RootsThe Lepik family archive

Years ago there was to be a family reunion, organised by my sister Leida. For it, my good friend Ivo Kivinurk put our family tree in order on Geni. From my father’s mother’s side, Hilda Juhani’s album has survived, in which she labelled the pictures herself.

Family tree (Geni) · Hilda Juhani’s labelled album (Google Photos)

Various legends circulated in the family about the wartime service of my paternal grandfather Aleksander Lepik (1907–1946). The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory researched his fate for years and established that France handed him over to the Soviet Union as a soldier of the 46th Waffen-SS Grenadier Regiment. He died in 1946 in the Komi ASSR. On the Day of Mourning, 14 June 2024, his name was placed on the Maarjamäe memorial.

My grandmother Leida Johanna Lepik (1914–1943) died when my father was born. My father was brought up by her sister Hilda Marie Juhani, who later moved to Palmse to help bring up us too, Leida and me.

Aleksander Lepik on the Maarjamäe memorial

My father Juhan Lepik (10.07.1943 Viljandi – 07.05.1995 Palmse) studied at Jäneda Technical School and at the Faculty of Forestry of the Estonian Agricultural Academy. From 1970 he was a nature conservation inspector, later in Lahemaa National Park. He wrote stories for newspapers about the national park and its hiking trails and took the photographs himself; DIGAR holds 25 articles under his name.

On 17 September 1987 he founded the leisure and culture cooperative Rekrea, one of Estonia’s earliest private companies. Rekrea organised excursions and trips and cultural events, and published books and calendars. Its first big undertaking was Virumaa Day at the Tallinn City Hall on 24 April 1988. In the mid-1990s Rekrea’s business passed to Noor Turist.

A little over 5,000 negatives found on the shelves of the darkroom at Linnaserehe have been digitised and put into Google Photos just as they were on the shelf.

Juhan Lepik’s negatives (Google Photos) · Nature conservation: NLK and my father’s recordings · Rekrea on the work page

Juhan Lepik — from nature conservationist to entrepreneur (timeline)

My sister Leida Lepik (13.12.1968 – 14.03.2022) also grew up in Palmse. In 1986 she went to study geography at the University of Tartu and soon joined the map company Regio, the first post-war map company in Estonia. In 1990 Regio published the first undistorted road atlas of Estonia. Leida led Regio and also played an important role in the birth of the Estonian national atlas in 2019. In 2021 she received the Order of the White Star, 4th class.

Wikipedia (in Estonian) · Obituary, University of Tartu (in Estonian) · ERR Novaator (in Estonian) · In Leida’s footsteps: to Haapsalu with my mother to see Runbjarn, May 2026 (Google Photos)

We grew up at Linnaserehe on Palmse Manor, where my father had his official flat. The founders of the national park often visited our home. I went to school in Võsu and finished Võsu School in 1986.

My father and Leida rest in Ilumäe cemetery, the home cemetery of Palmse Manor. In August 2025 they received ring crosses made by the ceramicist Anne Türn; the third cross is a memorial cross for my grandparents.

Placing the memorial crosses at Ilumäe, 05.08.2025 (Google Photos) · Võsu School

The digitised pictures of the Lepik archive are in Google Photos albums. The albums are being added to, and some pictures may still be uploading.

• The Palmse slide cabinet — 2,130 slides, Fotoluks 2026
• Strip boxes from Juhan Lepik’s slide cabinet — 3,319 frames
• Rolls digitised by Fotoluks — 421 frames
• Old slides — 229 frames

My mailing list is in Estonian; the posts are listed here in their original language.

Tiit Lepik’s mailing list archive