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<\/a>November 23, 1878<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a>December 7, 1878<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>November 9, 1878<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Next, in the parish registers of the Lutheran Holy Cross Congregation in Wei\u00dfenstein (Paide P\u00fcha Risti kogudus), the death record itself appeared under No. 44: Ludwig E. von Strahlborn (Ludwig E. v. Strahlborn) passed away on October 31, 1878, at four o’clock in the afternoon from a massive stroke (Schlagflu\u00df), and was buried on November 4. Yet for strict verification of his identity, this entry offered little help. On the contrary: instead of answers, it served up a fresh batch of riddles. The record listed only his name, date, and cause of death – the pastor indicated neither the deceased’s military rank nor his age, leaving the years column blank, and in the birthplace column he drew an eloquent question mark (?). Even more curious was the marital status column: the clerk first wrote “widower” (verwittwet), then crossed it out and wrote “unmarried” (ledig) above it.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThis sparse information was both baffling and a dead giveaway of our hero’s character. Technically, by the autumn of 1878, Ludwig Karlovich really was a widower and had outlived nearly all the participants of the Vladimir drama: his lawful wife Praskovya had died in 1868 in Colonel Volotsky’s almshouse, their daughter Elizaveta had died of consumption in 1875 in the house of the priest Sokolov, and both of his stepdaughters by Second Lieutenant Pyotr Lyalin – Ekaterina Vzmetneva and Countess Maria Derionzini – had also passed away. But in quiet Wei\u00dfenstein, hardly anyone could have known this. Clearly, the retired hussar lived in such isolation that even to the local community his past remained a mystery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
I had more than enough inner certainty, but genealogy demands documentary proof. And that proof was found, though the path to it proved quite winding. One must give Ludwig his due: he remained true to himself to the very end, and his farewell tour fit seamlessly into the fabric of our archival saga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Warsaw Trail, Chopin\u2019s Godfather, and the Real Estate Scam.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The thread of the investigation unexpectedly led to the Kingdom of Poland. While back in the Vladimir province, his stepdaughters were busy dividing the boundary cherry tree and peasant hayfields; retired Lieutenant von Strahlborn turned up in Warsaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having retired in 1832, shortly after marrying Praskovya, and having squandered all available assets, Ludwig, contrary to expectations, did not sink to the bottom or perish in a gutter. His unbearable lightness of being, however, was accompanied by a relentless pursuit of easy schemes, each promising to mend his fortunes, yet invariably ending in another fiasco. Ludwig clearly fell short of the title of a master schemer: he lacked strategic thinking, perseverance, and, by all appearances, the ability to learn from past failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What exactly brought the former cornet of the Kyiv Hussar Regiment to the banks of the Vistula remains unknown. Warsaw hosted a large Russian garrison and operated under a distinct legal jurisdiction largely beyond the reach of Russian creditors, while among former comrades-in-arms one could always live on credit, play a hand of cards, and look for an effortless hustle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Warsaw episode of his biography came to light thanks to a file from the National Archives of Estonia (EAA.29.3.4503) bearing an eloquent German title: “File concerning the expulsion of retired Lieutenant Ludwig-Karl von Strahlborn from Warsaw to his homeland, in Reval” (Akte betreffend die Ausweisung des verabschiedeten Leutnants Ludwig-Karl von Strahlborn aus Warschau in seine Heimat, in Reval). There were no direct genealogical certificates inside, yet from the very first lines of the dispatch from the Chancellery of the Warsaw Military Governor-General dated September 12, 1857, No. 4793, our old acquaintance deserved a standing ovation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Viceroy of the Kingdom, upon representation that the retired Lieutenant Ludwig-Karl von Strahlborn residing in Warsaw leads an idle life and possesses no means of subsistence, has deigned to order that he be expelled to his homeland in the Governorate of Estonia. Consequently, the aforementioned Officer, having been summoned to the Police, declared that prior to the conclusion of a lawsuit he had initiated here against a certain Wardak, he could not depart.<\/p> <\/div>
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Even when faced with compulsory deportation for idleness and destitution, Ludwig Karlovich did not lose his composure and presented the police with an unfinished lawsuit! The story of this litigation, which we managed to piece together across Russian reports, digitized ledgers of Warsaw notaries, and old Polish newspapers, is worthy of Balzac’s pen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Warsaw, our cash-strapped hussar struck up an acquaintance with a 39-year-old day laborer from the suburban commune of Pow\u0105zki, Franciszek (Franz) Wardak, who was blind in his left eye. This humble laborer had a far more prosperous relative (likely his brother), Andrzej Wardak, who owned a lucrative property with houses, outbuildings, and a smithy in the right-bank Warsaw suburb of Praga at No. 151 Targowa Street (Nr 151 na Pradze, przy ulicy Targowej). Back in February 1844, in the newspaper “Kurjer Warszawski” (No. 43 of February 14, 1844), this Andrzej was modestly referred to as “Mr. Andrzej Wardak” (JP. Wardak Andrzej) when he donated 200 zlotys toward the construction of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo in memory of his late wife Katarzyna Szankiewicz (Katarzyna Szankiewicz\u00f3w). However, as his wealth grew, the common peasant surname Wardak began to transform in official documents into a noble-sounding gentry name – Wardzi\u0144ski or Wardy\u0144ski (Andrzej Wardzi\u0144ski).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bone of contention was the inheritance of their deceased female relative (most likely their mother or aunt) – Eleonora, n\u00e9e Raczy\u0144ska, married name Wardy\u0144ska (Eleonora Raczy\u0144ska\/Wardzi\u0144ska), which included rights to that very plot No. 151. Ludwig von Strahlborn realized that a poor relative’s resentment toward a wealthy one offered a chance to play for high stakes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nIn May 1856, Ludwig brought the one-eyed day laborer Franciszek Wardak to the office of the Warsaw notary (regent) J\u00f3zef Przysiecki. In a single sitting, they executed two mirrored acts in the notarial register (Repertorium). Under Act No. 357, Franciszek Wardak officially assigned his inheritance rights, valued at the impressive sum of 1,500 silver rubles, to Ludwig von Strahlborn. Needless to say, the retired hussar did not have that kind of money to his name. Therefore, right then and there, under Act No. 358, Ludwig issued Wardak a counter-promissory note for 440 silver rubles. In hand, Franciszek likely received a small sum of ready cash for the tavern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the page of the register beneath both acts, two signatures still stand side by side: the unsteady, dancing scrawl of the semi-literate day laborer (Franciszek Wardak) and the firm, sweeping autograph of our hero (Ludwik von Strahlborn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Warsaw Civil Tribunal, an unpleasant surprise came to light: it turned out that the enterprising Franciszek Wardak had already sold that very same share in plot No. 151 to his brother Andrzej Wardzi\u0144ski ten years earlier – by an act dated February 12, 1846, at the office of another well-known Warsaw notary, Gross – complete with payment and a signed receipt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Backed by a court-appointed public defender named Rakowski provided by the government, the tireless lieutenant filed a lawsuit against both brothers at once – both Andrzej Wardzi\u0144ski and Franz Wardak. He demanded that the ten-year-old transaction before Notary Gross be declared null and void, that his right to co-ownership of property No. 151 be recognized, and, most importantly, that Andrzej Wardzi\u0144ski be compelled to compile a full inventory of the estate of the late Eleonora (Raczy\u0144ska) Wardy\u0144ska and divide her inheritance. However, the scheme misfired. The summons was duly served to Andrzej Wardzi\u0144ski, but the second defendant and key witness – Franciszek Wardak – suddenly vanished. In March 1857, the lawyer Rakowski even obtained a default judgment against Wardak, yet the court bailiff (wo\u017any) Paw\u0142owski was unable to serve him the papers: the headman (w\u00f3jt) of the Pow\u0105zki commune declared that no such resident was registered there at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where had Ludwig\u2019s chief accomplice disappeared to? The answer turned up in the crime and incident columns of Warsaw newspapers from the spring of 1857. The distraught wife and sister of Franciszek Wardak placed a missing-person notice: it transpired that on Sunday, February 22, 1857, the one-eyed day laborer had set out from Pow\u0105zki straight for Praga, got dead drunk on his way back, was left lying on the military parade ground near the Pow\u0105zki tollgate, and never returned home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Left without his key witness, Ludwig switched to delaying tactics and began firing off angry complaints to the Warsaw authorities, accusing his court-appointed lawyer Rakowski and the bailiff Paw\u0142owski of colluding with the defendants and demanding the appointment of a “more reliable defender.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sorting out the retired lieutenant’s complaints about dilatory bailiffs and dividing the ill-fated Praga plot fell personally to Privy Councilor Count Fryderyk Florian Skarbek<\/strong> (1792\u20131866), who from 1854 to 1858 served as Chief Director Presiding in the Government Commission of Justice (effectively the Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of Poland). Count Skarbek was a figure of European stature – a brilliant economist, writer, and reformer, and, to top it all off, the godfather of the great composer Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin (the musician’s father, Nicolas Chopin, had served in his youth as a tutor at the Skarbek family estate in \u017belazowa Wola, and the future musical genius was named Fryderyk in honor of the young count).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1857, papers landed on the desk of Chopin\u2019s godfather detailing how the fugitive Vladimir landowner Ludwig von Strahlborn and the day laborer Franz Wardak, who had vanished dead drunk under a fence, were trying to sue for a smithy and sheds in the suburb of Praga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Count Skarbek carefully reviewed the dossier and delivered a cold verdict: the lawyer Rakowski and the bailiff Paw\u0142owski had acted impeccably, and Strahlborn himself was to blame for stalling the proceedings by withholding the court copies. Since the lieutenant had a court-appointed defender with whom he could easily correspond by mail, his personal presence in Warsaw was no longer “deemed necessary.” By order of the Warsaw Chief of Police, Major General Anichkov (and a report by General Spichkov), in June 1857 Ludwig Karlovich was finally sent out of the Kingdom of Poland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Incidentally, after Ludwig\u2019s departure, Franciszek Wardak turned up alive and well!<\/strong> Having sobered up on the parade ground near the Pow\u0105zki tollgate, he safely outlasted the deportation of his partner Strahlborn, moved into the coveted house at No. 151 years later, and continued to litigate against his own relatives over that very same plot following the death of his more fortunate brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let us return to the summer of 1857. Expelled from Warsaw for leading an “idle life” – much as his spiritual twin Alexander Yunich had been expelled from Gavrilov Posad three years earlier for endless pettifoggery – Ludwig Karlovich traveled to Estonia by the cheapest and most convenient route of the time: via St. Petersburg. In the arriving passengers chronicle of the “Estonian Governorate Gazette” (No. 28 of July 15, 1857, section Angekommene Reisende), it is recorded that on July 6, 1857, aboard the steamship “Prince Menshikov” (Dampfschiff F\u00fcrst Menschikoff) from St. Petersburg to Reval, “Lieutenant von Strahlborn” disembarked among 87 passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He spent the rest of the summer and early autumn of 1857 in Reval (Tallinn). When, on September 28, 1857, the Chancellery of the Governor of Estonia received (under incoming No. 5457) the final report of the Warsaw Military Governor-General, Adjutant General Fyodor Sergeyevich Panyutin, and Chancellery Director Zmigrodsky containing Count Skarbek\u2019s explanations, Ludwig was summoned to officially review it. On the last page of the file (EAA.29.3.4503, fol. 4), his handwritten receipt in Russian has been preserved: “Read by Lieutenant von Strahlborn” (“\u0427\u0438\u0442\u0430\u043b\u044a \u041f\u043e\u0440\u0443\u0447\u0438\u043a\u044a \u0444\u043e\u043d\u044a \u0428\u0442\u0440\u0430\u043b\u044c\u0431\u043e\u0440\u043d\u044a”). The road back to temptation-filled Warsaw was closed forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems this forced return to his native hearth had a sobering effect on the 52-year-old adventurer. Whereas prior to 1857 a noisy trail of guardianship disputes, unpaid promissory notes, and complaints followed him across the empire, after his move to the quiet district town of Wei\u00dfenstein, almost complete silence descended around his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On old cadastral maps of Wei\u00dfenstein (EAA.854.4.350 and in the property register), I managed to locate his final refuge – residence No. 23. Notably, on the map his house and plot look larger than almost any other property in the neighborhood! Ironically, the retired lieutenant\u2019s house, complete with outbuildings and a garden, stood in the very heart of the tiny town, literally across the street from the main entrance to the Lutheran Church of the Holy Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historical plans and maps of Wei\u00dfenstein (Paide):<\/strong> Town plan indicating plot No. 23 \/ 28 – record in AIS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Ludwig looked out at the pastorate from his windows every single day, yet in twenty years of living in Wei\u00dfenstein, he apparently never once crossed the threshold of the local pastor\u2019s office to formally register. His name appears neither in the personal books of the German congregation (Personaalraamatud, saksa pihtkond) nor in the files of parish certificates (Parochialscheine \/ Kirikut\u00e4hed, fond EAA.3159). He lived in his own house like an invisible man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n To conclusively prove that the recluse from House No. 23 in Wei\u00dfenstein and the fugitive hussar from the Vladimir province were one and the same person, it remained for me to look into the judicial chronicles of 1878. Starting with the digitized journals of the Wei\u00dfenstein Bailiff’s Court (Weissensteinsches Vogteigericht, fond EAA.991.1.705), presided over by Judicial Bailiff E. Silsky (Gerichtsvogt E. Silsky) with the participation of Town Hall aldermen R. Ottenberg, D. M\u00fcller, and Notary H. Neumann, I began leafing through the autumn protocols for 1878. After working with the old German cursive of Sophie von Knorring\u2019s diary, Baltic handwriting already felt almost like second nature – in other words, I had learned to make out a few capital letters \ud83d\ude42 Under November 4, 1878 (entry No. 314), my eye immediately caught the familiar surname: L. v. Strahlborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entry stated that the local court, pursuant to an order from Reval under No. 3929, directed that the property left by the deceased be inventoried and handed over to the local co-curator W. Hoffmann. Next, in entry No. 331 of November 18, the court recorded a new order from above under No. 4218, scheduling the public sale of the estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And on the protocol page dated December 15, 1878 (entry No. 107), the scene of the public auction itself (sub hasta publica) unfolded. Ludwig\u2019s wooden residential house at police No. 23 on municipal land, together with its outbuildings and plot (Wohnhaus nebst Nebengeb\u00e4ude und Grundst\u00fcck), was put up for sale at a modest starting price of 500 silver rubles. A fierce bidding war broke out among six buyers for the former “nobleman’s nest”: bids were raised in turn by Daniel M\u00fcller (500 rub.), the estate curator and merchant Wilhelm Hoffmann (800, 1,050, 1,070 rub.), Johannes Anysohn (950 rub.), Jaan Limberg (1,000 rub.), and M. Saarm (1,095 and 1,115 rub.). In the end, outbidding all competitors, the final bid of 1,120 silver rubles in cash was placed by an ordinary Estonian peasant, Jaan Sion (Bauer Jaan Sion), to whom the court immediately awarded ownership. After deducting 24 rubles and 90 kopecks in court costs, the net proceeds from the retired hussar\u2019s house amounted to 1,095 rubles and 10 kopecks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the auction protocol provided a wealth of everyday details, it still kept silent about the identity of the deceased owner himself. However, incoming reference numbers of orders from a higher authority – the Imperial Estonian Supreme Court (Oberlandgericht) in Reval – appeared throughout the Wei\u00dfenstein minutes. Moving over to the digitized fonds of this supreme provincial court (EAA.858.1.394, civil protocols for 1878) and opening its convenient alphabetical index, I immediately found four detailed entries (dated November 2, 16, and 28, 1878) that dotted all the “i”s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n It turned out that the guardianship proceedings over the estate of the Wei\u00dfenstein recluse were initiated in Reval on November 2, 1878, by his closest blood relatives: his sister Maria Theresia von Hueck, n\u00e9e von Strahlborn (Therese v. Hueck, geb. v. Strahlborn), and his brother-in-law, First Lieutenant Carl Eduard Koch (Oberlieutenant C. E. Koch, husband of Ludwig\u2019s other sister, Karoline Elisabeth von Strahlborn \/ Karoline Elisabeth Koch). This document confirmed the identity of our hero with one hundred percent certainty!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was his Reval relatives who petitioned the court to place the estate of their brother and brother-in-law under trusteeship “on account of the absence of several heirs from here” (wegen Abwesenheit mehrerer Erben von hier) – referring to his Russian children from his marriage to Praskovya Tregubova. The Reval relatives themselves clearly had no desire to travel to Wei\u00dfenstein for the funeral or sort through the deceased’s belongings, delegating all local arrangements to the merchant Wilhelm Hoffmann. Moreover, in the minutes of an extraordinary session on November 16, 1878 (No. 4217\u20134218), First Lieutenant Koch, with disarming bluntness, described the late hussar\u2019s personal belongings as “his paltry movable estate” (seines geringf\u00fcgigen Mobiliar-Nachlasses):<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Mr. C. E. Koch on behalf [appears and] expresses thanks for the extraordinary session hereby granted and most humbly petitions on behalf of the curatorship [board of trustees] over the estate of the late Lieutenant Ludwig von Strahlborn: 1) to order the public sale of his paltry movable estate through the Wei\u00dfenstein Bailiff’s Court and to allow the proceeds to be handed over to co-curator Mr. W. Hoffmann, and: 2) upon graciously approving the enclosed auction conditions, to authorize the public sale by auction of the plot of land belonging to the same estate, located in Wei\u00dfenstein under No. 23\/28 together with its appurtenances, through the aforementioned Bailiff’s Court, and, if possible, for December 15 of this year<\/p> <\/div> And on November 28, 1878, the Oberlandgericht ordered that official summonses regarding the estate of retired Lieutenant Ludwig von Strahlborn be forwarded to St. Petersburg for publication in the “Senate Announcements” (Senatsbekanntmachungen) – in case his lawful heirs or old creditors should be found deep within the empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we recall, Praskovya and their daughter Elizaveta were already resting in Russian churchyards by that time, but Ludwig still had three sons – Fyodor, Lev, and Konstantin, whom their mother had gone to such lengths to enroll in Part 2 of the noble genealogical book of the Vladimir province back in 1849. Their subsequent fate remains a blank spot, and for over six months no one ever responded to the Reval summons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus ended the earthly odyssey of Ludwig Karlovich von Strahlborn – a man who began his journey on Baltic estates, turned the heads of provincial young ladies at balls in Gavrilov Posad, litigated in Warsaw under the eye of Chopin\u2019s godfather, and met a quiet old age in his own house across from a church he preferred not to enter. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n And as a final brushstroke to this portrait, one cannot help recalling another archival curiosity that rhymes all too well with his Warsaw and Estonian adventures. Preserved in Russian archives are two thick files concerning the search for the owner of an unclaimed Savings Treasury note from 1843 worth 151 rubles and 27 kopecks, issued in the name of Lieutenant Ludwig von Strahlborn. While our hero was hiding from Vladimir bailiffs, suing Warsaw property owners, and leading a reclusive life in Wei\u00dfenstein, the unhurried bureaucratic machine of the Russian Empire spent decades – right up to the very first days of the 1917 revolution(!) – stubbornly searching for him across every department and province to hand over those rightful hundred and fifty rubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is something both touching and comical about this treasury note that missed its recipient. The man spent his entire life chasing phantom thousands and fled to the ends of the earth from his own debts, while the state spent another forty years after his death trying in vain to give him back his money. Such is the bureaucratic irony of fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2190 Read Chapter V<\/a><\/em><\/strong> | To be continued…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ST1 Karl Friedrich von Strahlborn (Feb 8, 1755 \u2013 May 27, 1824, Reval \/ Tallinn), wife: Elisabeth Ernestine von Strahlborn (June 20, 1770 \u2013 Oct 11, 1810)<\/p>\n\n\n\n TR1 Ivan Mikhailovich Tregubov (1769\u20131829), wife: Marina Yakovlevna Tregubova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n L1 Ivan Trofimovich Lyalin (died before 1807), wife: Ekaterina Fedoseevna Lyalina<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ludwig\u2019s Warsaw Escapades, Estonian Exile, and the Auction in Wei\u00dfenstein. In previous chapters, our archival historical drama bade farewell to Lieutenant Ludwig Karlovich von Strahlborn (Ludwig von Strahlborn\/Straelborn) in 1844, when his trail finally vanished… <\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nDeportation to the Ancestral Homeland and Life Across from the Pastorate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nThe Auction of House No. 23 and the Final Chord in Reval<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nArchival Sources<\/strong><\/summary>\n
I. National Archives of Estonia (Rahvusarhiiv – EAA \/ Saaga)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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II. Polish State Archives and Notarial Registers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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III. Digitized 19th-Century Press (DIGAR and CRISPA)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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IV. Yaroslavl Archive<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\ud83c\udf3f<\/em>Genealogical Chart of the von Strahlborn, Tregubov, and Lyalin Families<\/strong><\/summary>\n
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