Okay, so I‘ve started a blog about my favorite pastime – genealogy.
This blog is intended to do 3 things:
1. Help me keep track of my own research and thoughts
2. Keep some kind of calendar timeline of my findings
3. Allow me to share my findings with anyone interested
I am an amateur, spare-time-only-yet-still-avid researcher of family history. I am by no means a beginner, as I am already years into my research and have relentlessly exhausted many resources. But all the research I have done has been from the comfort of my desk chair in front of my computer, with a trip or two to my local library, so I would hardly call myself an expert.
I am Canadian, I grew up in the melting pot of ethnicities and cultures that is Southern Ontario. I remember once in elementary school, doing a cute little family tree assignment about where your ancestors came from. I went home and asked my mom excitedly all about my big huge extended family tree, but was slightly underwhelmed with the amount of information I could gather.
My dad was adopted. He had never searched for his biological family, having felt fairly fulfilled by his adopted one. End of story. His adopted parents were French-Canadian and British, and as interesting as that was, that was not REALLY my ethnicity. I had heard vaguely that my father’s biological parent’s backgrounds were Ukrainian, French and Italian.
My mother’s parents were both full-fledged, 100% Latvian, and had immigrated here after the second World War. My mother knew as far back as her own grandparents, but that was it.
That was enough to satisfy my curiosity for the time being and would suffice for my school project, but I remained interested in genealogy ever since – believing both that I would never know who my biological paternal grandparents were, and that since Latvia was a tiny and mostly war-torn country that very little information regarding my maternal family had survived the many wars.
Fast forward to early 2008. I received an email from my mother, containing a photograph of my biological paternal grandmother. I should explain that some years earlier my father had been contacted by a biological sister who was actively seeking her biological parents. It seems that in 2008, she finally found the name of her biological mother (I am still not sure how – maybe I will ask soon!). Receiving this picture re-ignited my curiosity and the search began and sprouted from there
A Latvian Canadian Story
Tracing my Latvian roots back as far as I can, telling stories along the way
Your research is amazing. I’m just beginning to trace my fathers past. My father was discharged from the 7566 th Labor Service Co. in 1950. When my father was in the Baltic Service company the uniform was black. My research indicated they were US Army uniforms dyed that color. He drove those Deuce and a Half trucks and a mechanic for the Army. I have several photos from his unit he had taken. The arm patch he wore stated Baltic Labor Service.
I was born in the Hanau DP camp in 1949 during his time with the Baltic Service Unit.. Upon discharge we emigrated to the USA in late 1950′s.
My research has been slow but moving along. Getting information from that time period has been a challenge. Again great write up.
Thanks! Great to hear from you! It seems like these Labor Servicemen have been largely overlooked over time… there isn’t a whole lot out there available for reading up on it! I have spoken to a man who is still alive that served with the 7566th… now that you have me thinking about it again, maybe I will have to write another entry soon!
Again, great ot hear from you – would love to see some old pictures, I have a few too. Good luck in your research!