotted out and a swastika added instead. (Things changed fast between 1938 and 1942.) One of these days I'll get a novel out of all this.

I'm kind of reminded of the tale of a young woman from the Ousopov family who fled the Red Revolution, coming to the west and how it was that she did not feel safe to return until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union under Yeltsin, and only then made a sentimental journey home. The Russian Federation today (and the other former SSRs) may themselves have some relevant archival material.

If I do decide to do a search of my own, I'll start with the Estonian archives in the hope of filling in the pre-war picture. I'm reluctant to start trawling through Russian facilities, but if it comes to that...