Elisbar Elisibaraschwili - 1902-1945

For the past few weeks I've been on a quest, brought on by a request for information from someone who discovered the tombstone of the above person on the Clark County Genealogy Society's Cemetery web site. A man from Georgia (country--not state) requested information on this guy because his last name is the same, and he is a genealogist who enjoys tracing people with the same last name as his. I can't imagine very many people with this last name, so I suspect most anyone with this last name is related in some way or other.

I got the exact death date from Washington State's online Death Index, and proceeded to the Library, where newspapers are on microfilm. I located the film that covered August and began my search. August 6th was the death date, which is the same day that our country dropped the atomic bomb on several cities in Japan. Naturally the papers for the following days were filled with stories about that event. I have gotten up to August 12th with no mention of this gentleman's death or an obituary, but will be heading back to the library tomorrow so will continue the search.

In the meantime, the *present-day* Mr. Elisbaraschwili had done some more sleuthing online and wrote me again, saying it looked like his shirt-tail relative may have been a German POW. Yet Russia was on our side, so he shouldn't have been considered a POW, unless he was captured by the Germans. Mysteries abound.

I was unaware of War prisoners being held in the USA at all, let alone in our area. I wasn't born until *after* WWII, and this wasn't something ever mentioned in our history books in school. I talked to the CCGS web master, who initially sent me the request since she maintains the online Cemetery pages. Pat's probably 10-15 years older than me and was born and raised in our area, so I figured she might know something. She wasn't aware of any POW camps in our area, either. Must have been a well-guarded secret.

The next step was to go to the LDS Family History Center out on 18th Street to get a copy of Elisbar's death certificate. I did this Wednesday evening, when my friends the Hornes were working there. When I explained the situation to them, John concurred that there were indeed POW camps in the US. He remembered hearing about them as a child in New Mexico, where there were several camps. He immediately got online and began searching for me. He found a report of 154 Russian POW's rebellion at Ft. Dix which explained how Elisbar might have become a soldier of Germany. Seems these 154 captured soldiers at Ft. Dix had rebelled against Stalin and somehow (not clearly explained or else I missed it) found themselves fighting for the Nazi's. The war with Germany was over and the US was preparing to send these men back to Russia. These Russian-German soldiers did not want to go--they were willing to die at the hands of the US than go back to Russia where they would surely be tortured and killed as traitors. Was this how Elisbar became a German soldier?

While John continued his online quest, I found the death certificate and John put it on my flash drive. According to the certificate, Elisbar died of TB and had been under this particular doctor's care for more than a year. And he was listed as Russian soldier, waiting repatriation to Russia. No mention of being a POW, no mention of being a German soldier.

This one will really put my sleuthing abilities to the test. Next steps include:

1. Continue hunting through the newspapers to see if there is any mention of Elisbar's death.

2. Post a "dead-end" question to the CCGS Chat room and put their head-sleuther's skills to the test.

3. Contact my friend who works for the Veterans Administration to see if he has any ideas on how to proceed next. The place of death was Barnes Hospital, Vancouver. I think that was the old VA hospital's name, and if so, there must be records somewhere for this hospital.

Wish me luck!