Family Tree / Genealogy / Pedrigree of Ants Speek.   composer Gerrit Speek       Copyright ©

Somewhere 1990-1995 I produced the family tree of my 'own' naam 'Speek'. During my research I did discover that there several Speek's living in Estonia. A big and pleasent surprise for me. The result of many letters, e-mails, fax and telephone calls is presented here. It is still not known if there is a connection with the Speek-family in the Netherlands. Descendants live in Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. Your help is very welcome to enlarge this pedigree. Last change to this family tree:  05 oktober 2014.

(per fax dd.Feb-12-96 recieved from Peter Speek (4630): Excerpts from the letter to Peter Alexander Speek, Edwards Ferry Road, Leesburg, VA, recieved December 16, 1959, by air, written December 6, 1959, by Mihkel Saari (formerly Speek), Lomonossovi 31-24, Tallinn, Estonian SSR. Mihkel (Michael) is the eldest son of Peter Alexander Speek's only full brother, Jaan Speek, who was by occupation a schoolteacher and by talent a poet, writing under the pseudonym of Leidin. Jaan died in 1922. The story of Jaan's three sons is given in this letter: Michael, 60 years of age in 1959; the second son Alexander, two years younger; and the third Magnus, two years younger than Alexander, 56 years old in 1959.
Dear Uncle Peter,
At last your inquiry about life in your birthplace and boyhood home on family farm LIPARDI, sent through the family of Kütt, now in California, has reached me in Tallinn (capital of Estonia). The story of your nephews is as follows: The invading Great-Russian (communist) army mobilized all three of us in 1941 and started to ship us to the capital of Soviet Russia, Leningrad. The German warships were in hot persuit. The ship on wich I and Magnus happened to be was bombed near the Island KOKSKAR. We escaped from the sinking ship to that island. Later the Russians brought us back to the mainland of Estonia and let us proceed to our home. The Russian ship with Alexander was sunk by the Germans on its way to Leningrad. But a rumor has it that Alexander, being a great swimmer, swam to Leningrad and was later working with a Russian army unit on the shore of Lake LADOGA (a large lake northeast of Leningrad). He was assigned there to edit a so-called wall-news-sheet (paper). But he soon came ill with dysentery (sickness from starvation). The rumor has it that he was then brought back to Leningrad, and this is the end of his track. He has been declared dead by the Soviet Authorities. Otherwise absolutely nothing has been heard of him. Magnus has been teaching school all this time in Tallinn. His daughter, 14 years old, died in 1947. A son was born in 1945 who was named Peeter, for you. In this coming year he will be 15 years old. He appears to be very successfull in secundary (high) school; he has to attend it three years longer. He is especially interested in electrical techniques. He is also a very likable chap. He also excells in sport. But his main interest is in intellectual persuit. Magnus's wife is a school teacher too in Tallinn. They seem to be content with their personel situation. During the German occupation I was a logal adviser to the flour millers' cooperative. After the war I served as chief of a fireman's organisation. At the same time I lectured in the school for army officers. In 1951 I had to spend a year as a prisoner in the prison house in Tallinn and then 3½ years as an exile at the mouth of the Amur River on the shore of the Sea of Japan - always as a prisoner. My case was reconsidered by the higher Soviet authorities, who declared the 1951 decision to exile me to be null and void, and in addition granted me a lifelong pension. Since my return from exile in Siberia in 1956, I have been teaching high school in Tallinn. I am satisfied as far as my own personal life goes. My wife, Sofia, recieves a pension also. But her health is rather poor. Last week she had a heart attack. My son, Henn, is the ditor of an Estonian periodical entitled 'Keel ja Kirjandus' (Language and Literature). At the same time he is a lecturer in psychology at the Teachers College in Tartu. He travels to Tartu each Friday evening and returns to Tallinn Tuesday morning. Because of high rents for living quarters in Tallinn, his family lives in Tartu, so he has to divide his time half and half between tallinn and Tartu. His wife is a teacher and librarian in the teachers college. His daughter Mary has been attending elementary school for two years; his daughter Kai is only 2½ years old. My daughter, Illi-Ann, graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Tallinn. She is working as an engineer in the Industrial Project Institute, 'Eesti Toostusprojekt'. She is satisfied with her present job, so far as her own person is concerned. We all live together in two rooms. Otherwise we could get along all right, but if everyone has to do homework at the same time - Illi-Ann working on her plans, Henn and I on our lectures, and Sofia on her sewing machine - well, we are in each other's way - two rooms are not enough for us. Well, we all live with the hope that, if not in 1965, then under any circumstances in 1972 (the Seven-Year Plan), life will be different, entirely different, happy for every citizen. This may come to pass. New buildings are going up everywhere handsomely. This summer I visited your birthplace, Lipardi farm. Its land was added in 1955 to the Soviet Government farm named LIIDIA KOIDULA KOLKHOS, but this farm was not able to male ends meet and its land was recently added to the neighboring kolkhos, NOO - a cattle farm. The fields of Lipardi farm are not cultivated anymore, but merely used as a cattle pasture. On one field is build an inmense barn. In SAVISAAR - a small farm separated from Lipardi - there are two small living houses. In one there lives a distant relative, and in the other Olga, daughter of Aunt Muli (note: mother of Minda, wife of Victor Laius). Each has 0.60 acre of land for their vegetable garden. Olga is a saleswomen in a local Russian Soviet store. The older Savisaar generation is dead, Aunt Muli died in 1946. In 1951 her husband Jaan died, Shortley after he learned that his son was shot by the Russians. Aunt Olga died in April 1958, a year after she buried her daughter Linda Kask. Her husband, a veterinarian, was exiled and shot in Russia in 1942. Their son, Mati Kask, is a student in the University of Tartu, studying mathematics, in wich he appears to be very successfull. He gets a small scholarship from the University. Minda, the oldest daughter of Uncle Karl, is dead. Mildred and Linda are still living. Linda's husband is a forester. Mildred is unmarried and is a lecturer in a forestry school. Alexander, son of Uncle August, is a government taxi driver. Uncle August died in 1946. His daughters Leida and Martha are dead. Uncle Adam lives in Tallinn and earns his living as a translator. Aunt Ella lives in a Tallinn suburb. She is 70 years old. Uncle Adam's son is a lawyer in Tallinn. Aunts Natalis and Ide are dead. Their brother Jaan Innes with his daughter lives, as I have been told, in California. So last summer, in June 1958, you celebrated your 85th birthday! Well, you are your mother's son, for she lived also over 80 years, having run a large farm for 60 years and having given birth to 13 children. Quite a feat! She certainly was a strong woman - an athlete. Well, God willing, we, all the crowd of your relatives in Estonia, hope to send you greetings at least to your 90th birthday. Please convey sincerest abd deepest well-wishes to Aunt Frances. Greetings also to the families of your sons, Alan and Peter. We all are eager to learn how they are getting along. If some one of them cares to write us, we would be delighted, and able to read and understand English. I would be able to read, and my son Henn and his wife would be able to answer in English. Both are linguists; the wife teaches English in high school. This coming summer I plan to visit again your birthplace, Lipardi, and live there a while with Olga. I want to go fishing in the adjacent lakes, Váársi and Nôani. I really than would write you again if I get an answer from you to this letter. I beg you not to touch upon big problems in your letter - to talk of them would not be of benefit to anyone.* So then live happily and meet the new year cheerfully as one to be better than the one just past.
Your nephew, Mihkel.
* Note. This is a caution not to mention or write about any political questions in an answering letter, because of possible harm that might result to the family - but just to speak of personal, family, matters, as Michael has done in his letter.)

(source Hans Speek, Sweden: Villem and Peeter Alexander were obviously cousins. In 1952 I visited Peeter Alexander in his farm in Virginia and we discussed our relationship. Peeter Alexander ment that he and his brother Jaan were cousins to Kaarel's children. Even my father has told me that Kaarel has had a brother in Pangodi.)
(source Hans Speek, Sweden: in his first phonecall with Gerrit Speek, Holland Hans mentioned that there is a rumour in his family that the Estonian Speek's came from Holland.)

(I, Gerrit Speek Holland, visited Hans and Zinaida on 21+22 feb 1998. Like all Estonian Speek's they were very interested in their ancestors. We had an interesting talk that weekend and I went home with lots of information.)