Helena Rastigaev (Liskowska) 1884-1921 was our maternal grandmother. Helena met and married Alexander Rastigaev in London in July 1903, aged 19. Their family consisted of Sophia (Jessie), Vladimir (Walter, our father), Marenka (Mary), Alexander, Helena (Ellen), Wilhelm (Wullie) and Natalia (Nettie).Little is known of her Polish family except that they disinherited her for marrying a Cossack. Her father's occupation on her marriage certificate is given as gardener, but family folk lore has him as a wealthy furrier; Alexander worked briefly as a skin dresser. Her family have their own coat of arms.
Helena seems to have borne the brunt of the migrant family's dire poverty and sought factory work many miles away from the family home in Glasgow, Scotland. Her parents persistently ignored her pleas for financial assistance. Helena's Glasgow neighbours took pity on her penniless plight and gathered enough money to buy her a train ticket to Dundee to find work in the jute mills. Helena died, aged 37, of a brain haemorrhage while at work in the jute mill.
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