Sources and notes

This history draws on family recollections, research conducted in October 2026, museum collections, parish registers, and wartime and refugee papers. The account of Hans’s work draws chiefly on the Viljandi Museum article based on Linda Sarapuu’s study. The numbered notes give the source for each specific claim; photographs and documents carry their credits in their captions.

Archives

• Estonian National Archives (Saaga): EELK Viljandi congregation metrical books, 1838–1907 (EAA.1290.1.52–88, .316–349), marriage lists, 1847–1889 (EAA.1290.1.503–504), deaths lists, 1892–1929 (EAA.1290.1.555–556), and household books, including those for Vana-Võidu (pp. 229–230) and Viljandi manor (EAA.1290.1.557, pp. 591–592); soul revisions of the Alt-Woidoma (Vana-Võidu) estate, 1811–1858 (EAA.1865.3.282, .283, .284, .288 and .293), the Alt-Karrishof (Vana-Kariste) estate, 1811–1858 (EAA.1865.3.171–174), and Euseküll (Õisu), 1834–1858 (EAA.1865.5.106; EAA.1865.3.213 and .216); Alt-Karrishof release-from-serfdom list, 1825 (EAA.931.1.22); EELK Paistu congregation, births and marriages (EAA.1286); EELK Halliste congregation (EAA.1275), births, marriages, deaths and household books; EELK Karksi congregation, births 1914–1926 (EAA.1276.1.335), deaths (EAA.1276.1.340) and household books (EAA.1276.1.341); EELK Tartu St Paul’s congregation, births 1914–1925 (EAA.5357.1.101), and St Peter’s household books (EAA.3150.1.690); household books of the Helme, Saarde and Tarvastu congregations; files of the Estonian Consulate General in New York (ERA.1608.1.51, .570 and .808) and Hans Leoke’s officer’s file (ERA.495.7.2663); Juhan Koik’s military papers (ERA.680.3.9); Karksi residents’ list, 1924–1927 (ERA.3446.1.77); Viljandi town residents’ list, 1936 (ERA.3077.1.629); exile register cards (ERA.4942.4).
• Tallinn City Archives: identity-card registration book, 1939 (TLA.186.1.881); address-register sheets, 1921–1926 (TLA.1376.1.134); EELK Tallinn St John’s congregation, births 1918–1926 (TLA.1358.2.59).
• Arolsen Archives: Windsheim registration cards and foreigners’ lists (Elmar Oswald, Hilda, Pilvi and Virve Leoke); Mörlbach death certificate no. 6/1945; US emigration lists; Elmar Koik’s DP registration record, US Army and UNRRA questionnaires, and IRO emigration list.
• US National Archives: Pan American Airways passenger manifest, Frankfurt–New York, 30 November–2 December 1947; manifest of USAT General W. M. Black, Bremerhaven–New York, 21–30 October 1948; arrival card of Elmar Koik, New Orleans, 5 September 1949; declarations of intention, US District Court, Los Angeles: Peter Leoke (1943), Pilvi Laine Koik and Elmar Koik (1952); 1950 US census, Los Angeles, enumeration district 66-1226.
• kalmistud.ee, Estonia’s national grave register: Viljandi Vana kalmistu, the Leoke plot (Pauluse IX, 124-8), the Tõllasepp plot (Pauluse XI, 146-8) and the Meomüttel plots.

Published works

• Linda Sarapuu, “Hans Leoke – raamatukaupmees ja kirjastaja”, Viljandi Muuseumi aastaraamat 2007, pp. 184–214, and the Viljandi Museum article “Hans Leoke 1853–1919” based on it.
• Institute of the Estonian Language, Eesti kohanimeraamat (dictionary of Estonian place names) and the place-name database KNAB, for the names Koik, Koiksaare and Koigu.
• Album Academicum Universitatis Tartuensis 1918–1944, as quoted in the WWII refugees database.
• Michael Weber (ed.), Königshofen 1945 (Books on Demand, 2020).
• Kit C. Carter and Robert Mueller, U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II: Combat Chronology, 1941–1945 (Center for Air Force History, 1991).
• Eesti NSV Teataja Lisa 1945, no. 2 (11 December 1945), via DIGAR.
• Meie Elu (Toronto), 15 October 1987; Estonian exile newspaper of 30 August 1979 on the Wartheland and Infantry Regiment 200; Kultuur ja Elu and Postimees accounts of the September 1944 evacuation; Times-Picayune, 9 September 1949.
• “Peter Leoke” and “Ameerika Eestlane”, English Wikipedia.

Online databases and indexes

• WWII refugees database (wwii-refugees.ee), including Estonian family-register references and lists of Estonians in Finnish and German forces, 1940–1945.
• memoriaal.ee, searched for Leoke and Koik.
• Historisches Marinearchiv, Ostseeflucht voyage database.
• Social Security Administration Death Master File and Clark County, Nevada, marriage index, as indexed at sortedbyname.com.
• Find a Grave, memorials for Peter, Elmar Oswald and Hilda Leoke, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills.
• German Genealogy Group, index of New York City deaths, 1862–1948.
• Geni family-tree summary (2014) for Elmar Oswald and Hilda Leoke.

Museums, places and images

• Viljandi Museum (MuIS): VMF 176:92, 424:330 and 424:415; VMF 75 F 713, 716, 725 and 3887; VM 9248 F 75:2518; and the museum’s permanent displays, photographed in October 2026.
• Estonian National Museum, ERM Fk 3051:5377 (photo, Tallinn harbor, September 1944).
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum, photograph 111-SC-310938 and film of the General Black’s arrival, 30 October 1948; US Navy photograph of USNS General R. L. Howze.
• Estonian Manors Portal (mois.ee), “Karksi”; Puhka Eestis and Visit Estonia, “Karksi Manor and Park”; information boards in Karksi village.
• Maps: coastlines and lakes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via geo-maps; modern borders shown.

Family recollections

• Family recollections gathered by the compiler, including Pilvi’s memory of attending school at Hariduse 2, confirmation that she traveled to America alone, and the memory that Virve was killed in an attack on a train (confirmed with relatives, October 2026).