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Sigrid Renate Maldonado, nee Amber(g)
© copyright 1998, text by Sigrid Renate Maldonado, web
presence by FEEFHS, all rights reserved
Latest Update 22 January 2003
Her 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.
She is 25% ethnic German and at least 50% Estonian.
Perhaps also some Swedish.
Born 1935 in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Sigrid and
her family lived in Rakvere, Province of Virumaa, Estonia.
There her parents owned the property which today is
"hotell Wesenbergh". Already being owners of that building was a
valid reason for them to leave Estonia in 1941. Had they stayed
her parents and paternal grandfather would have been deported to
Siberia for sure and died there. Who knows, what would have
happened to Sigrid herself?!...
Properties were not essential, survival was.
After leaving Estonia this family - Sigrid and her
parents
- spent some 7 years in Austria. At first in Vienna. During WWII
Sigrid's father, an ethnic Estonian, was drafted into the German
armed forces. Mother and child endured bomb attacks in Vienna.
1945 - as Soviet troops were entering the city - her
mother, Margarethe, fled with Sigrid. After being in a POW camp
her father, Nikolai, found them and was able to be reunited with
his family. In 1948 the 3 of them went as refugees from Austria
to
Argentina.
There Sigrid finished high school and did her university
studies. She graduated from "Universidad de Buenos Aires" with a
degree of "Odontologa". [Roughly equivalent to a Master in
Science
of Dental Medicine. (No, no Ph.D.)] As soon as she started
working
as a dentist she found out the hard way that she has scoliosis.
To
avoid the pain she abandoned her profession.
She married shortly after that. Her husband, Luis, had
graduated from the same university with the equivalent of a
Master
in Science in Electrical Engineering, electronics orientation.
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 3 came to USA in 1966. First they lived in California
and then 19 years in New Hampshire. Sigrid and her husband became
US Citizens in 1971.
In 1975, through an agency, Sigrid helped to resettle 28
refugees from Vietnam.
Few years later her parents - who had followed them and
immigrated in USA in 1974 - 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. Margarethe had Alzheimer's Disease.
Mrs. Maldonado moved to Indiana in 1989 with her husband
and mother.
Luis has become a Staff Scientist in the space industry.
Sigrid is the genealogical detective of her family. She also
assisted her husband in his consulting activities.
Sigrid's interest in family history started soon after
being separated from her own and her husband's families, around
1968. She is fluent in 3 languages and understands 2 more.
1997 was the year Sigrid was busy taking care of her
husband who almost lost his life to cancer. Probable sequels of
this illness are still ahead. For now life has returned to
normal.
Their son, a Cpt. of the US Army (Ret.) is a "Gulf War -
Desert Storm" Veteran. His in-laws are immigrants from Poland. He
and his wife both speak 2, almost 3 languages.
Mrs. Maldonado plans to write about her family's
experiences in the near future. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
She is a member of Genealogical Societies like:
"AHSGR" (= American Historical Society of Germans from
Russia) in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
"Clogher Historical Society" in Monaghan, Republic of
Ireland.
"FEEFHS" (= Federation of East European Family History
Societies) in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
You are right now at the FEEFHS Web site.
"Germanic Genealogy Society" in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
"Heraldisch-Genealogische Gesellschaft 'Adler'" in
Vienna,
Austria.
"NEHGS" (= New England Historic Genealogical Society) in
Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.nehgs.org
"POINT" (= Pursuing Our Italian Names Together) in Palos
Verdes, California, USA.
http://members.aol.com/pointhompg/home.htm
"Ulster Genealogical & Historical Guild" in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. http://www.uhf.org.uk
And several others.
Mrs. Maldonado also is a member of:
"SPAN" (= Small Publishers Association of North America)
in Buena Vista, Colorado, USA.
http://www.SPANnet.org
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Written by Sigrid R. Maldonado and published by different
entities:
Her book "ESTONIAN Experience and Roots" came out in
November 1996. (ISBN 0-9653936-0-7) Sigrid 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 death. After all that was
behind her she resumed the publication of her book. It
was finally published by "AS WAS Publishing" and is still
available.
It has: Table of Contents, Bibliography, Index, 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).
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 California and called "Pursuing
Our Italian Names Together".
http://members.aol.com/pointhompg/home.htm
Her "Ancestral Line: Amber or Amberg from Estonia" was
published 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. is located in
California and has been active in genealogy and related
fields from 1957 on.
She was invited to give a presentation at an Estonian gathering
in
Detroit:
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Postal Address:
Sigrid Renate Maldonado
c/o AS WAS Publishing
P.O. Box 463
Goffstown - NH
03045-0463 - USA
Sigrid Maldonado's HomePage: http://home.att.net/~sigam
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