Naturally, one of the first steps I took when I started researching my Latvian roots years ago was Googling “Akerfelds”. When you do this, you are hit with a slew of pages about Darrel Akerfelds, current bullpen coach for the San Diego Padres and former pitcher for several other MLB teams, including the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies. Darrel is one of Janis Akerfelds and Anna Ziverts’ grandchildren, and Arvids’ nephew: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=akerfda01
You will come across another 2 names of sporty Akerfelds girls in the US who are not descendants of Janis and Anna. However, their Akerfelds ancestor does hail from the Nikrace/Embute area. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out exactly which Akerfelds puzzle piece he would belong to just yet, as the original Akerfelds man in that line died at a young age and left his wife Marija Rabovics and 2 sons behind. These three do appear on the 1935 and 1941 censuses, but there is no name for the husband/father Akerfelds, since he was passed away. It could have feasibly been Janis’ brother Ernests, of whose fate I don’t yet know. It was someone of that generation, and was likely a son of either Jekabs Grinbergs alias Akerfelds and Ieva Sedols, or Ernests Grinbergs alias Akerfelds and his wife Annlise (more about them in a previous post: http://chelli11.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/akerfelds-puzzle-pieces)
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