Elmar Oswald, Hilda and their daughters

Hilda’s family, the Meomüttels

Hilda was the daughter of Jüri Meomüttel and Ann née Paltser. Jüri was born in 1861 at Kudewitte, a village on Viljandi manor, the son of Jakob Meomüttel and Kaddri née Ruud. Ann was born on 24 May 1857 at Wirro Lauri farm on the same manor, the daughter of Hans Paltser and Mari née Naar. Jüri and Ann, both then living at Kivistik on Viljandi manor, married at Viljandi on 27 December 1885 O.S.¹ Hilda was born at Kivistik on 20 September 1896 O.S. and baptized on 20 October; one of her godparents was a Hugo Paltser, perhaps a relative of her mother.² Jüri died in 1927 and Ann in 1940. The household book records Hilda’s siblings August, Anna Marie and Jüri; their entries are retained in Appendix C.

Viljandi, Tartu and Tallinn

Elmar Oswald Leoke was confirmed in 1913. According to the Album Academicum of the University of Tartu, he took part in the War of Independence.³ He later described himself as a Diplom-Kaufmann (business graduate) and, in America, as an economist. On 12 January 1919 he married Hilda Wilhelmine Meomüttel in Viljandi.⁴

They married in a town under martial law. The Red Army had taken Tartu at Christmas, and a week before the wedding the front ran through Karksi manor, 35 km to the south, where the Koiks later lived.

The Viljandi household book records Elmar Oswald, Hilda and their daughters on the page for Hans Leoke’s family:

Their elder daughter, Virve (Wirwe) Helje, was born in Tallinn on 7 December 1919 and baptized at home on 12 January 1920; the baptism is entered in the register of Tallinn’s St John’s congregation.⁵ She trained as a bookkeeper.

Pilvi Laine was born in Tartu on 27 November 1921 and baptized on 12 January 1922 in Tartu’s St Paul’s church; her godparents included her uncle Peter.⁶ Although family memory placed her birth in Viljandi, both the household book and her German records give Tartu. She grew up in Viljandi and recalled attending school in the building at Hariduse 2. Her age at attendance, the years she attended and the school’s name at that time remain unknown. German records list her occupation as typist.

An undated household-book annotation gives the family’s address as Tartu 11, the shop and home, and Pilvi went to school in Viljandi. A Tallinn address register records Elmar Oswald, as a university student, lodging for a week in January–February 1925 at Viru 22 in Tallinn, the flat where his brother Hans was then registered and where Peter had lived until 1924; he came from Viljandi and left for Tartu.⁷ Otherwise, when the family moved between Tallinn, Tartu and Viljandi is not known. Elmar Oswald ran the lending library with his brother Jaan.

The Album Academicum also outlines Elmar Oswald’s working life between the wars. He taught at secondary schools in Tartu and Tallinn and was an official of the Bank of Estonia in Tallinn and Viljandi. From 1935 he was an accountant at Eesti Kunstsarve Tehased, an artificial-horn works in Tallinn. Later he became deputy director and chief accountant of the paper mill at Räpina, in southeastern Estonia, and also taught at the Räpina horticultural school. Apart from 1935, the entry gives no dates for these posts.

The Tallinn–Haapsalu district court dissolved Elmar Oswald and Hilda’s marriage on 10 May 1933. The household-book annotation states that the children were to remain with their mother.⁸ On 17 February 1939 Virve and Pilvi, then 19 and 17, were issued identity cards in Tallinn.⁹ Neither parent was found in the Tallinn identity-card indexes for 1935–1939, so where Hilda lived in those years, and when Elmar Oswald moved from Tallinn to Räpina, remain unknown. In 1944, however, the parents and both daughters were registered together in Germany; in 1948, Elmar Oswald and Hilda emigrated as husband and wife. Whether they remarried or reunited without remarrying is unknown. Their last address before leaving Estonia in 1944 was in Tallinn, at Baltischportstraße (today Paldiski maantee) 42.

Notes

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1. EELK Viljandi congregation, marriage index 1885, EAA.1290.1.327, image 42, No. 90; full entry EAA.1290.1.504, image 212, No. 115: betrothed 12 December, banns 15, 22 and 26 December, married 27 December 1885 O.S. (8 January 1886 New Style). The date 24 December 1885 given in earlier versions of this history is the betrothal date converted to New Style. Ann’s baptism: births 1857, EAA.1290.1.71, image 15, No. 155, as “Anno Paltzer”. ↩

2. EELK Viljandi congregation, births 1896, EAA.1290.1.338, image 29 (p. 29), No. 232; baptized by Provost A. Westrén-Doll. Hugo Paltser’s relationship to Ann has not been established. ↩

3. Album Academicum Universitatis Tartuensis 1918–1944, entry for Elmar Oswald Leoke, as quoted in the WWII refugees database (2024.wwii-refugees.ee), consulted 19 October 2026. The Estonian entry reads: “Võttis osa Vabadussõjast. Kk-õp Tartus ja Tln-s, Eesti Panga ametnik Tln-s ja Viljandis. A-st 35 ASi Eesti Kunstsarve Tehased raamatupidaja Tln-s, hiljem Räpina paberivabriku abidir ja pearaamatupidaja, ühtlasi Räpina Aianduskeskkooli õp. 44 Sksm-le, õllevabriku juh Windsheimis (Baieri). 48 USAsse, 51 elas Los Angeleses, 56-65 Sierra Army Depot eelarveosak abijuh Herlongis. 65 pensionile.” In this publication’s abbreviations, kk is keskkool (secondary school) and õp is õpetaja (teacher), so “Kk-õp Tartus ja Tln-s” means a secondary-school teacher in Tartu and Tallinn (National Archives of Estonia, Album Academicum abbreviations). The database gives the entry’s heading as “Sünd: 1896-08-08, Vil Suure-Kõpu v. Surm: 1972-02-26, USA Los Angeles”. The entry is a retrospective biographical summary, not a contemporary record. ↩

4. Viljandi manor household book, EAA.1290.1.557, pp. 591–592: “laulat. 1919 12/I Elmar Oswald Leoke” (married 12 January 1919 to Elmar Oswald Leoke). ↩

5. EELK Tallinn St John’s congregation, births 1918–1926, TLA.1358.2.59, image 23 (p. 20). The Viljandi household book gives 18 January 1920. ↩

6. EELK Tartu St Paul’s congregation, births 1914–1925, EAA.5357.1.101, image 258, No. 5: baptized in church on 12 January 1922 by Pastor Habicht; godparents Marta Paris, “Minni Meomüttli”, probably her aunt Minna, wife of Hilda’s brother Jüri, and Peeter Leoke. The Viljandi household-book annotation gives the entry number as 208. ↩

7. Tallinn City Archives, address-register sheets, TLA.1376.1.134: sheet 312836, Peeter Leoke, Foreign Ministry official, at Viru 22, flat 3, from 16 November 1921 (arriving from Germany) to 30 September 1924, then to Sweden; sheet 312802, Hans Leoke, 10 July 1924 – 6 April 1925; sheet 312796, Elmar Leoke, university student, 27 January – 3 February 1925, from Viljandi, leaving for Tartu. ↩

8. Viljandi household book for Vana-Võidu, pp. 229–230: “Abielu lahutatud Tallinna-Haapsalu rahukogu otsusega 10. mail 1933 a. Lapsed jäävad emale” — “Marriage dissolved by decision of the Tallinn–Haapsalu district court, 10 May 1933. The children stay with their mother.” ↩

9. Tallinn City Archives, identity-card registration book 1939, TLA.186.1.881, images 46 (Virve) and 47 (Pilvi). ↩

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