Vachramejevs - Kauliņš families

This Page is based on the material I have got from my former colleague Sergejs Vachramejevs. Now his family name is spelled Vahramejevs, but for this page I retain the old-style spelling used before the WW2. All documents and photographs concerning Vachramejevs and Kauliņš families belong to Sergejs. I also used here the oral histories he recounted, and the information he copied from the NKVD file on his father's case.

One of the goal for this page is to find his relatives in USA or anywhere else.

The family history also informs about life in the period 1930-1950.

Sergejs Vachramejevs is a son of Sergejs Vachramejevs senior and Zenta Vachramejeva b. Kauliņš.

Sergejs Vachramejevs sen.

Sergejs Vachramejevs Sen. was a son of a Priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Georgs Vachramejevs. In Riga Address book 1913 he was mentioned as a Priest of the Maria Proclamation church at Turgeneva 21. In Riga Address book of 1928 he was mentioned as a senior Priest. Information about their children is rather vague. It is known that Sergejs had a brother and maybe also a sister. In the Address book 1928 at the address of Georgs Vachramejevs Turgeņeva str. 21-8 the following persons were mentioned: Sergejs V. - a technician, Nikolajs V. - a student. Another Vachramejevs mentioned in this book was Nadežda Vachramejevs, a nurse, but she lived at Brīvības 33-34.

Sergejs Vachramejevs was conscripted into the Army at the beginning of the WW1 and was trained in officer courses. But his combat experience was extremely short. Some days after he arrived at the front-line he was wounded, lost his eye and was discharged. After the war in the 1920s he studied dances and opened his own private dancing classes in Riga. The dancing classes were rather well known in the city. His son remembers he has occasionally met some elderly people who were proud to have had studied dancing in these classes.

And in his dancing classes Sergejs Vachramejevs Sen. met his future wife Zenta Kauliņš.

Zenta Kauliņš

Zenta Lizete b. October 27, 1905 was a daughter of Jānis Kauliņš and Līze Kauliņš b. Ēmiņš. She had two brothers Alberts and Roberts.

You may click on this picture to get enlarged photograph of the family Kauliņš approximately in 1906, when Zenta was a baby.

The family joined Adventist Church in 1910s and both brothers also became members of this Church. At the beginning of the WW1 (in 1914) they emigrated to the USA in order to avoid conscripting into the Army for religious reasons. They changed their names there in the USA, and the contacts with them were gradually lost. It is known only that at least one of the brothers visited the sister at the end of the 1930s. In the family archive some short notes were found with unknown American addresses. Please, study them and help to find any connections. Unfortunately, it is known that they changed their names in the USA.

The photographs of the brothers in adulthood are also available:

You may click on any of the photographs to get enlarged picture.

Zenta's mother was born on May 11, 1871, died on September 5, 1940 and was buried on September 8, 1940. The burial went on according to the rites of Adventists and the service was conducted by Kārlis Sutta, who was one of leading Adventist preachers of that time. The father of Z.Vachramejevs died after the WW2, but his grandson does not know when and where he was buried.

Vachramejevs family

Sergejs Vachramejevs and Zenta Kauliņš married in the middle of 1930s. Rather soon after the marriage they adopted a son Georgijs. They were mainly busy in the dance school and it brought a relatively good income. In any case, they were capable of building a house in Mežaparks - a rather prosperous region of Rīga. Nevertheless, Z.Vachramejevs worked as an accountant in the Baltic machine factory "Ed. Cepps" up to July 1940, when the factory was nationalized.

The life ruined on June 14, 1941, when the family was deported like other 4000 families. According to the standards of this deportation, the father of the family was separated in Riga from his wife and son and was sent to a camp. He left the camp in the wartime (this was an exception), but he did not join the family; he simply was not informed where his wife and children were. The other family members were sent to Tomsk oblast in Siberia.

Zenta Vachramejevs together with her adopted son Georgijs reached Asino region of Omsk oblast at the end of June. It is known she started work in a brick factory on June 30, 1941. One month later on July 31, 1941 she gave birth to her son Sergejs Vachramejevs Jr. - my former colleague and the informant for this Page. More details of life in the exile and about the case of Sergejs Vachramejevs Sen. will be published later.