August Pung (Triebstock) from Estonia
Another antique store find from Estonia - a photograph showing a young man in an Imperial Russian uniform. The name on the back identifies him as August Pung, although that was not always his surname. The label also tells us that he was the husband of a woman named Elviine, née Krell.
August was born August Triebstock to Hans Triebstock, a farmer, and Liisa, née Kuhberg, in the village of Salla in Simuna parish, in the county of Virumaa. He was, so to speak, a Christmas present, born on December 23rd, 1890.
His date of birth was later changed to January 4th, 1891, when Estonia switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in February 1918.
The Julian calendar - the “Old Style”, vana kalender - had been in use in the Russian Empire, of which Estonia had been a part until it declared independence in 1918. The two calendars had gradually drifted apart because they calculate leap years differently. By the 20th century, the difference had reached 13 days. That explains why August’s December 23rd birthday suddenly became January 4th.
But what about the young man in the photograph?
August might have been single when this picture was taken. A Facebook community helped me identify his uniform as that of a private in the Imperial Russian Army, from the period just before and at the beginning of WWI. Studio portraits like this were often given to relatives before a young man left for military service. The obligatory military service lasted 3 years back then. I don’t know whether August actually served in WWI or in which role he might have served, though.
In November 1921, August married Elviine Magdalene Krell in Rakvere.
And then, in the 1930s, August and Elviine changed their surname.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post about Estonian genealogy, in the mid-1930s, Estonian legislators enabled people to change German-sounding surnames into more Estonian-sounding ones. Triebstock - a German word meaning “pin rack”- certainly sounded German. August and Elviine chose the new surname Pung instead, meaning “a bud”.
This was part of a broader trend in Estonia at the time. I’ve written before about Estonians’ love of nature and how many people chose new surnames inspired by trees, animals, flowers, landscapes, weather, and other elements of the natural world. Family members did not necessarily have to choose the same new surname, either. August’s older brother Karl Vilhelm Triebstock, for example, chose the surname “Selde”.
I wonder if August and Elviine's choice for a new surname had been inspired by August's love for his job. Up until this found photo was taken, August was engaged in acompletely different world - the world of gardening. I found a fascinating file about him in the Estonian archives. In his application from April 1938 to be admitted to the Association of Skilled Workers which included gardeners, he described his extensive professional experience in the region, taking care of vegetable and fruit tree gardens and working on landscape planning.
He was admitted to the said Association in 1939 and went on to pass his master craftsman’s exam in 1944.
I believe August and Elviine couldn’t have children of their own. But in October 1940, they adopted a seven-year-old girl named Karin-Elisabeth.
August passed away in October 1951 at the age of 60. He had been suffering from kidney stones. His wife, Elviine, outlived him by almost 13 years. Their daughter Karin remembered them year after year in the local newspaper with a loving memorial ad.
Karin-Elisabeth Nõgu herself passed away in 2018, at the age of 85.
I will share this photograph on Geni.com and hope that it might help me make contact with August’s relatives.
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