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Elvira Salnajs diary and family papers

Text

Title
Elvira Salnajs diary and family papers
Subject
Australia--Emigration and immigration—History
Manuscripts, Latvian
Immigrants' writings
World War, 1939-1945--Refugees
Refugees
World War, 1939-1945--Sources
War stories
Sydney (N.S.W.)
Naturalization records
Diaries
Category
2. National boundaries
3. World War I
4. World War II
5. Cold War (including Decolonisation)
Creator
Salnajs, Elvira
Current holder
State Library of New South Wales
Period of reference
1900 – 2020
Link
https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nmQpbLPn
Series number
MLMSS 11839
Item number
nmQpbLPn
Access rights
Request at location
Rights
Copyright restrictions may apply. Please acknowledge: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder
Country of origin
Latvia
Germany
Australia
Place
Sydney
Riga
Language
Latvian
English
Description from source
0.16 metres of textual material (1 box), includes photographs

This collection contains a handwritten diary in Latvian by Elvira Salnajs, Salnajs family papers including photographs, and a typescript translation of the diary in English, approximately 1900-2020.

Folder 1: Diary by Elvira Salnajs in Latvian, covering the period from 1944 to 1952. The diary details the migration journey of the Salnajs family from Latvia to Australia. Written in ink in A5 notebooks, covers missing.

Folder 2: Papers relating to the Salnajs family, assembled by Venita Sarmite Salnajs-Zusters, approximately 1900-2020. Includes family trees, portrait photographs of various Salnajs family members, photographs of Elvira, Otto (husband) and Venita Sarmite (daughter) on their journey from Latvia to Australia, postcards of German towns, and a pen and ink drawing depicting Zwickau, Germany (undated, artist unknown). Also includes four photocopies of pencil drawings of German towns by Reinis Zusters (1946), 'Crossing the Equator' certificates (1945), and correspondence and documents by Parramatta City Council relating to the naturalisation ceremony of Elvira and Otto Salnajs (1960).

Folder 3: ‘The Flight of a Refugee 1944-1952, Elvira Salnajs’. Binder containing a typescript translation in English of Elvira Salnajs’s diary. Includes an introduction by Venita Salnajs-Zusters, and photocopies of the photographs and drawings presented in folder 2.
Physical format
Manuscripts
Diaries
Photographs
Correspondence
Postcards
Drawing
Certificates
Typescripts
Bibliographic citation
<p><a href="https://www.zotero.org/groups/4688363/oama/items/SJYR8ZAU/">https://www.zotero.org/groups/4688363/oama/items/SJYR8ZAU/</a></p>