Click for full image. Image courtesy of a cousin from my LÅ«kins family line.
Fishing manager JĒKABS ŠĪRS, 61 1/2 years old, born in Aloja, divorced.
Died on October 4, 1923, at 10 o’clock in the evening in RÄ«nuži.
Buried October 14, 1923 at the BaltÄs BaznÄ«cas (White Church) cemetery.
Daugavgrīva church book, 1923 deaths, #53.
JÄ“kabs Å Ä«rs was my great-great-grandfather. He was born in Aloja in northern Latvia to parents JÄnis and KristÄ«ne on May 30, 1862 (O.S.). When he came to live in the RÄ«ga area is unclear, but his daughter Lilija was born at Kalnciems in 1899. Sometime prior to this, he married KristÄ«ne Kukure, who is also allegedly from northern Latvia, but I have yet to find her birth record anywhere. They divorced in June of 1923.
At the time of JÄ“kabs’ death, he was living at RÄ«nuži, which was a place in what is now the VecmilgrÄvis part of RÄ«ga. Whether RÄ«nuži was a hamlet with a number of families or a property owned by the Å Ä«rs and LÅ«kins families, I’m not exactly certain yet, but today in that area is a RÄ«nuži street, which intersects with BaltÄsbaznÄ«cas street (White Church Street), where the Å Ä«rs and LÅ«kins families lived. The “White Church” in question is the DaugavgrÄ«va Lutheran Church, in whose cemetery JÄ“kabs was interred.