The Leoke and Koik FamiliesFrom Estonia to America
Appendix C

Family and record details

Spellings, calendars, and the earlier generations of each line.

In this chapter
  1. Spellings and dates
  2. Hans Leoke’s parents and grandparents
  3. Mari’s parents and grandparents, the Tõllasepps
  4. Hilda’s parents and siblings
  5. Hilda’s grandparents
  6. Juhan Koik’s grandparents and earlier generations
  7. Elmar Koik’s baptism record
  8. Elmar Koik’s chronology
  9. Later family lives

Spellings and dates

  • Leoke first appears, in 1826, as Loeuk, and later as Leok, Look, Löök, Löuk, Louk and Lõuk. Officials sometimes confused it with the separate surname Lõoke (“lark”). Koik is written so from its first appearance in 1825. Els’s maiden name, Rantsus, also appears as Ranthus and Rantsar. An unrelated Leoke family lived in Torma parish and Tartu. Juhan appears as Johann or Johan; German records write Virve as Wirwe and Pilvi as Pilwi. Hilda’s maiden name appears as Meomüttel or Meomuttel.
  • Dates taken from Estonian church books and estate revisions before 1918 are Old Style, as written in the records, unless marked otherwise; dates from German, American and later Estonian records are New Style. Until 1918, Estonia used the Julian (Old Style) calendar. The difference from the Gregorian (New Style) calendar was 12 days for the nineteenth-century births discussed here and 13 days after February 1900. Calendar styles are identified where the sources permit; dates from later records are retained as recorded, with conflicts noted. Hans Leoke was born on 27 December 1852 Old Style / 8 January 1853 New Style; Elmar Oswald on 27 July 1896 Old Style / 8 August 1896 New Style. Mari was born on 23 April 1867 Old Style; the cemetery record’s 5 May 1867 is the New Style date. Hilda was born on 20 September 1896 Old Style / 2 October 1896 New Style.
  • German place names in the records: Fellin = Viljandi, Dorpat = Tartu, Reval = Tallinn, Groß-Keppo = Suure-Kõpu, Euseküll = Õisu, Alt-/Neu-Karrishof = Vana-/Uue-Kariste, Alt-Woidoma = Vana-Võidu, Schloss Fellin = Viljandi manor, Gotenhafen = Gdynia.

Leoke familyHans Leoke’s parents and grandparents

The estate’s soul revisions (1811, 1816, 1826, 1834, 1850 and 1857–58) and the Viljandi church books trace Hans’s family back three generations. Ages in the revisions are often rounded, so birth years taken from them are approximate. Before peasants on the estate took surnames in the 1820s, they were identified by patronymic and farm.1

  • Peet (about 1731–1803), Hans’s great-grandfather, lived at Wardja Matzi with the family of his brother Jaan; Jaan’s son Hans held the farm until he died in 1813. The 1811 revision lists Peet’s sons Jaak (aged 20 in 1795) and Andres (9).
  • Jaak, Peet’s son (about 1775–1819), Hans’s paternal grandfather, a landless lodger on Wardja Matzi farm, and his wife Greth, Jürri’s daughter (about 1777–after 1826). Their children were Marri (about 1806), Jürri (about 1808), Hans (about 1811) and Jaak (1813), Hans Leoke’s father. In the 1826 revision the widowed Greth and her children carry the surname “Loeuk”. Jaak’s brother Andres, Peet’s son (about 1787–1844), lived on the same estate.
  • Hans, Matz’s son, farm holder of Wardja Matzi, and his wife Marri, Margus’s daughter, Hans’s maternal grandparents. Their children included Matz (about 1815), Kaddri (1818), Ann (about 1820), Greth (about 1822) and Jaan (about 1825). The 1826 revision lists the farm holder’s family and the Leoke lodgers on the same page. A Hans Wardja, aged 55, who died of dysentery at Wardja Matzi on 6 November 1846, may have been Kaddri’s father; this is not confirmed. Hans, Matz’s son, probably came to Wardja Matzi from the neighboring Neu-Woidoma (Uue-Võidu) estate, which was part of the same property until 1822; in 1811 a Matz, Tönis’s son, lived there with his sons Mert and Hans.
  • Jaak Leok (Lõuk) (1813–1867) married Kaddri Wardja (1818–1853) at Viljandi on 5 April 1838; the household book of 1852–64 gives their births as 1813 and 8 January 1818. Their children were Marri (born 23 September 1841, died 23 January 1843), Rööt (born 21 August 1844, died 14 June 1848), a third child not yet found, and Hans (born 27 December 1852 O.S.). Rööt’s godparents were her mother’s brother and sister, Jaan and Ann Wardja, and Madde, the wife of her father’s brother Jürri.
  • Jürri, Jaak’s son (about 1808 – 7 August 1867), Hans’s uncle, became farm holder of Nuija Jahn farm in 1835. With his first wife Madde he had Jaak (19 September 1839 – 1909), Reet, Kaddri (born 18 September 1842) and Ann (born 9 September 1847); with his second wife Reet, née Muhul, whom he married in 1852, a daughter Marri (1856). His son Jaak is the Jaak Lõuke of the household books; see Appendix D.

Leoke familyMari’s parents and grandparents, the Tõllasepps

  • Jaan Tõllasepp (written Töllasep), born 22 May 1840, son of Jaan and Marri, of Kangilaski farm on the Vana-Võidu estate, married Kaddri Orrik, born 14 October 1842, of Orrika Hinno farm, daughter of Ado Orrik and Rööt, at Viljandi on 7 April 1863 O.S. Jaan died at Kangilaski on 11 April 1907 O.S., aged 66, and Kaddri on 26 September 1919, aged 76. Both are buried in the Viljandi Old Cemetery, plot Pauluse XI 146-8.
  • Their children were baptized from Kangilaski: a child born in March 1866, who received an emergency baptism and probably died young; Mari, born 23 April 1867 O.S.; Ado (Aadu), born 27 June 1869 O.S., later a Viljandi printer and bookseller; Tõnis (1871–1904), who is buried in his parents’ plot; and Kadri, born 27 November 1874. Mari’s brothers Ado and Tõnis were probably the godfathers of those names at the baptisms of her sons Jaan, Hans and Peter. Mari’s baptism writes the farm as “Rangilaski”, probably a slip for Kangilaski, the name written at her marriage.
  • Jaan’s parents, Jaan Tõllasepp (1806–1863) and Marri née Peia (1810–1880), from Peia farm on the same estate, married at Viljandi on 21 May 1839. Jaan the elder died of a stroke at Kangilaski on 6 November 1863, aged 57, and Marri on 30 December 1880, aged 70; they lie in their son’s plot. Besides Jaan, their children included Kaddri (1842), Marri (1844) and Tõnis (1849).
  • Other Tõllasepp households lived at Waigo Jahn farm on the same estate in the 1850s; how they were related to Jaan has not been established. An earlier suggestion that Mari’s father was a son of Tönis Tõllasepp of Waigo Jahn is contradicted by the records.

Leoke familyHilda’s parents and siblings

  • Father: Jüri Meomüttel, born 12 November 1861 at Kudewitte, a village on Viljandi manor, and baptized on 19 November, son of Jakob Meomüttel and Kaddri née Ruud. He married Ann Paltser at Viljandi on 27 December 1885 O.S. (8 January 1886 New Style); both were then living at Kivistik on Viljandi manor. In 1896 he was a laborer at Kivistik. He died on 22 July 1927.
  • Mother: Ann (Ano), née Paltser (also written Pältser or Paltzer), born 24 May 1857 at Wirro Lauri farm on Viljandi manor, the daughter of Hans Paltser and Mari née Naar. She died on 7 March 1940. Hilda’s 1944 German registration card also records that both her parents were deceased.
  • August, born 1887. His passport was issued in St Petersburg in 1913, so he seems to have moved to Russia.
  • Anna Marie, born 1890, died 4 July 1903.
  • Jüri, born 14 October 1893. He married Minna née Teng in 1921 and had a son, Hillar Mairold (b. 1930). He died on 28 January 1938 and is buried with Minna (1888–1963) in the Viljandi Old Cemetery.
  • Hilda Wilhelmine, born 20 September 1896 O.S. at Kivistik, baptized on 20 October 1896 and confirmed in 1914. She died on 30 June 1988; her last recorded residence was in Los Angeles.

Leoke familyHilda’s grandparents

Jakob (Jaak) Meomüttel, born at Kudewitte on 24 June 1841 O.S. and baptized on 29 June, the son of Jaan Meomüttel and Kaddi, married Kaddri Ruud at Viljandi on 15 May 1860; he was then living at Kudewitte. The church books usually write her surname Ruud, after Rudi farm; the household book’s Rund is a variant. Kaddri was born about 1835, the daughter of Jürri Ruud and Marri. Their children were Jürri, born 12 November 1861, Hilda’s father, whose godparents included a Jürri Ruud, three daughters born at Rudi, Marri (1864), Kaddi (1866) and Ann (1869), and a son, Jaak (1872). The household book for 1864–1877 lists the family, and Marri appears in it again as “Mari Meomüttel, daughter of Jaak and Kadri”. Jakob and Kaddri were both living at Jüri’s marriage in 1885. Jakob died at Kivistik on 12 June 1888 O.S., aged 47. In April 1898 Kaddri moved to Tartu, where the household book of St Peter’s congregation records her with her son Jaak; her death has not been found, nor has her baptism. Hilda’s aunts Marri (1864–1943) and Ann (1869–1904), who married Jüri Ott in January 1892, share a plot in the Viljandi Old Cemetery. Several other Meomüttel households lived at Kudewitte in the mid-1800s, but their relationship to Jakob has not been established.

Ann Paltser’s father, Hans Paltser, was born on 27 September 1827 and died on 26 March 1884 O.S.; her mother, Mari née Naar, born on 12 March 1823, died on 19 February 1909, aged 85. Ann’s sisters included Mari (born 1854), Liisa (1860) and Kadri (1863–1897).2

Koik familyJuhan Koik’s grandparents and earlier generations

  • Hans Koik (about 1780 – 1834) and Kert, Endrik’s daughter (about 1781 – after 1834), Peeter’s grandparents, lived at Kama Peter farm on the Vana-Kariste estate. In 1811 Hans, aged 32, was a farmhand there, with his sons Hindrich and Peter; the farm was held by another man, also named Hans, whose relationship to him is not recorded. In the release list of January 1825 he and Kert are “Koik”. In 1826 Hans headed the Koik household at Kama Peter with Kert and their children Endrik, Peter, Hans, Märt, Anne, Tina and Els. Hans died of a fever on 25 January 1834 O.S. and was buried at Halliste on 30 January; Kert appears as his widow in the revision of that year.
  • Märt Koik (about 1821–1874) married Marri Riig (about 1819–1885), born at Lobbine farm, at Halliste on 22 March 1845; his parents were then both dead. Marri was the daughter of Peter Riig, Jaak’s son (about 1797), and Els (about 1800 – before 1845), who lived at Leppiko farm on the same estate; her brothers were Jaan, Endrik, Märt and Peter. They lived at Sönni farm, where Peeter was born in 1849, and by 1858 at Kordimatsi with Märt’s brother Peter. Their children included Hans (1846), Peeter (1849), Els (born in the early 1850s) and Märt (1860). In 1871 they moved to Õisu, where Märt died on 26 May 1874; Marri died at Carlsberg on 31 July 1885.
  • Henn Rantsus (about 1813), Els’s father, was the son of Margus Rantsus, Peter’s son (about 1753 – before 1834), of Nachsepp farm at Õisu (Euseküll). Henn married Ann, probably née Arrak (about 1822), at Paistu in April 1841; they farmed Kurwitze in 1850, the farm written “Kuuwitse” at Els’s baptism, and Kümmo in 1858. Els’s brother Johan (about 1848) was very probably the Juhan Rantsus who was godfather to her eldest son in 1875; her sisters were Reet (about 1852) and Marri (about 1855).3
  • Peter Purtsak (December 1852 – 12 November 1914), Marie Karoline’s father, was the son of Jaak Purtsak (born 16 May 1809) and Marri, of Mõisaküla in Halliste parish. Her mother, Anno Erg (born 17 November 1860 O.S.), came from Pernaküll in the same parish, the daughter of the farm holder Märt Erg and An. Peter and Anno married in 1883, though the register entry has not been found. Widowed in 1914, Anno moved to Karksi parish in January 1922.4

Koik familyElmar Koik’s baptism record
Born 30 December 1925, at 2 a.m.
Baptized 5 April 1926
Place Karksi manor (Karksi-mõis)
Name Elmar Heinrich Koik
Parents Johann Koik, laborer (tööline), and his wife Marie, née Purtsak, both Lutheran
Baptized by Pastor Benedikt Masing, apparently at the family’s home on the manor
Godparents Johann Tuvi, gardener; Peter Wirk(?), gardener; Miss Anna Pork(?); Liide Willemson. Some surname readings are uncertain.

Koik familyElmar Koik’s chronology
1934–1940 Six years of elementary school in Karksi-Nuia; a member of the Estonian Scouts, the civilian Boy Scout movement, from 1938 until scouting was banned after the Soviet occupation of 1940.
1942–1943 Identity card issued by Karksi parish in July 1942; worked as a locksmith in Tallinn, according to his 1946 questionnaire.
2 February 1944 By his own account, mobilized at 18 by the Estonian Self-Administration under German occupation. He reported that his military paybook was issued at Klooga on 16 March 1944, and described his unit as an Estonian military drivers’ school.
1 July 1944 Badly wounded at Vaivara, on the Narva front, according to his later statements. His questionnaire records arrival in Germany with his hospital on 10 July.
1944–1945 More than a year in military hospitals at Pilsen, Marienbad and Regensburg. American forces reached Marienbad in May 1945.
October 1945 Recovered, he walked to the DP camp at Regensburg.
1946 Geislingen DP camp (UNRRA Team 190). In September a US Army screening board refused him DP status and he was evicted, moving to a private room in nearby Eislingen.
1947–1948 Worked as a civilian guard for the US Army, at Mannheim and then with the 501st Engineers at Wolfgang near Hanau. His case was referred to the Military Appeal Board on 28 June 1947; no final appeal decision has been located in the records examined. A separate DP registration record is dated 27 July 1948.
1949 Applied to emigrate to the United States on 21 April. US visa issued at Frankfurt on 14 July, sponsored by the National Lutheran Council to work for Imperial County Farmers, El Centro, California. He sailed from Bremerhaven on the Army transport General R. L. Howze and landed at New Orleans on 5 September 1949.

Later family lives

From 1956 until he retired in 1965, Elmar Oswald was assistant head of the budget section at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, northeastern California, according to the Album Academicum. He died in Los Angeles on 26 February 1972. Hilda died on 30 June 1988; her last recorded residence was in Los Angeles.5 Mari had died in Viljandi in 1954 and Jaan in 1959.

Peter and Elizabeth had no children. The Estonian Society of Los Angeles made him an honorary member in 1953. Peter died in Los Angeles on 22 April 1973 and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, in the same lot as Elmar Oswald and Hilda.6

Elmar Koik later became a scout leader in Los Angeles, continuing his involvement in the Estonian scouting movement in exile.

Notes

  1. Sources as in the notes to “Hans Leoke: from schoolmaster to bookseller”, with the soul revisions EAA.1865.3.282/19 (1811), 283/5a (1816), 283/13 (1826), 284/7 (1834), 288/4 (1850) and 293/3 (1857–58); Hans Wardja’s death, EELK Viljandi congregation, deaths 1846, EAA.1290.1.60, No. 317; Jaak, son of Jürri, births 1839, EAA.1290.1.53, image 21, No. 338; Ann, births 1847, EAA.1290.1.61, image 22. Tõllasepp family: births 1866, 1867, 1869, 1871 and 1874, EAA.1290.1.82, image 8; .84, image 16; .86, image 19; .88, image 18, No. 249; .316, image 26, No. 345; marriage 1863, EAA.1290.1.504, image 13; marriage 1839, EAA.1290.1.53, image 34, No. 34 (“Jaan Töllasep ü Peia Marri Peia”); household book 1852–64, EAA.1290.1.526, image 3; deaths: 1863, EAA.1290.1.78, image 6, No. 157; 1880, EAA.1290.1.322, image 58, No. 242; 1907, EAA.1290.1.349, image 46, No. 85; 1919, EAA.1290.1.556, image 141, No. 294; grave register, kalmistud.ee, plot Pauluse XI 146-8. The godparents named Aadu and Tõnis Tõllasepp: births 1886, 1888 and 1892, EAA.1290.1.328, image 21; .330, image 22; .334, image 17. Meomüttel family: marriage 1860, EAA.1290.1.83, image 27, No. 60, and EAA.1290.1.503, image 119, No. 67; births 1841, 1861, 1864, 1866 and 1869, EAA.1290.1.55, image 14, No. 214; .75, image 24; .80, image 13; .82, image 11; .86, image 13; Jakob’s death, deaths 1888, EAA.1290.1.330, image 46, No. 140; Kaddri in Tartu, EELK Tartu St Peter’s congregation, household book, EAA.3150.1.690, p. 245; Ann’s marriage, household-book note, EAA.1290.1.533, image 360; Jüri (b. 1893), Marri and Ann: grave register, kalmistud.ee. The marriage list of 1860 was earlier read as giving Jakob’s birth as 24 December; his baptism shows it was June. ↩

  2. Hans Paltser’s death: EELK Viljandi congregation, deaths 1884, EAA.1290.1.326, image 43, No. 73. Mari née Naar: Viljandi deaths 1909, EAA.1290.1.555, image 281, No. 37; household books EAA.1290.1.533, image 447, and EAA.1290.1.557, image 367. Ann’s sisters: Viljandi manor household books. ↩

  3. Alt-Karrishof soul revisions: 1811, EAA.1865.3.171/4, image 16; 1826, EAA.1865.3.171/11, image 35; 1834, EAA.1865.3.172/4, image 27; 1850, EAA.1865.3.173/2, image 12; 1858, EAA.1865.3.174/4, image 17. Release list, 1825: EAA.931.1.22, image 15. Euseküll revisions: 1834 (with the 1816 ages), EAA.1865.5.106, images 6 and 22; 1850, EAA.1865.3.213/7, image 37; 1858, EAA.1865.3.216/4, image 38. Juhan Rantsus as godfather: Paistu births 1875, EAA.1286.1.298, image 4, No. 29. Hans Koik’s death: EELK Halliste congregation, 1834, EAA.1275.1.102, image 45, deaths No. 46. The Riig family at Leppiko: Alt-Karrishof revisions 1826, EAA.1865.3.171/11, image 10; 1834, EAA.1865.3.172/4, image 8; 1850, EAA.1865.3.173/2, image 7. Henn Rantsus’s marriage: EELK Paistu congregation, 1841, EAA.1286.1.72, image 46, marriages No. 15. Märt Koik’s birth: Paistu births 1878, EAA.1286.1.301, image 25, No. 240; Paistu household book, EAA.1286.1.382, image 188 (p. 174). Other sources as in the notes to “Juhan’s parents and the earlier Koiks”. ↩

  4. Halliste household books, vol. 292, EAA.1275.1.547, image 87 (p. 81: Jaak Pursak, born 16 May 1809; his son Peter, born December 1852, died 12 November 1914, with Anno and Marie Caroline), and vol. 298, EAA.1275.1.557, image 8 (the Erg family). Peter’s baptism: EELK Halliste congregation, births December 1852, EAA.1275.1.524, image 579, No. 329. Anno’s baptism: births 1860, EAA.1275.1.526, image 205, No. 265 (born 17 November, baptized 4 December 1860, at Pernaküll). Anno as a widow at Karksi from 7 January 1922: Karksi household book vol. 986, EAA.1276.1.341, image 171 (p. 316). ↩

  5. Elmar Oswald: the Album Academicum entry as given in the WWII refugees database, “Surm: 1972-02-26, USA Los Angeles”; the Social Security Death Master File gives February 1972. Hilda: Death Master File, died 30 June 1988, last residence ZIP code 91306 (Winnetka, Los Angeles); the index does not give the place of death. Peter: Death Master File, April 1973. The Death Master File as indexed at sortedbyname.com. ↩

  6. Find a Grave, memorials 85906083–85906085: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, Enduring Faith section, map D05, lot 1235. ↩

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