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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: cordley on Tuesday 03 March 20 14:38 GMT (UK)
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I have received a copy of the Admin letters for Grant of Probate for a rellie who died in Edmonton in 1908.
I had been unable to find him after his marriage in 1878, and his new bride was with her parents in 1881. He had been noted as an Engineer.
So I surprised to see he was formerly of somewhere in Russia. (see attached)
Can anyone identify where this is, and why my rellie might have been there?
Really curious, what are records like for Russia at that time???
Thanks, Pam.
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It looks like:
Alexandroffsky near St Petersburg
:)
There are a few Alexandrovsky districts - one called Alexandrovsky Bank in St Petersburg, and any others showing on google aren't very "near St Petersburg".
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Gosh, that's quick!!!
Looks right - so why would a British person (engineer) be there from 1880 - 1900 ish?? What was going on there?? Haven't found an army connection...
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Wild guess, but they were probably working there.
I can see that an engineer could have had useful knowledge and experience. Maybe the company he worked for in the UK had some business there?
What sort of engineer was he?
There have been several threads on rootschat about people's British ancestors being employed in various jobs in Russia.
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Railway engineer?
Skoosh.
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All I know is from his marriage certs (he married 3 times) and was just 'engineer'.
In 1861 he is in Stoke Damerel / Davenport with wife no 1, and is a Engineer, Turner and Fitter.
He marries in 1859, 1865, and 1878 - but cannot find him in other censuses.
His family was very much involved in Railway construction, bricklaying, and a sibling of his went out to Mexico about 1900 to help construct tunnels), so certainly a possibility.
Are there any census type records from Russia in the last quarter of the 1800s?
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"There are a few Alexandrovsky districts - one called Alexandrovsky Bank in St Petersburg, and any others showing on google aren't very "near St Petersburg"."
And that is by the Vitebsky Railway Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitebsky_railway_station which was rebuilt in 1901 - what a place!!!
Am I adding 2 + 2 and getting a dozen???
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There are many references to Alexandrovsky in this area of Russia and British engineers had a great presence in the area.
I think it likely that the Probate Letter refers to Alexandrovskaya, which is a small village next to the Alexandrovsky Park at Catherine's Palace some 20 Km South of downtown St Petersburg (and well worth visiting!)
Check out the Wiki on John James Hughes, born in Merthyr Tydfil. He developed the process for making armour plate while everyone else was making railway lines. Think "ironclads" for the navy.
His company won the contract to clad the Kronstadt fort, which are on an island at the mouth of the River Neva and acts as a major naval defense for the city of St Petersburg.
He was also invited to develop iron and coal mines in what is now the Ukraine (then part of imperial Russia). His steel mill was the largest in Russia for a long time.
The town around the mill was named Yuzovska, the best the Russians could do to copy Hughes. It later was renamed Donetsk and is in the middle of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. It is thought that at least 25% of the people in Donetsk have Welsh origins!
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This is fascinating - thank you so much.
Do you know whether there is any online access to census type info for 1880-1905 for this area??? He is missing from UK records for that period.
Really intrigued about this man's reason for being in Russia. B 1837 and died 1908 in Plumstead, London.
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Not looking good for census records:
From Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire_Census
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Oh dear. Looks like the 1897 census would have been perfect, but as I read it copies destroyed except for Archangel and Tobolsk.
"Each enumeration form was copied twice, with the three copies filed in the county archives, the governorate archives, and the Central Statistical Bureau in St. Petersburg. The copies in St. Petersburg were destroyed after they had been tabulated.[4][5] Most of the copies stored at the local and regional level have also been destroyed; however, the complete census for the Arkhangelsk and Tobolsk governorates has been preserved, and the census for portions of several other governorates is also extant.[6][7]"
Now, my Russian geography is less than poor, so I cannot work out if St Petersberg is in Arkhangelsk.
But I guess this means there is no online access to this census. :( And visiting is not an option.
So I may never know why this rellie was in St Petersburg, or for how long.
That's Family History for you!!!
Thanks for all your help.
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Does this help to place Arkhangelsk?
https://russiatrek.org/arkhangelsk-city
My avatar (my gt.grandpa) was "allegedly" born in St. Petersburg but have found no records to help me one way or the other. ::)
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Alexandrovskaya.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Александровская_(Пушкинский_район) (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Александровская_(Пушкинский_район))
It's within the city now.
It was quite a usual thing for engineers and other people from Europe to come to Russia, live and work there before 1917.
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There's another Alexandrovskaya within St Petersburg. It used to be called Alexandrovsky 100 years ago, later the name (just the ending) was changed. It had also been a village c. 1900 and it became a part of St Petersburg in the 20th cent. It was a village of summer houses (dachas).
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Александровская_(платформа) (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Александровская_(платформа))
There used to be a railway station built in the 19th cent.
You can watch a video about this Alexandrovskaya
https://topspb.tv/programs/releases/95781/ (https://topspb.tv/programs/releases/95781/)
There's even a transcript available.
You can contact St Petersburg State archive sending them a request to do a genealogy search for you
https://spbarchives.ru/cga_services (https://spbarchives.ru/cga_services)
their emails:
zapros.cga <at> ak.gov.spb.ru
cga <at> ak.gov.spb.ru
not sure if posting the email addresses is allowed here, anyway, you can find them on the website.