E-Mail from Siberia

A few days ago, I received a mail from a gentleman in Siberia. He told me that he had the same name as my ancestors in Estonia, and his family came from Estonia, too. Now, there are obviously relatives of mine who speak Russian and English.
He sent me a photo of his greatgrandfather J. He and my greatgrandfather V must have been brothers. Their second name is very rare, and there is only one family of this name in Russia.
Two of these brothers, V and A, had a forge in the Wall Street (ha!) in Tallinn, Estonia. Their mother Anna (picture) must be the ancestor we have in common. She lived from 1833 until 1903. Her family probably came from Lithuania. She was née Filipov.
If it is true that our ancestors J and V were brothers, then Evgenij is my nephew of which degree? 4th?
This shows how closely related mankind really is, doesn't it?

How far do your most distant relatives live?

And this is how far I got with my bauhaus quilt in the meantime.

Some more pictures in the website

Today I continued work on my family website and added a few pictures and a few malicious remarks; I corrected errors after reading in my documents. I added a picture of my mysterious ancestor, my Granny's Granny. Who was she really? Rumors said she was Jewish. But Jews were not allowed to settle in Estonia before 1865, an era of liberalism under Tsar Alexander II, who also gave more freedom for the Finns. Few years before, 1861, slavery had been abolished. Anna married in 1850. Her husband was Mart(in). When he became a free man, he was allowed to choose a surname, and he chose the squirrel to be his "totem", his name became Orrav. His sons, Wladimir and Alexander, changed this into Eichhorn, the German word for squirrel.
The only way to rise in society was to leave the old life behind.
Continued...

New watercolour/gouache painting and collage on black paper: A Night in Hortensia Gardens.
Hortensia means Hydrangea.

About my Ancestors

Inspired through the correspondence with Rayna, I made a little website about my ancestors from Tallinn in Estonia.

Looking back 55 years

I was 4 years old when I spent a summer in the very north of Germany, together with my Grandma and relatives. My mother was having a baby, my younger brother, at that time, and my Dad spent the weekends with us.
So, most of the time I walked with my Granny. "Now you will see the sea for the first time", she said pathetically, and this is why I remember the moment very clearly.
She was a very tough and clever lady, a daring black market dealer in 1945, supplying the cosacks with vodka and taking bread home. As she spoke a meticulous St.Petersburg Russian, she got everything she wanted from them. She also spoke a beautiful German, French and Estonian.
She came to help my mother with laundry and ironing, and while she turned the bedsheets into stiff, heavy white boards, she reported the highlights of the Genesis to me. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, she knew them well.
In August 2008, my husband and I went to this place, and I took the colour pics of this vast and beautiful, wind-torn beach.