Wordless Wednesday – Christmas, c. 1955

My mother’s family at Christmas, c. 1955. My grandmother is seated on the left, my great-aunt Marta seated on the right. Great-uncle Jānis is holding my mother, who looks to be three or four in this photo. Grandfather Aleks would have been the photographer.

Early Days in Canada

[This post was written for the 30th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy on the topic of "Arrival in New Lands", hosted by Al of Al's Polish-American Genealogy Research.]

All four of my grandparents came to Canada for the same reason: to flee from the Communist terror that had overtaken their homeland [...]

Expanding Family Knowledge

Before I went to Latvia and started conducting my research in the archives, I was purely a genealogist. I wanted names, dates and places. While at the archives, a transformation occured: I became a family historian as well. Rather than spending most of my time stretching back further into history, I concentrated on finding out [...]