Seventh installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as the war moves even closer. For the background, see here.
August 25, 1915
We are getting many visitors at Kroņi [family farm], most of them are curious, and want to know the fortunes of refugees. The story of the future is becoming even more crazy. People from LÄ“durga [local parish] are leaving for Velikiye Luki [Russian city approximately 450km to the southeast]. Limbaži is full of Cossacks, and every now and again one can hear cannons in the distance. How long has it been decided that we must stay here? And then where, in the autumn fog and frost… when will we stand, when will we go home, the Daugava moans as it flows, the enemy laughs at its shores…
My grandmother escaped Latvia approximately 1915 via a cargo ship to America. Her name was Anna Drayman. Her parents were Herman and Eva Drayman. I believe she had several sisters. She was sponsored in U.S. by John Casperson of New York state, whom she eventually married. I believe she lived in or around Riga and her estimated year of birth is 1879. Without being able to read or speak Latvian, where can I gather information regarding her roots or the family she left behind?