CAPE TOWN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

My Search for my Latvian Ancestors By Lucille le Roux

My interest in genealogy was sparked off by my curiosity about my maternal Latvian Grandfather. Jacob SMILTNIEKS was born in Riga, Latvia on 1st June 1878.
I did not have a lot to go on. Fortunately I had obtained some information from my late aunt’s bible. I also obtained copies of some letters written to her from her Latvian cousin, Alida, in Australia. So I began to piece together some facts about the family.
I wanted to contact this Australian family so I went onto the Australian Rootsweb site and was helped by a kind soul who gave me possible addresses of Alida and her daughter. I wrote and so renewed my contact with them but Alida did not have much to add. She told me of fleeing with her husband and daughter to Germany and then emigrating to Australia. Alida’s sister’s husband had been murdered by Russians.
Alida thought that Jegava had been bombed and did not know if her parents were still alive when she had emigrated in 1943. However, 14 years later the Red Cross traced her in Australia and told her they were still alive. What absolute joy she felt. So Jacob’s brother was still alive.
I also went onto the Australian Archive Website and obtained the immigration details of Alida, her husband and daughter.
I had some conflicting information to sort out.
I was told by a cousin that my grandfather had won a lottery and that was why he came to South Africa but he told me himself that his father had asked his sons whether they wanted to learn a trade or travel. He had chosen to learn a trade but later due to ill health was sent to the warmer climate in South Africa so getting the best of both offers!
Writing to Latvian Rootsweb this was cleared up for me as it was explained that when the young men were to be conscripted for military training it was a type of draw to see who would be chosen or not. He had been chosen not to do military training so could come to South Africa. Because of my grandfather’s way of expressing himself it must have been misinterpreted as being a lottery prize.
I couldn’t find anything about him in the Cape Town Archives. I wrote to Home Affairs twice for the naturalization document of my grandfather and had all but given up and was then surprised by an email from them telling me that if I paid R35 at Home Affairs the document would be posted to me.
I then joined the Latvian Website and told my story, also writing a poem my grandfather taught me, in the way that it sounded to me. It was about a bird that had drunk from a fountain which had vodka in it.
I had several answers and one person even told me the correct spelling of the Latvian words in the poem and the meaning. Another also found that there was a Krisjan Smiltnieks who had a business a few roads away from this fountain. Jacob’s brother was Krisjan.
I then wrote to the Latvian Archives giving as much information as I knew. I had to put down a deposit of $50 which amounted to over R800 at that time—August 2005. I was told that they could only start the research in 2007 at best. In January 2007 I emailed to find out if they had started. I was advised that the research had been completed and that I would receive an invoice and once this had been paid the information would be supplied. This cost me an additional $181 equaling R1479.
I had started this research in 1998 and this year 2007 finally had joy. I received the information from Irina Veinberga of Latvian Archives. All had been translated into English. It was explained that some documents were destroyed by fire or flood during wars but there was still a large amount made available to me. The correct spellings of names as per baptism registers were supplied. There was also a photograph of Alida of Australia from when she was working; there is such a strong likeness to my one cousin.
I have so many memories of my grandfather. He had a proud way of walking and the fairest skin and the kindest grey eyes. He had a very strong accent right up until he died at 81. I would sit at his knee and be fascinated with his way of telling stories. I just wish I had asked him more about his life then.
I’m glad I didn’t give up on my research into his background. To be successful as a researcher one needs 3 qualities: a detective’s mind, determination and endless patience—and never give up!