r/Genealogy

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Olga Vadina Hammer - clear the mystery & complete her story

Olga Vadina / Vadimovna von Root Hammer - a woman enveloped in mystery and obfuscation. There have been many stories around Olga. Gypsy singer, baroness, wife of Armand Hammer and mother of Julian Hammer. I've found many accounts of Olga's origins and they've been generally entertaining. But factual?

She's been the curator of the Armand Hammer Foundation, shop owner (Ethnos, 8899 Beverly Blvd), singer of tzigane songs and more. My question is: when and where did she die and where is she buried / cremated?

If anyone has personal information, or can verify her origins, I'd be greatly appreciative. I'm not convinced that the info in Wiki and ancestry.com is correct. I've read Edward Jay Epstein's interview of Armand Hammer, but he only glances at Olga saying she was a Russian singer. I have a number of newspaper clippings of her life over the years, but none past 1988. She was born ca 1901.

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Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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Olga Hammer's 1934 petition for naturalization gives her date of birth as 2 December 1902 in Sevastopol:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP86-J9PF

An Olga Hammer born 2 December 1904 in (what would become) the Soviet Union died in Orange County, California on 28 June 1967:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP4T-V2K

Are you confident the clipping from 1988 was his ex-wife?

wfromoz

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Re-reading the clipping I'm not positive that the Olga Hammer in L.A. was the correct Olga. However, the 1978 clipping identifies Olga as the curator of the Armand Hammer Foundation. She was conducting a walk-through of an exhibition.

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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I see that AP article now in several newspapers. I'm not certain that Olga Hammer the curator is the same person as Olga Hammer the ex-wife. It may simply have been a coincidence, or it may have been an extended relative of Armand Hammer.

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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California death certificates are public records, so anyone can order an informational copy. That should include the disposition of her remains, along with the name of the funeral home that handled her services.

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHSI/Pages/Vital-Records-Obtaining-Certified-Copies-of-Death-Records.aspx

No parents' names are included in the index, so it's unlikely they're on the actual death certificate either.

wfromoz

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Egads, 10-12 weeks with the various fees involved for an informational death certificate copy. I'd pursue that route if I was a professional of some sort. C-19 enforced projects don't fall within that purview, however. I really need to get out more.

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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You can also order an informational copy from the office of the Orange County Clerk/Register instead of from the state. You could contact them for an estimate on how long it would take:

https://www.ocrecorder.com/

more reply

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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I noticed the Wikipedia article for Armand Hammer indicate he had only one child, his son Julian.

However, this daughter Lulu Hammer, born about 1931 in Moscow, returned with Olga to New York in 1933:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24J1-X7K

She's not mentioned in Olga's 1934 petition for naturalization, so she must either have died between 1933 and 1934, or she wasn't really their daughter. Or someone confused a son Julian age 4 with a daughter Lulu age 2.

She's also not living with Olga in 1940:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VTHZ-FLW

wfromoz

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The 1940 census is on point. Olga seemed rather popular in Florida as a singer. However, I've never seen a mention of a daughter - and there's certainly been enough written about that period of Armand Hammer's life. Here's a clip from Epstein's article on the Hammer family:

"His (Julian Hammer) mother, Olga Vadina, was a gypsy singer, who Hammer had married shortly before he was born. Her pregnancy had been so unexpected that Hammer suspected that he the biological father -- and he continued to harbor these dark suspicions until 1988, when through having a DNA sample secretly tested at UCA medica center he finally determined Julian was indeed his progeny.

Almost immediately after the Hammer family returned to New York in 1931, he began distancing himself from Olga and Julian. Julian believed that his father was embarrassed because they spoke Russian. When Julian was six, his father told him that it was better if hey lived apart."

It certainly doesn't appear that Olga and Armand maintained any sort of 'conjugal' relationship by the time a 2nd child may have been born. Hammer, I believe, returned to the States 1931. Passenger record has Olga arriving March 1933.

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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Olga first came to the United States in 1930 wither her mother-in-law Rose and son Julian:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLSV-N9G2

She then returned in 1931 with her husband Armand and son Julian:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24NL-MGK

And finally in 1932, with her son Julian:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24JT-F1S

In 1933, she was returning to New York on a short cruise to Bermuda, which is the only time this daughter Lulu shows up:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24J1-X7V

It clearly says she was a 2-year old daughter of Armand Hammer, born in Moscow. So either they got the name, gender, and age wrong (and this was really Julian, which is possible), or Lulu showed up out of nowhere.

Someone could have misread a hastily scribbled "Jules" (as he was known at the time) as "Lulu" when they typed up this 1933 list.

wfromoz

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Upon further research, I'm discounting Olga as the owner of the shop mentioned in the article. That Olga may have been Jewish which seems unlikely for Olga Vadina. However, I find it difficult to believe that a 2nd Olga Hammer found her way into the curatorship of the Hammer Foundation. On the other hand, she would have been 77 at the time. As to the death of an Olga Hammer in 1967 Orange County, I'm hesitant about that. She had been living north of L.A. near Cambria. Not to knock Orange County, but . . . ??

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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It literally says at the end of those 1978 articles:

He and his curator are not related.

Olga died quietly long ago of cancer according to a 1985 biography of her husband in newspapers. Perhaps she was a patient at an Orange County hospital or hospice. I'd encourage you to order a copy of the 1967 death certificate.

TheBestJamian

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If, you don't mind me asking, could you possibly provide some kind of link to (or image of) this newspaper biography? I've searched for it but ultimately to no avail..

wfromoz

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I just came across an outrageously romantic interview with Olga from The Meriden Daily Journal - Mar 6, 1934. "Olga, daughter of the very wealthy army general Baron Vadin Nicholaievitch Root, learned to dance and sing like a real tzigane.

It all came about because little Olga was a very willful daughter . . . . .

And then one day, just like the naughty story-book heroine, Olga ran away from home and joined a band of wandering Gypsies who had been encamped for a time near her father's estate . ."

The balance of the interview, as does the above, seem more like a penny novel or early silent film than real life. Further research to follow. However, is it the consensus that the Olga Hammer who died in Orange County is our Olga? I'll follow up on the death record and post the results.

Fredelas

FamilySearcher

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This type of mythologizing is common for European performers in that time period. In order to sell tickets to a show, you had to first sell the audience a story they wanted to hear about the performer.

It's really impossible to know if any or all of that is true.

WildIris2021

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I have a question more about Armand Hammer that could also involve Olga Von Root. Was Hammer ever married to or linked to a relationship with a woman named Juanita? Has anyone ever seen any information on that?

Olga Vadina Hammer - clear the mystery & complete her story

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