Most of you are probably familiar with the Spanish flu epidemic that ravaged the world from the beginning of 1918 to the end of 1920 and killed somewhere between 3 and 5 percent of the world’s population. But do you
WW1 Diary – October 5, 1916
Twenty-ninth 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
Bringing Out the Great-Grandfathers, Part 2
Part 2 in my series on my great-grandfathers. Part 1 is here. Today’s great-grandfather is ArvÄ«ds Vilhelms Francis. ArvÄ«ds was born on August 7th, 1894 (Old Style) at one o’clock in the afternoon at Kroņi farm on the NÄbe estate,
Bringing Out the Great-Grandfathers, Part 1 (updated)
I was looking through old blog posts recently, and realized that I started a series of posts on my great-grandfathers (almost four years ago now), but that I never finished the series. I only talked about one of my great-grandfathers!
Dates Before 1834
If you’ve spent any time in the Latvian church records on Raduraksti, you’ll have probably noticed that in most cases, the earliest records of births, marriages and deaths you’ll find is 1834 or 1835 (for ethnic Latvians, records for Germans
“Rally Under the Latvian Flag!”
“Rally Under the Latvian Flag!” This was the headline of the exhortation published on July 19, 1915, by Latvian members of the Imperial Russian Duma, JÄnis Goldmanis and JÄnis ZÄlÄ«tis, announcing that the Imperial Russian Army was allowing the formation
Diploma of Aleksandrs Francis – July 4, 1944
My grandfather Aleksandrs Francis attended the Jelgava Academy of Agriculture and graduated in 1944. He had also spent some time in Uppsala, Sweden, in a student exchange at Uppsala University. This is the diploma that was issued to him on
WW1 Diary – June 27, 1916
Twenty-eighth 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
WW1 Diary – June 26, 1916
Twenty-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
WW1 Diary – June 24, 1916
Twenty-sixth 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