On July 4, 1941, numerous synagogues across Latvia were burned to the ground, some of them with people inside. One of the most [...]]]> This post should have been up yesterday, but I was out of town for most of the day and returned with a splitting headache, so I hope you’ll accept the post today instead.

On July 4, 1941, numerous synagogues across Latvia were burned to the ground, some of them with people inside. One of the most prominent of these was the Great Choral Synagogue on Gogol street in Rīga. It was burned with 300 Jews inside. It is at the remains of this synagogue that this memorial can be found.

Memorial stone at ruins of the Great Choral Synagogue, Gogol street, Rīga, Latvia. Photo taken by the author, July 2, 2010.

It is because of the destruction on this day that July 4 is designated as the Day of Remembrance in Latvia for Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

I took more photos of the area, of what is left of the synagogue, and of the monument to the Latvian Righteous Among the Nations nearby, let me know in comments if you would like me to post more.

Of course, to be able to use these records, you need to know where they went to school, and [...]]]> Ever wonder how your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents did in school? You may just be able to find out. Numerous Latvian school records are held at the Latvian State Historical Archives, mostly for the inter-war period (1918-1940).

Of course, to be able to use these records, you need to know where they went to school, and roughly when – if you’re not completely certain what their school years would have been, you can search through a wider year range.

I learned when and where my grandmother Zenta Lukina attended high school from her father’s employment file – it mentioned that she had been admitted to the “M. Bekeru private gymnasium” (gymnasium being a type of secondary education in many Northern and Eastern European countries) in Rīga. From this information, I looked up the relevant fond at the archives, and looked at the abstract to see what kind of information could be found.

A variety of items were available for the school, such as books of students’ grades, and in some cases supporting documents for school admission.

Here I found my grandmother’s grades for her second year of secondary education – she had top grades in Religion & Ethics, Geography, Science and Drawing. She did not do very well in her first term of English, but then improved her grade over the course of the year. In addition to the Latvian language, she also studied English, German, Latin and Russian.

While searching through the files of supporting documents didn’t reveal any of hers, the files did give me a snapshot of the school and her classmates. It was a girls’ school, and the students came from a variety of backgrounds – along with ethnic Latvians, the school also had German, Russian and Jewish students. The Latvian students were from a variety of religious backgrounds – predominantly Lutheran, but also Orthodox, Baptist and Roman Catholic. I wonder if the school had a specific religious orientation that they taught in the Religion & Ethics course, or whether they taught about the variety of religions that the students belonged to.

These supporting documents took a variety of forms – copies of birth certificates (both civil and religious), transcripts from previous schools, diplomas certifying completion of primary school. Thus school records have the possibility to provide more than just information about schooling, but about family and possible other places of residence as well.

The availability of school records varies depending on the parish and the specific school. Sometimes only a few years are available – but these could be the years that you need! In terms of archival fonds, some schools are filed separately, while others are filed together with other schools based on the civil parish or wider administrative region.

Have you found information about your ancestors’ school years in your archival searches? Share your stories in comments!

It’s a bit ironic – the ancestors that I have marriage records for are the ones [...]]]> Today’s prompt: Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

It’s a bit ironic – the ancestors that I have marriage records for are the ones I don’t have photographs for, and vice versa.

Since everyone loves photographs, I’ll stick to talking about the marriages of the couples portrayed within them, though my knowledge of those weddings are slim.

These are my paternal grandparents, Zenta Lūkina and Juris Celmiņš, on their wedding day. They were married in 1943 in Latvia, but I don’t know the date, or where the wedding took place, though it was most likely in Rīga. They were 20 and 23. I had always thought that they met in displaced persons camps in Germany after the war, but then I learned I was wrong. I don’t know how they met. Both of their families were relatively well-off – Zenta’s father was a justice of the peace and former Member of Parliament, while Juris’ father was a bank director (though he may have been deceased by the time his son married, since he died in early 1943).

This photo is of the wedding of my great-grandparents Brencis Līcītis and Jūle Štelmahers, c. 1909. They are the couple in the middle of the second row – Brencis is to the left of Jūle (you can see barely make out the dark corsage on his jacket), and Jūle is in the white dress with the dark edges and flowers in her hair. They would have been married in Krustpils, but that is all I have in terms of details at the moment. Jūle’s parents, Indriķis Štelmahers and Ieva Lapiņa are on the left end of the same row – Indriķis is the blurred figure on the end, Ieva is the older woman in the striped dress. Brencis’ brother, Krišjānis, is on the left end of the third row, just above Indriķis. Ten people in this photograph, mostly people in the top row, remain unidentified.

I’m not sure how Brencis and Jūle met. I only know that Brencis must have moved to Krustpils sometime before 1897 (since he appears in the 1897 All-Russia Census records for Krustpils), while Jūle was born and grew up there. They married relatively late in life for the time period – Jūle was 35, while Brencis was 43. He made harmonicas and repaired other musical instruments. His brother was allegedly a musician in Paris around the turn of the century.

Does anyone know about the Paris music scene of the early 20th century? Ideas on where to start to look for information about musicians from the Russian Empire in that scene? He was apparently quite well-off, though I don’t know if that was due to an inheritance of some kind or an income from music. Thanks for any tips!

I’m cheating, and posting two. While looking through my photos, I realized that I have very few of female ancestors by themselves. There were a couple, but not [...]]]> Today’s prompt:Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

I’m cheating, and posting two. While looking through my photos, I realized that I have very few of female ancestors by themselves. There were a couple, but not many. As such, it seemed more appropriate to post photos where they are not by themselves, but rather, with family.

These two photos are of my grandfathers’ families, c. 1925-1930. My grandfathers are the young boys in the pictures, but I am going to talk about their mothers – my great-grandmothers.

This is my maternal grandfather’s family. His mother’s name was Mērija Eglīte. She was born in Lāde parish to Ansis Eglītis and Līze Graumane on September 10, 1892. She was born on the family farm, which belonged to her mother’s family (and belongs to my half-uncle today). Mērija lived there until the farm was expropriated by the Soviets, at which point she and her daughter moved to Rīga. Mērija died on March 11, 1973. Her husband had been executed by the Soviets in 1941, and her son fled west during the war, settling here in Canada. They never saw each other again.

This is my paternal grandfather’s family. His mother’s name was Anna Liepa. She was born in Rīga to Fricis Liepa and Mīle Buše on September 23, 1895. She worked as a bookkeeper, while her husband was a civil servant who was responsible for helping set up the postal savings bank, which still exists today. Anna, her husband and their two children moved around a lot during the 1920s, living at many different addresses in Rīga and Jūrmala. I do not know why they moved so much. Her husband died in 1943 due to causes unrelated to the war. Her son left for the west during the war, while her daughter remained in Latvia. Anna died in Rīga on June 20, 1987. As such, she holds the distinction of being the only one of my great-grandparents who was still living when I was born in 1984. However, I never had the opportunity to meet her, since I was born in Canada and she lived in Latvia, which was at that time still under Soviet control.

I find the similarities between the life events of these two women quite interesting, and the photos reflect those similarities. They both had two children, one boy and one girl, the boy being the elder child. They both outlived their husbands, who died during wartime, by several decades. Both of their sons left for the west, while their daughters stayed in Latvia.

Tomorrow’s prompt- Names! One of my favourite subjects.