Postcards from Tukums: A Family Detective Story

Description

In 2004, workmen demolishing the home that had housed three generation's of Ann Gluckman's family saved an old cardboard box hidden under the eaves. The letters inside proved invaluable to Ann's painstaking 20-year work piecing together the family history, which had, like the letter, been largely concealed. In 1904, Ann's grandparents, Adolph and Yetta Manoy, and their three daughters left Tukums in Latvia, then part of Imperial Russia, to settle in Stratford, New Zealand. Their story was further revealed by the discovery of a set of beautiful postcards originally mailed to the Manoys from their homeland. These postcards sent Ann's detective story on a wider and deeper search for meaning. Why did her family conceal their past with a a lifetime of silence? Was there a mystery, something to hide, or were they shielding their descendants from past traumas?

Ann Gluckman MSc, BA has held numerous positions in education and in community organisations. She was a foundation principal of Nga Tapuwae College; a member of the Middlemore Hospital Ethical Committee; and the foundation Jewish co-president of the Auckland Council for Christians and Jews. Ann was awarded an OBE in 1993 for services to education and the community. Ann's writing on comparative religion, multicultural education and travel has been widely published. She has edited and contributed chapters to a number of books and other publications, and was co-author of Ageing is Attitude. Ann Gluckman lives in Auckland.