Russian immigration to QLD

[yolandar]

Howdy,
I am trying to locate some information on my great grandparents that emmigrated from Russia (via Harbin China) and moved to north Queensland. As I've previously been researching my UK ancestry - this Russian part has gotten me just a little stuck and I don't know where to start - and I was hoping that someone might be able to suggest a few ideas on where to look next. There a few hiccups along the way - so please bear with me.

My gt grandfather was known to us as  Simon (Samuel) Sologinkin. According to his naturalization papers, he was born in Aganty, Russia in 1885. The papers also state that he travelled with his wife and a number of children and arrived into Brisbane on the 3rd July 1913 - travelling on the St Albans. I have accessed the passenger list off an.....ty for the St Albans that landed in July 1913 - however it says the boat trevelled from Kobe - and had mostly Chinese immigrants on it. My problem is that Sologinkin isn't a Russian name so his real name has obviously been anglised - with him not being able to read or write English, he wouldn't have been able to correct how his name was written onto paper. Would the papers of the day have listed the ships that arrived into port and where they were coming from? I'm hoping to somehow find his real name and then trace him back to Russia. Can anyone help with any ideas on where to look / what to do?

Fingers crossed....
Yolanda

[ennael]

the newspaper reports on:

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home

seem to indicate that the "St Albans", was carrying Russian passengers bound for QLD and Melbourne etc but they don't appear to be named, there was about 36 or 37 depending on the reports.
The "St Albans" seemed to be travelling from Darwin to Brisbane around the top end.
Leanne

[yolandar]

Hi Leanne - i just noticed that as well... I got all excited then read the bottom of the notice where it lists ....'and 48 Russians bound for Queensland'... oh the frustration

[Ruskie]

Yolanda,

Do you have your g grandfather's Qld death certificate? This should (may) give his parent's names.

If he had any children born in Qld have you checked their birth certificates to see what the surname is written as. The name will have been anglicized so it will be difficult to "convert" back to a Russian surname. On arrival it's likely that he just said his name and it was written as it sounded. Did he call himself Sologinkin after he'd been in Qld for a while? I have a good Russian surname list however the link appears to be broken at the moment. I will check again later. A google search reveals loads of Sologinkins - are they all yours? 

I believe that even if you do speak Russian, research there, specially from Australia is difficult if not impossible. There are people who will do this for you for a price. Not sure I'd trust them myself.  Apparently it can help if your ancestor was a member of an association or had a profession which may have kept records, a member of royalty. 

The good news is that there IS a place called Aganty in Russia which I'm sure you've located on a map - fabulously isolated! 

I'm not sure if it will help but next time I'm at the Qld State Archives, I can try to find some more information about their arrival in Qld. A more detailed passenger list perhaps? 

It might be worth asking older family members if they know of any family stories which might help trace the family.

I'm afraid that you might be fighting a losing battle though .... 

[cholem77]

hi yolanda

i'm a great grandchild of simon sologinkin as well - Julia is my grandmother.  i don't have any extra info on him but i've attached a newspaper article on this family with a photo of him, his wife and their kids if you don't have it already.  there is some info on there you may find useful?

[shermac]

Hi Julia,

I am another relation as your mum Vicky is my first cousin as my mum is Aunty Annie.  Here is some information about your granmothers parents that you can pass onto Yolanda.  Grandma Sologinkin was actually from Tomsk not Omsk, which was near Budka's village(which saddly isn't there anymore).  There towns were situated in the Ural Mountians area in Siberia, and that grandma Sologinkin was also half Mongolian.  So if you could pass this on it will be great.

Cheers Sherryl

[cholem77]

Hi Sherryl, I'm not Julia - Vicky is my Aunt.  Do you happen to know the un-anglicized version of Sologinkin?

[shermac]

Well Uncle Alec when he was alive always said that it was prononced by is father as Solodyankin, I did a google search of Russian/Siberian names and the name Sologinkin does not appear any where, so it isn't a Russian name, but the other name appears which sounds very similar...and I found quite a few people with this surname .... so I am going to contact them and attach a picture of Budka....so you never know we might come into some luck as these could be relations of some sort.
Cheers

[cholem77]

if you google it, there seems to be quite a few "solodyankin" however someone mentioned to me once ( if i remember correctly ) that the name was anglicized from something that ended in what sounded like ski or skiy.  Like solodyanskiy ??  there is nothing on the web i can find with that spelling though.  have you heard of anyone referring to the "ski" sounding ending?