Sigrid Renate Maldonado, nee Amber(g)

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Her short biography:

Mrs. Maldonado is the authoress of a book called "ESTONIAN Experience and Roots" and of a few published articles. All about genealogical/historical matters. She is her family's historian. During 2003 she finally started to write her own family’s history.

She is 25% ethnic German and at least 50% Estonian. Perhaps also some Swedish.

Sigrid was born 1935 in Tallinn, then the capital of the Republic of Estonia. She and her family lived in Rakvere, Province of Virumaa (= Vironia), Estonia.

In Rakvere her parents worked as dental mechanics and owned the rental property which today is "hotell Wesenbergh" on Tallinna tänav 25 (Tallinn street).
[The building with the white front on this old photo. When the picture was taken the street was still paved with cobblestones. Almost across the street from the "Ambergi maja" (maja = house) was the post office. A woman is depositing a letter in the "mailbox" which was a slit in the wall.]
Already being owners of that building was a valid reason for this family to leave Estonia in 1941. Had they stayed Sigrid's parents and paternal grandfather would have been deported to Siberia for sure and died there. Who knows, what would have happened to little Sigrid herself?!...
Properties were not essential, survival was. (I suppose that after seeing what has happened in “post-Tito” Yugoslavia people in the Americas can understand this a little better now...)

After leaving Estonia this family spent some seven years in Austria. At first in Vienna. During WWII her father, an ethnic Estonian, was drafted into the German armed forces. Her mother worked as a dental mechanic and later as a war time dentist. Mother and child endured bomb attacks in Vienna, then - as the Soviets advanced - the flight from that city, going west.

After being reunited with her father the three of them left Europe as refugees and emigrated to Argentina. Once on this side of the Atlantic her parents concentrated on creating a new life for the family. New language, different customs, laws, etc. Going from “riches to rags” was challenging.

Her father, the former owner of that big building, ended up being a night watchman in a warehouse. Mother and daughter worked as seamstresses, then as street vendors. During that time Sigrid also went to school and then the University. Her mother later was able to change from being a street vendor to having her own wholesale business.

Sigrid married Luis. He had completed his advanced studies in Physics and Engineering. He was a member of the Faculty until shortly before emigrating to USA.

His ancestors had emigrated from Italy, Ireland, Spain, etc. and settled in Argentina.

Luis and Sigrid's son was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The three immigrated in USA during the 1960s. First they lived in California and then many years in New Hampshire.

In 1975, through an agency, Mrs. Maldonado helped to resettle 28 refugees from Vietnam. (She knew how they felt...)

Few years later her parents - who had followed them and immigrated in USA - required every day more care. They were living with their daughter and her family. After her father died in NH her mother continued to decline. Sigrid took care of her mother for many years.

But, while it was still possible, she tried to get as much information from her parents about their and their parents’ lives.

Luis & Sigrid’s son, after he finished his studies, started his own independent life. Then, with her mother, Luis & Sigrid moved to Indiana,.

Luis became a Staff Scientist at a major Aerospace company. Weather satellites became his expertise.

She is a member of several Genealogical Societies. Some of them are:

"AHSGR" (= American Historical Society of Germans from Russia) in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

"FEEFHS"(= Federation of East European Family History Societies) in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Once you get to their Web Site click on "Website Index" and then write "Baltic Cross-Index" and you will find some items of interest to Baltic family history research. Check out also the Russian site because Estonia used to belong to Russia and the existence of archival records for Baltic families depends on what records the Russians kept during those years. Start by clicking on http://feefhs.org (Their Webmaster has changed lately. There might be changes now.)

"Germanic Genealogy Society" in P.O. Box 16312, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55116-0312, USA.

"NEHGS" (= New England Historic Genealogical Society) in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org

“New Hampshire Society of Genealogists” in Concord, NH, USA.

"POINT" (= Pursuing Our Italian Names Together) in P.O. Box 14966, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89114-4966, USA.
http://point-pointers.net.htm

Written by Sigrid R. Maldonado and published by different entities:

An article under the title “Migrations to Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, USA, Canada and Argentina” describing who of my German family had emigrated from Bavaria, Germany to where and when over many years. Plus their further migrations. It appeared in the “Germanic Genealogy Journal” (Vol. 6, No. 4, Winter 2003) of the “Germanic Genealogy Society” in St. Paul, MN, USA. (See above.)

Her book "ESTONIAN Experience and Roots" (ISBN 0-9653936-0-7) came out in November 1996. She had been writing it, on & off, for 4 years. It could have appeared many months sooner, but the final weeks of her mother's life demanded her attention and later she was busy with matters related to her mother's passing. After all that was behind her she resumed the publication of her book, published by "AS WAS Publishing" of Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA and since 2001 it is available for purchase from P.O. Box 463, Goffstown, NH, 03045-0463, USA.
It has Table of Contents, bilingual lists of localities in Estonia, a Bibliography, Index with some chronology, Maps, etc.

"Family History and writing a book - unexpectedly" is the title of an article written by her which appeared in the May 1997 number (Vol 5, Issue 5) of “Australian Family Tree Connections” - The monthly magazine for Australian and New Zealand Family Historians" (ISSN 1320-4823) of Gosford, NSW, Australia http://www.aftc.com.au

Her writing together with family pictures of one of her husband's Italian ancestral lines appeared in the following: Autumn 1993, Vol 7, Nr. 3 Issue # 23 of the quarterly publication called "POINTers" (ISSN 1065-9749). "POINTers" is the award winning magazine of an organization located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA and called "Pursuing Our Italian Names Together". http://point-pointers.net

Her "Ancestral Line: Amber or Amberg from Estonia" - which she had submitted for publication - was printed in the periodical called "The Augustan Society Omnibus", Book 13 (ISSN 0004-7988) in 1991. It appeared under the "Eastern & Central European" section of this publication. The Augustan Society Inc. was located in Torrance, California, USA. They have moved now to P.O. Box 75, Daggett, California, 92327-0075, USA. This society has been active in genealogy and related fields from 1957 on. http://www.augustansociety.org

Writing for her own Web Site brought back a long forgotten memory: Many years ago, after Sigrid arrived in Argentina, at age 13, she wrote to an Austrian magazine for children that she had loved while living in Austria. Her letter contained the description of her trip to Argentina. She knew that an excerpt of her writing had been published around 1949. But, she had not seen her letter in print. Over the years she had forgotten about it.
Now she wrote to Austria and tracked down that old magazine in the National Library of Austria. She asked for a copy of her writing. They found that article and now she finally has her own travel description of so long ago... This writing was in German. Of course, the magazine had not printed the whole tale of that Atlantic crossing, but only part of it...
The magazine was called "Die Kinderpost" (= "Children's Mail"). It appeared only between 1945 & 1959, bi-weekly, in Vienna, Austria. Children who had suffered through WWII, the bombings, the loss of homes, of loved ones, flights from war and destruction, etc. simply enjoyed this publication.
The number in which part of Sigrid's description of her and her parents' emigration to Argentina was printed was the "4^th year, #10, 14 May 1949".

She was invited to give a presentation

at an Estonian gathering in Detroit:

During their meeting of Oct 1997 Mrs. Maldonado spoke of the fact that the vast majority of our children and grandchildren do not know the Estonian language and that most of them are not even interested in "things Estonian". She emphasized that every immigrant group goes through this and that it has to be accepted as something that can not be changed...

Sigrid was trying to motivate the Estonians gathered there to clearly identify their old photographs and documents. Mainly to leave written accounts of their lives and families behind for their children and grandchildren. In the local language, if possible. Only this way will they be able to pass on to our future
generations our ethnic Estonian heritage.

One can only hope they will do all these things. And that they will spread the word...

at a meeting of the “New Hampshire Society of Genealogists” in Concord, NH:

In Oct 2002 she gave a presentation titled “A Glimpse at Eastern European Family History” in which she tried to show local = USA family historians how different family history research can be while pursuing such European roots. It was an eye opener for this audience.

J Thank you for reading the above.

If this is the first page you have read in this Web Site then you will want to get
more information about the book, written by the above author:

"ESTONIAN Experience and Roots"

A description of the book can be reached by clicking here.

Before you order you might want to take a look at its abbreviated "Table of Contents".

"Reviews & Opinions" about this book can be reached by clicking on & . There you will
also find extracts of entries to our Guest Book.

To purchase the book click to obtain the "Ordering Form" and make a print-out of it.

If you want to know of a few additional writings about ethnic Estonian families by
other authors then click here. This page includes links to many useful and interesting Web Sites.
It alsocontains info in how to find relatives in Estonia and
ways to get documentation of family happenings at DP Camps after WWII.
There also is a link to a site where you can check on those
who disappeared during Soviet times.

If you suspect that one of your ancestors might have gone to school
in Rakvere (Wesenberg), Estonia
you might find him/her in our page about graduates of the City School there.
Just click on Rakschl to reach our new page.

Links to several genealogical Web Sites of Estonian interest are also at the end of our Home Page. (See below.)

If these Web Sites have changed their addresses or their content lately it is out of our control.

The Web Site of the weekly Estonian paper in New York, "Vaba Eesti Sõna",
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