About this site

This site gathers the family history of the Leoke and Koik families: the families of Pilvi Laine Leoke (born in Tartu in 1921) and Elmar Heinrich Koik (born at Karksi manor in 1925), who both left Estonia in 1944, came separately to the United States and married in Las Vegas in 1951.

Its backbone is the text of the family history (Eighth edition, October 2026), which is also available as a printable PDF. Around it are the working research notes for every person found so far, the scans of the records, the photographs, a family tree and a map. The history is the edited account; the person pages show the research as it stands, including readings that are uncertain.

Conventions

• Dates. Until 1918 Estonia used the Julian (Old Style, O.S.) calendar, 12 days behind the modern calendar in the 19th century and 13 days behind from 1900. Dates from Estonian church books and estate revisions before 1918 are given as written, in Old Style, unless marked otherwise; dates from German, American and later Estonian records are New Style.
• Names. Names are recorded as each source writes them (Löuk, Louk, Leok, Lõuk; Töllasep; Ranthus), with a standard spelling for headings: Leoke, Tõllasepp, Meomüttel, Koik, Rantsus. Before the 1820s peasants had no surnames and are identified by patronymic and farm: “Jaak, Peet’s son, at Wardja Matzi”.
• Places. Places are given with their German and Estonian names the first time: Alt-Woidoma (Vana-Võidu), Fellin (Viljandi), Alt-Karrishof (Vana-Kariste), Dorpat (Tartu), Reval (Tallinn), Gotenhafen (Gdynia).
• Evidence. What a record says is kept separate from what is concluded from it. Conclusions are written as conclusions (“probably”, “consistent with”). In the family tree a dashed line means a relationship that is probable but not proven. Ages in estate revisions are often rounded, so years worked out from them are approximate (“c.”).
• Colors. Plum marks the Leoke family and green the Koik family, following the palettes of Brand Estonia. Shared material is in neutral colors. Family names are always given in words as well.
• Codes. Every record has a permanent code (for example L201 or K05), and every person a research ID (for example L-010 for Hans Leoke). The codes match the research files.

Privacy

People who may still be living are shown by name and place in the family only. Identity and registration numbers have been left out of the research notes. The research does not record living descendants.

Credits

• Viljandi Museum: the family photographs and the archive-library items, from the museum’s collections (MuIS numbers in the captions) and its permanent displays.
• National Archives of Estonia (Saaga): church books, household registers, estate revisions, military papers and exile register cards. Tallinn City Archives: address registers and identity-card books.
• Arolsen Archives: Windsheim registration cards, foreigners’ lists, Virve’s death certificate, and Elmar Koik’s refugee and emigration files.
• US National Archives: passenger manifests, arrival cards, declarations of intention and the 1950 census. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of NARA: the General W. M. Black at Bremerhaven, 1948. US Navy photograph of the General R. L. Howze.
• Estonian National Museum: Tallinn harbor, September 1944 (ERM Fk 3051:5377). kalmistud.ee: grave records.
• Photographs of Tallinn, Viljandi and Karksi in October 2026 were taken by the family.
• Printed maps: coastlines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Interactive map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO.
• Typefaces: Source Serif 4 (Adobe, SIL Open Font License) and Aino (Brand Estonia). Map library: Leaflet.

The archives and museums hold the originals and their rights. Please ask them before reusing an image elsewhere.

How this site is made

The pages are generated from the family-history text and the research files by a small script, so that the site can be rebuilt whenever the research moves on. The source is kept on GitHub.