Discovering Latvian Roots » photographs

Wordless Wednesday – Winter Hijinks, c. 1949

Antra — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:29:22 +0000

My great-uncle Jānis, my great-aunt Marta and my grandfather Aleks about to get up to some winter hijinks during what I believe is their first winter in Canada, c. 1949. Pay attention to the snowball in my grandfather’s hands! See the results of that snowball next week!

Wordless Wednesday – Winter Wonderland, c. 1946

Antra — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:51:41 +0000

My great-aunt Marta Jakstāne (born Līcīte) in a winter storm in Copenhagen, Denmark, c. 1946.

Wordless Wednesday – Christmas, c. 1955

Antra — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:48:34 +0000

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.

Wordless Wednesday – Last Looks, c. 1945-1955

Antra — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:28:47 +0000

The last photo I have of my great-grandparents Brencis and Jūle (b. Štelmāhere) Līcītis. I believe it was sent to their daughters in Canada sometime in the late 1940s, since Brencis died somewhere around that time, and Jūle died in 1959.

Wordless Wednesday – Two Martas, 1911

Antra — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:10:49 +0000

My great-grandmother Jūle Līcīte (b. Štelmahere) with her daughter Marta Līcīte (the baby) and her half-niece Marta Šmits (the older girl) , c. 1911. Marta Līcīte is my great-aunt, who passed away one year and one week ago. See my tribute to her here.

Wordless Wednesday – School Play, 1925

Antra — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:26:52 +0000

Photograph of what is probably a school play or skit of some kind at the primary school in Krustpils, c. 1925. My grandmother is the girl in the middle of the first row.

Wordless Wednesday – Fishwife Statue, Copenhagen

Antra — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:30:33 +0000

My grandfather Aleksandrs Francis with the Fishwife Statue in Copenhagen, Denmark, c. 1945-1948.

Fishwife Statue. Taken by me, November 2009.

Wordless Wednesday – Where is This?

Antra — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:43:16 +0000

Can anyone help identify the building in this photograph? I’m pretty sure it is in Denmark, since it is a photo of my grandmother from her collection of Displaced Persons camp photographs, c. 1945-1949. However, I haven’t been able to turn up any results. Also possible that it could be in northern Germany around Hamburg or Bremen. I think I have seen this building personally, but I can’t recall where it was or what it is called. Thanks for any help!

“Fearless Females” – March 4

Antra — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:41:34 +0000

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!

“Fearless Females” – March 2

Antra — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:06:47 +0000

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.