John Evanoff
Alias Jacob Evonoff (service records); John & Jack Evanoff
Russian spelling
Иван Иванович Иванов
Born 25.01.1893
Place Novo Dilizhan, Elizavetpol (now Armenia), the Caucasus
Ethnic origin Russian
Religion Roman Catholic (?)
Father John Evanoff
Mother Euphemia Evanova
Family
Wife Catherine Mary Evanoff (née Lindbeck) married 1919, Annandale; children: twins Joan Euphemia & Betty Alice b. 7.01.1921, Lois b.12.06.1922, North Sydney
Arrived at Australia
from America as AB seaman
on 30.04.1917
per Winslow
disembarked at Sydney
Residence before enlistment Sydney
Occupation Seaman, labourer, miner
Service service number 4678
enlisted 2.07.1917
POE Sydney
unit 1st Pioneer Battalion, 53rd Battalion
rank Private
place Western Front, 1918
casualties WIA 1918 (twice)
final fate RTA 4.01.1919
discharged 5.06.1919 MU
Naturalisation 1939
Residence after the war Sydney, Nerrigundah, NSW
Died 30.01.1961 Concord, Sydney
Materials
Naturalisation (NAA) (John Evanoff)
Alien registration (?) (NAA) (Evanoff)
Digitised service records (NAA) (Jacob Evonoff)
Digitised Embarkation roll entry (AWM) (Evonoff)
Family tree on Ancestry.com
Blog article
Newspaper articles
Knocking the police about. Burly Russian soldier pays for little outing. - Sun, Sydney, 10 March 1919, p. 6.
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
Sometimes it is so hard to decipher the names of these remote villages from the versions recorded in Australian documents -- such as 'Novo Delgedghn', which was Jacob Evonoff's home, according to his service records. And for a while I despaired over being able to discover where this might be. It eventually turned out to be Novyi Dilizhan, a village in Elizavetpol, the trans-Caucasian province near Lake Sevan (now on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border), an area settled from the 19th century by Russians persecuted for their religious beliefs. This soldier's correct name, incidentally, was John Ivanoff; the enlisting clerk was obviously finding these strange Russian words hard to understand.