Alexander and Alexandra (Kutzka) Makoff

My grandfather’s Aunt affectionately called “Emma”. She had an arranged marriage to Uncle Alex, a Russian orphan taken in by a butcher in Portland. Emma said she kept her suitcase packed under the bed for two years. Emma was born in Simferopol. She told the story of watching Czar Nicholas and his family pass by their home in a carriage on the way to the winter palace. She told of how her parents and 2 sisters escaped Simferopol one dark morning along a river bank, leaving behind their grandmother and adopted orphan brother with no papers. Sadly they stopped received receiving replies after a few months of arriving in America.
Alex and Emma had a successful butcher shop in Portland and lived on Oak Street in Laurel Hearst. They are interned with their only daughter Virginia Makoff at a beautiful old Mausoleum in Portland. Emma crocheted beautiful, intricate patterns and loved her black poodle Tami and her two Siamese cats. A man unrelated to the family took control of the estate in Virginia’s vulnerable years. All family photos, (our only request) were tossed to the wind.