WW1 Diary – February 1, 1916

Fifteenth 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, click on the tag “diary entries” to see all of the entries that I have posted.

February 1, 1916

We are still living in the room that held the dreams of my youth… the battles are taking their horrible turns. Even around here they are gathering materials to build trenches, so it seems that the worst is yet to come, and we’ll have to flee again and leave Father’s home, everything is horribly expensive and getting even more so, even soap costs 50 kopecks already. Homes and work are also nowhere to be found. Without those, hard days come before nights. God only knows, what will happen in today’s conditions? Thanks be to God that we are still healthy. TrÅ«tiņa is a sweet and gentle girl, Dagmāra, on the contrary, is very assertive and strong. I only wish that there would be enough bread for the little ones, that would be wonderful.

Liepāja’s Response – January 31, 1908

This is part of my series of interesting newspaper articles and snippets that I find in the old Latvian newspapers available through Periodika. Most of the articles I post are in some way related to migration, wars or other events that are of particular genealogical note.

Source: Liepājas Atbalss (Liepāja’s Response), January 31, 1908

Issuing of External Passports.Under the guidance of some emigration agent, 46 emigrants arrived here yesterday with their parish passports and local police notes, and turned to the Liepāja external passport issuing divison. Being as the notes given by the police clearly stated that emigrants had to get passports from the Vidzeme governor, the Liepāja external passport issuing division refused to give them passports.

Emigration was a complicated process under the Russian Empire! Applying for a passport wasn’t enough – to travel abroad, you needed an “external” passport – that is, a passport like the passports we have today. But they also needed an “internal” passport issued by the parish to travel within the country – even to just the next parish over at certain points in time. To be granted an external passport, it appears that they also needed a note from the local police to confirm that they were not criminals (and presumably also that their debts were cleared and were not suspected of revolutionary activity). Certainly, these documents were sometimes faked as well – but the many layers of bureaucracy were probably a way to try and prevent counterfeiting.

All these documents (well, not the copies issued to the emigrants, but the copies kept by the officials) should be a great genealogical source – however, I have yet to find any. I have found some mentions of “passport books” – however, in almost every case, these mentions in the abstracts have been accompanied by “missing”. I soldier on, however, and hope that eventually I will track some of them down. This article suggests two new places to look, so that will be next on my list!

Tombstone Tuesday – Pauline Luise Jenny Sedat, 1872-1939

In this series, I am providing pictures of tombstones from Latvian cemeteries, all with death dates prior to 1945. I do not have any further information on the people mentioned.

Today we have another German tombstone.

Photo taken by me, October 2012. Click to enlarge.

Top inscription: Hier ruht in Gottes Heilgem frieden mein Unvergessliches innig geliebtes tantchen (“Here in God’s holy peace rests my dearly beloved aunt”?)

Name: Pauline Luise Jenny Sedat, born April 21, 1872, died December 19, 1939.

Bottom inscription: Jesus spricht: Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben. Wer an mich glaubt, der wird leben, ob er gleich stürbe. – Johannes 11:25 (“Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. – John 11:25)

Location: Meža kapi, Rīga

Inscriptions are in German, translations and any translation errors are mine, though dictionaries tell me that some of the words on the stone could be misspelled.

Free Country – January 29, 1940

This is part of my series of interesting newspaper articles that I find in the old Latvian newspapers available through Periodika. Most of the articles I post are in some way related to migration, wars or other events that are of particular genealogical note.

Source: Brīvā Zeme (Free Country), January 29, 1940

A 90-Year Old RÄ«ga resident is Latvianizing his surname

90 year old Eduards Teodors GrÄ«nbergs of RÄ«ga has submitted a change of surname application to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was born in Ä€daži in 1850. Even though he has reached an advanced age, Mr. GrÄ«nbergs still rushed to Latvianize his surname at the first opportunity, wanting to be known henceforth as “Zaļkalns”. He is the oldest person known to have submitted a request for a change of surname, and shows a good example to those who still delay the Latvianizing of their surnames. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will grant his request.

Late 1939 and early 1940 was a time when surname changes were at their highest – whether it was state-sponsored nationalism or a rush to do so before the (seen by some as inevitable) takeover by foreign powers (and thus a drive to preserve their ethnicity as much as possible), who knows. Surname change rules were simplified at the end of 1939 to make it easier for any ethnic Latvian who did not have an ethnic Latvian surname – or had an ethnic Latvian surname that was demeaning or very common – to change it to an ethnic Latvian surname (or to one that was less common or had pleasant associations). A number of people simply translate their surnames, as was the case here – “GrÄ«nbergs” (a more Latvian spelling of Grünberg) and “Zaļkalns” both mean “Green Hill”. Thousands of people submitted requests in this time period to change their surnames, and, if the tone of this article is to be believed, it was considered a patriotic duty to do so.

It is interesting to note, however, that a number of prominent citizens of the time did not change their surnames – some certainly did, and were mentioned in the newspapers, but prominent people such as president Kārlis Ulmanis and a number of his cabinet members did not. If they really wanted to encourage the public to change their names, they should have done so as well. The only cabinet minister that I could find who changed his name was (appropriately) the Minister of Internal Affairs KornÄ“lijs Veitmanis, who changed his surname to Veidnieks.

The records of name changes are preserved in the Latvian State Historical Archives.

Newspapers for Genealogy

I’ve been mentioning Periodika, an online collection of historical Latvian newspapers, recently. I talked about it a few years ago, here, but it has been updated and upgraded since, so merits mentioning again. Newspaper articles can provide an idea on historical events as they happen, certainly, but do newspapers have other value in genealogy?

They most certainly do! Even if you think “oh, my ancestors were just peasants, they wouldn’t be in the news” – you might be surprised. All sorts of events were described and recorded in newspapers, so you never know what you might find. As an example…

  • Many newspapers, particularly in larger cities, would publish marriage banns – that is, the proclamations that a couple were preparing to be married, so that if anyone had objections, they could voice them. These can be particularly useful for ancestors who were marrying in large cities such as RÄ«ga, that have many churches, and if you don’t know which church they married in, you could have a long trip through the records ahead of you. But if you look at the banns, it will tell you which church they are associated with.
  • Similarly, many newspapers would also announce the births and deaths of people. If you don’t know which church those events were registered in, these can help guide you.
  • Arrests and revolutionary activities – if someone was arrested, convicted or accused of revolutionary activity (or any other crime), they would often be mentioned in newspaper articles. However, for the main revolutionary period – 1905 to 1907 – if a lot of people in one area were accused or arrested, they would rarely be named by name.
  • Town or parish council notices – if your ancestor was involved in local politics, their name might appear in the newspaper. Also if they weren’t directly involved, but wrote letters to the editor, that is another way that they might appear.
  • When getting into the inter-war era, many newspapers also reported on school graduates, sports activities, and so on. You could find out that your grandfather was a local track and field star!

There is one major advantage that Periodika has, when compared to Raduraksti – full-text search via Optical Character Recognition (OCR)! And unlike the previous incarnation that I mentioned in the earlier post, this one is not diacritic-sensitive, and will also find names or words regardless of declension. This is a great improvement over the previous version.

This does, however, come with some caveats – OCR is not foolproof. This is especially important when you consider that many of the papers are in the old Gothic typefont. The most common mistake I’ve noticed is that “w” is sometimes OCR-ized as “m”. While modern Latvian does not have a “w”, in the old orthography it was usually used in place of “v”. So if you’re searching for a name with a “v” or “w” in it and find no results, run the same search substituting an “m” for the “v/w”.

Old typefont means old orthography, which also means old spellings of names. This means you have to be up on your old spellings. My new Latvian Surname Project can help with that. Some other helpful hints: If the modern spelling ends in -sons, try the name ending in -sohn. If a name ends in -vics, try -witz, -vich or -wich. Any name that has “ie” in it, replace that with “ee”.

Of course, goes without saying that the newspapers are in Latvian, German or Russian (with some in Livonian or Latgalian). If you find something that looks promising, and you need some help interpreting it, don’t hesitate to contact me, and I can try to help you out!

Calling All Descendants of Wisconsin Latvians!

Was one of your ancestors an early Latvian migrant to the United States that settled in Wisconsin in the late 19th and early 20th century (roughly between 1885 and 1910)? More specifically the rural northern county of Lincoln? Were they a member of the Latvian community in Gleason or the surrounding area?

If so, I want to hear from you! I’m doing a research project on the Wisconsin colony of Latvians for the Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Centre this spring, and am looking to make contacts amongst the descendants of these Latvians, collect stories, and so on.

Using the 1910 US Federal Census, I was able to formulate this list of Latvians who were living in the area – specifically the townships of Birch, Russel and Schley – in 1910. I don’t expect that it is exhaustive (nor do I expect that the spellings are all correct, but I’m using what was in the Census documents and have suggested alternatives), so even if your ancestor is not on this list, but lived in the area at that time – please contact me! If you know anyone who has Latvian roots in this area, pass this information along to them!

Wisconsin Latvians, as per 1910 US Federal Census:

ABROY, Mike
APPAS, Matilda
ARDER, Eduard, Dora, William, Lillian
BATE, Theodore, John, Martin, Jacob, Theodore, John, Julia
BAUMAN, John, Amelia, Pauline, Albert, Anna, Roland (Baumann, Baumanis)
BENISH, Martin, Lizzie, Amelia, Erna, Ina, Harry
BERKOSKI, William, William
BOLDAR, George, Dorthea, Richard, Ida, Armine
BREEDIS, Hans, Minnie, Hans (Briedis)
BRIGSMA, John, Corline, Harry, Alvine, George, Lizzie
BRIKOWSKI, John, Anna
DAGEN, Martin, Mary, Albert, Adolph, William, Lena
EGLET, Nicholin, Minnie, Charles (Eglit, Eglītis)
ESSALING, Ernest, Lizzie, Ernest (Esaliņš)
FRIEDENFELD, Fred, Amelia, Vera, Anna, Carl
GOTOFF, John, Minnie, Augusta
GUNTIS, Tom
GUSTIN, Eddie (Gustiņš)
GUTMAN, Jacob, Annie (Gutmann, Gutmanis)
HALLAKIS, William, Mary, Oscar
HOHN, John
HOLSTIN, Charles
INKOS, Janis
JESLAVITZ, George, Minnie, Lizzie, Anna, August, Albert, Amelia, Hans, Ava (Jeslavics, Jeslawitz)
JOHNSON, Charles, Margareta, May (Janson, Jansons)
KANAPKA, William
KAULIN, Eduard (Kaulen, Kauliņš)
KIRSH, Fredie (Kiršs)
KLEINBERG, Sam, Jule, Pauline, Fred, Christ
KRAUKLIN, Julius, Lizzie (Kraukliņš)
KRAUKLIS, George, Louisa, Julie, Lena, George, Minnie, Albert
KRISCHE, David, Wilhelmina, Helen, Anna
KRISH, Martin, Minnie (Krišs)
KURWITZ, Jacob, Anna, Elmer (Kurvics, Kurvitz, Kurvītis))
LUHS, Otto, Louisa, William
LUTZMAN, Hans, Lena, Charles, Mary
MANDICK, John, Kate, Alma, Joe, Mary, Fred, Christ, Emilia (Mondeik, MandeiÄ·is)
MOLLER, Theodore, Anna, Theodor, Minna, Irene, Theodor, Delphan
ORMAN, Fritz, Carrie, Christ, John, Anna, Lena, Anna
OSLIN, John
OSOLIN, John, Anna, John, Willie, Mildred, Albert (Osoling, Ozolin, Ozoliņš)
PETERSON, John, Mary, Mary, Carrie, Harry (PÄ“tersons)
PETRES, Christ, Katie, Christ, Selma
PETROWSKI, Joe, Anne (Petrovski, Petrovskis)
PIKKE, Bradik, Anna, Fritz, Anna
PUTNESS, Charles, Julia, Olga, Christ
RADONUH, Joseph, John
REINSON, Peter, Alice, Pauline, Alvine, Eduard, Anna (Reinsons)
ROMAN, William
ROMOWSKI, Michael (Romovski, Romovskis)
RONIS, John, Annie, Amelia, Charles, George, Jack, Annie, Johan
SACKMAN, Otto, Katherine, Ava, Sam
SARIN, John, Carathass, Charles, Martin, Bertha (Sarrin, Sarring, Saring, Zarin, Zariņš)
SAYS, Henry, Leba, Mary, Julia, Mike
SCHAUMAN, George
SCHNARSKY, Joseph, Castince, Joseph, Ferdinand
SCHULTZ, George, Mary, Lena, Anna, John, Elsie (Å ulcs)
SEAKMAN, Edward
SELTMAN, Charlie, Julie (Seltmann, Zeltmanis)
SEYES, Julia
SMEDUL, George, Louisa, William, Pauline (Smedull, Smedulis)
SOMMIE, Albert, Gust, Metleena, Jacob, Albert
SPROGIS, Emilia, August, Emily, Nathalie, Greta
STAHL, Nick, Margarete
STALLIKAS, George, Mary, Mary, Theodore, Anna, George
STEIN, Hans, Amelia, Hans, Fritz, Elsie, William, Lizzie, August, Leona, Pauline, Emma, Fritz, Amelia, Olga, Lillian, Oswald
SUMMER, Anton, Amelia
SUTTE, Martin, Anna, Amelia, George, Jacob, Mary, Mildred, John, Anna (Zute, Zutis)
SWIRBULL, John, Mike (Zvirbulis)
TAUBE, John
TRIEMAN, Jacob, Anna, Alvina
WELDOM, Charles, Anna, Rudolph, Alfred, Chris, Eva, Amelia, Albert
WENZSLOW, Hans, Amilie, Amilie, John, Olga, Theodore, Nettie
ZAKIS, August
ZEELAW, Woldmar (Cielavs)
ZEMEL, Peter, Anna, Hermine (Ziemelis)
ZEROL, Martin, Leona, Fred, Augusta (Cerulis)

If one of these people is your ancestor, or you have other Latvian ancestors from turn-of-the-century Wisconsin, please comment here, or email at (image to prevent spam, please type it into your email program).

Homeland – January 18, 1911

This is part of my series of interesting newspaper articles and snippets that I find in the old Latvian newspapers available through Periodika. Most of the articles I post are in some way related to migration, wars or other events that are of particular genealogical note.

Source: TÄ“vija (“Homeland”), January 18, 1911

The barons of Vidzeme are increasingly getting rid of forest guards who are of Latvian ethnicity, replacing them with German colonists, who are graduating every year from the Vijciems Forestry School. It is known that Latvian youth are longer being accepted at this school. Many German colonists are studying there on the barons’ dime. And people are saying that the Baltic region is not being threatened by German colonization!

This article, while not dealing specifically with migration or genealogy, does have some important facts to consider. Firstly, the political climate one hundred years ago compared with today. Today, when talking about concerns of being assimilated or destroyed by other nations, the worry is always about Russia and Latvia’s large Russian minority. One hundred years ago, while Latvia was part of the Russian Empire, most of the concern was regarding Germans, who had been the local government for centuries, regardless of who was the big empire in charge at the time. This article clearly illustrates that worry.

As to why the German barons may have been replacing Latvian forest guards, it is important to note that this article was written a few short years after the 1905 Revolution, when forests were prime staging grounds for groups of peasants to attack infrastructure and the grand estates of the barons. They were perhaps trying to retake control of the forests. How successful they were, I’m not sure. But the 1905 Revolution showed the barons that the people were not going to take being oppressed much longer.

A third reason why I’ve posted this article is more personal – the Vijciems forestry school is right next door to StampvÄ“veri, the farm where my Celmiņš ancestors have lived since my earliest records of them. Since they were ethnic Latvians, I wonder what they thought of all the goings-on at the time.

Latvis – January 17, 1923

This is part of my series of interesting newspaper articles that I find in the old Latvian newspapers available through Periodika. Most of the articles I post are in some way related to migration, wars or other events that are of particular genealogical note.

This article is a harrowing account of the lives of Latvian Baptists in the new colonies in Brazil in the 1920s. How much is truth and how much is fiction, I do not know. What I do know is that the conditions in the nascent colonies were very harsh, and many people did die in the unfamiliar climate and land. I also know that the leaders were considered somewhat authoritarian by some, and that the government authorities in newly independent Latvia were quite alarmed at the growing exodus to Brazil, eventually refusing to issue passports to anyone who declared an intent to head there. Baptists were looked upon with suspicion in Latvia. Other newspaper articles note that a number of Latvians in Brazil applied for assistance in returning to Latvia, but thousands did choose to stay, living in more established Latvian colonies such as Nova Odessa and Rio Novo, or ended up building communities such as Vārpa. These communities then in turn welcomed a new wave of Latvians migrating to Brazil after the Second World War.

Source: Latvis, January 17, 1923

“Swindled Latvian Baptists in Brazil”

Missionary VÄ«tols has arrived in RÄ«ga, where he gave our correspondent the following news about the horrors that awaited the Latvian Baptists that were tricked into going to Brazil.

Immigrants are met in Sao Paulo by Matvejs, the son-in-law of preacher Iņķis, under whose absolute authority they now stand. Letters sent to Latvia don’t get sent without passing through his censors. Immigrants are immediately assigned barracks, and they are treated more like slaves than like free citizens. Everyone is under the watch of InÄ·is’ and Matvejs’ agents, among whom are a Petrolevics and Andermanis. Immigrants are fed terribly, some days given only sliced beets, of the kind that would be given to pigs back in Latvia. Only now do they begin to understand, that which they did not want to believe, that they have been horribly swindled by the Baptist preachers and Brazilian colonial agents, who get a commission for each person they swindle. Anyone who considers speaking against Matvejs or his agents and asks to be returned to Latvia, is called a “reckless soul” and worked on with all sorts of tools and threats.

Many colonists from Brazil’s Nova Odessa colony, who had arrived in Sao Paulo, said that Iņķis had been expelled from their colony for land speculation, becasue he sold land that had cost him 30 million reals for 100 million reals to his “poor brothers”, as he called them.

All of the new arrivals were sent by Iņķis, Matvejs and company to the newly founded colonies in Brazil’s “eternal forests”, 850km from Sao Paulo, where no people hav elived, far from towns and roads. The land there consists of yellow sand and swamps, almost useless for farming. The land has to be worked by hand, because there are no horses. All of the good land is already in the hands of sugar plantation owners.

The heat is terrible and only in January and February is there rain, unceasing rain, after which there is swamp fever, dysentry and other diseases. Immigrants are taken to the forest and left completely in fate’s hands.

The colonists are also threatened by deadly snakes and wild animals, because the new arrivals have to live in sand pits until they build living barracks, which is also a hard job, because the wood is so hard that saws are breaking and axes have little effect. At first, the colonists live in communes, which are mostly repulsive, in groups of 10 to 18 families. Many are close to despondency and with tears in their eyes turn towards their homelands, which they left so flippantly, listening to the lies of the preachers.

Besides the abovementioned tortures, the colonists in Brazil are also threatened by scorpions and all sorts of insects, the stings of which cause worms to grow under the skin of the victims, causing unbelievable pain.

By the month of September, Iņķis had already tricked approximately 2000 people into going to Brazil, and with every arriving ship that number grows.

WW1 Diary – January 17, 1916

Fourteenth 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, and clicking the tag “diary entries” will bring up all of the entries that I have posted.

January 17, 1916

It is Sunday. Mother and Father went to church. Papa and ArvÄ«ds are at the commission in Valmiera. Life is so somber at home – to the point of boredom. I wish we could get somewhere alone – even if just in the sauna. If we didn’t have to worry about the little ones – then we could bring it all to an end soon. Such is life now??