One of the things we did together with my father today was look through some very old family photos, trying to figure out who was who. I got to hear some stories of my long-dead grandfather and great-grandparents. We drew a family tree for Ingrid and Adrian to keep all the names straight.

Here’s my great-grandfather Eduard, in St Petersburg, then Petrograd, with my grandfather Peeter (born 1911) and my great-aunt Aino (born 1913). Guessing from the children’s approximate ages, I’d say the photo is from 1914. Peeter died well before I was born, but I met Aino several times. I remember her as a large-boned old lady with a loud, happy laugh.

And this is my great-grandmother Gertrud Agathe, with Aino and Peeter again, and their younger siblings Paul and Ott. Ott died young in WW2. Paul emigrated to Canada at some point; I remember him sending gifts to us after the fall of the Iron Curtain. (Including my first jigsaw puzzles ever. Soviet Estonia did not have jigsaw puzzles. I had some home-made “mosaic” puzzles – that great-aunt Aino made and gifted to me, actually – but the jigsaw puzzles from Paul were an exotic treat.)

The boys all have the Toomik family protruding ears. I had the same; I remember having surgery to fix them when I was still in pre-school. Neither Ingrid nor Adrian has inherited them.