The Cirksis Family

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the Latvian Translations page. This is the 20th Letter in the series. A sincere greeting from the shores of the Amber Sea!!! Dear Janis, I want to write a few lines to you today and also send best wishes for your namesday. I think you will receive them in time. Here in your Homeland the spring is really starting now, which as you will remember, is late this year and made us wait quite long for its splendour and warmth. Only this morning can you feel that the buds on the cherry trees are opening, a few petals are showing. Last week the weather warmed up, but is still not really summery. You still can’t sunbathe or swim. I did start going barefoot yesterday tho...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click  HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 19th Letter in the series.  You might notice a little paranoia in this letter - not unfounded I might add. You will note a lack of full names. In this letter, Kate refers to "Uncle P". I believe this refers to Peteris PIRTNIEKS, Janis's uncle who was deported to Siberia - see the post  Postcards from Sibīrija .  Nica, 30.4 (1955) Sincere and loving greetings to you, dear brother, from - me, mum and dad!!! It’s a week now since mum greeted me on my arrival home from work with the words that today is again a very happy day, we have received a letter f...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click  HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 18th Letter in the series.  A long break between this letter and the last and how things have changed for both Janis and Kate and the family in Latvia! The family farm had been seized by the Soviet government and turned into a collective farm. It would take about another 50 years before the family could claim part of their hard earned land back - and give it away again to a deserving family as it turned out. Will the Cirksis family ever return to Latvia? Who can say - certainly Janis would never have guessed where life would take him! Again we are confronted with the mystery of ...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English.  To see the other letters in the series click   HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 15th Letter in the series.  Nica, 4.5.48 A loving and sincere greeting to you far away! Our dear Janis, we received your letter on 30.2 and that was a great joy to us again, for we had not received any news from you for so long, for two and a half months. We wondered if you had moved and were not writing because of that, or if something bad had happened to you. I wrote my last letter in the middle of March and would have liked to write again in April, but I decided to wait in case your address had changed. But we were so happy again now, for on receiving your letter we kn...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English.  To see the other letters in the series click   HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 14th Letter in the series.  Katrine  ČIRKŠIS, my grandmother. In this letter two people are mentioned that I will have to dedicate a post to  eventually: My grandmother Katrine ČIRKŠIS and her mother Maiga LAPI ŅŠ. I don't know a lot about Maiga at the moment but if she was anything like her daughter or granddaughter, I have no doubt that there will be stories of her out there. Nica, 17.3.48 Our dear Janis in a foreign country!   We send you loving greetings from your quiet birthplace!   We received the last letter from you about a month ago,...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English.  To see the other letters in the series click   HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 15th Letter in the series.  Before the next letter I must say that given Latvia's history it is hard not to mention how scary the current events in the  Ukraine  are for Latvians. Now more then ever I feel the need to continue publishing these letters.  For those who are unaware, after WWII an iron curtain went up around the Soviet Union - which at the time included Latvia. Those behind the curtain watched  their countries and way of life be destroyed slowly by the imperialistic Communist system. The Latvian language itself was nearly made extinct through mass...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English.  To see the other letters in the series click   HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 14th Letter in the series.  Nica, 27.1.48 We greet you with lots of love, Janis, Lidija and Ilmars! Yesterday we received your letter written on 25.11 with namesday greetings for mum and me and a few days ago, your greeting for Christmas and the New Year. Thank you so very much for these greetings. We had been waiting for some lines from you for quite a while and had almost begun to worry, but we still thought they’d come. And now they have come! The letter written on 25.11 had taken two weeks longer than usual and came later than the greeting written on 9.12. But now we are so ...

Mirdzot šķēpiem - Gleaming Spears In this series, I have been posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father.  The book is titled  Bakset of Songs: Let our Songs Ring out,  Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp  December 1945 .  It is also labeled with my father's initials J Č. Click on the following link :  Basket of Songs  to view the rest of the series. Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the  Letters from Latvia  series has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes involved. T he songs individually over the coming weeks and where I can, I will link to a performance of the melody. At this time, I won't be posting full translations for most of these songs -the Leters from Lativa series will be taking priority. Song 4 in the book is titled:  Mirdzot šķēpiem  - Gleaming Spears .  Latvian Riflemen enter a town, the girls’ eyes gleam, next...

Laša kundze - Mrs Salmon In this series, I have been posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father.  The book is titled  Bakset of Songs: Let our Songs Ring out,  Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp  December 1945 .  It is also labeled with my father's initials J Č. Click on the following link :  Basket of Songs  to view the rest of the series. Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the  Letters from Latvia  series has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes inv olved. T he songs individually over the coming weeks and where I can, I will link to a performance of the melody. At this time, I won't be posting full translations for most of these songs -the Leters from Lativa series will be taking priority. Song 3 in the book is titled: Laša kundze -Mrs Salmon. It is a humorous song. Great excitement in the deep because the eel is going to marry the salm...

Neskumsti meitene - Don't be sad, girl. In this series, I have been posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father.  The book is titled Bakset of Songs: Let our Songs Ring out,  Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp  December 1945 . It is also labeled with my father's initials J Č. Click on the following link : Basket of Songs to view the rest of the series. Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the  Letters from Latvia  series has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes inv olved. T he songs individually over the coming weeks and where I can, I will link to a performance of the melody. At this time, I won't be posting full translations for most of these songs -the Leters from Lativa series will be taking priority. Song 2 in the book is titled: Neskumsti meitene - Don't be sad, girl. Don’t be sad, girl, that I have to go away. Remember our times together. If you ar...

Let our Songs Ring Out! J Č Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp December 1945 In this series, I will be posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father. Actually I never knew it existed until he died so I never had to opportunity to hear many of these songs. Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the Letters from Latvia has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes involved. Music has always been an important part of Latvian culture. I say it a lot and it is mentioned in may of the letters my father received from Latvia but it really can't be overstated. I did a quick google search and I was pleased to find that this isn't the only songbook to survive the post WWII POW camps. www.latvians.com has an introduction to the Zedelgem POW camp here and they have preserved another Latvian Songbook here .  I will be posting the songs individually and where I can I will try to post a ...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English.  To see the other letters in the series click   HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. Just a quick post today to keep the letters coming. Again, in this letter are many names of the people who lived near my grandparent's farm in Latvia at the time. It could prove useful to others searching for  their  family origins.  Of particular note to me personally, is the mention of Peteris CIRKSIS by my grandmother Katrine CIRKSIS (she shared her name with her daughter, Janis' sister). It is difficult to tell at this point if she has been informed of Peteris' fate however it appears that there is still hope that he is still alive. She also mentions a lighthouse which may turn out t...

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English.  To see the other letters in the series click   HERE . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. It has been a while again since I last posted a letter. This is partially due to me  exploring  other avenues in relation to my family tree and partially because I have been a bit busy / lazy recently. I am on leave at the moment so I intend to cue up some of the letters to  auto publish so that I am releasing them more consistently in the future.  The next letter in the series has a number of interesting features in terms of life in Latvia directly after WW2 and also on a personal level. My father used to tell me that his mother was a very hard worker and these letters confirm tha...