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 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 ...

Staburadze (Staburags) 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 10 in the book is titled:  Staburadze or Staburags . A high cliff on the banks of the Daugava culturally significant to Latvians but now complete...

Lēni Lūdzot - Gently Pleading 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 9 in the book is titled:  Lēni Lūdzot - Gently Pleading . My heart is troubled, I wish my love was here to comfort me. Page 8 of Bask...

Dzimtenes Meitenes Dziesma - Song of the Girl at Home 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 8 in the book is titled:  Dzimtenes Meitenes Dziesma - Song of the Girl at Home .  A real Latvian rushes to d...

Bakarolla 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: Bakarolla . A humorous song about love Page 6 of Basket of Songs - Brussels Prisoner-of-war camp, December 1945   Unfortunate...

Rudzu pukes - Cornflowers 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 6 in the book is titled:  Rudzu pukes- Cornflowers .  Cornflower blue is the sky of my country,  cornflower blue are my girl's eyes....

Lietus Lāses - Raindrops 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 5 in the book is titled:  Lietus Lāses - Raindrops .  When raindrops knock on your window, that will be like a quiet greeting from me....

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. The 12th instalment of the Letters from Latvia series is a little soapy. It deals mostly with Janis' breakup with Vera (the girl at home) and his decision to marry Lidija. This appears to be a little less scandalous now that Janis has apparently explained the circumstances of their breakup.  The themes to the letter are interesting but even more interesting to me is the subtext. If we look at this letter, and the other letters more broadly we may notice that Katrine's language is deeply philosophical and somewhat poetic. I can't help but think that...

Relatives from the Pirtneiks side of my family, Siberia Finally, the digitising project is finished! I have had about 1500 family photos digitised over the last year or so - several technical problems plagued the project, which is why it took so long. Not all of them relate to this blog but there are several photos that are important to the Čirkšis family history. One of the benefits of digitising photographs - and publishing a blog about them - is that you take a closer look at things. Many of the photos I have, have Latvian writing on the back of them. A lot of the writing is illegible, at least for a non-Latvian-speaker (I know I should learn!) but occasionally I can decipher enough to work out what the photo is of. This particular photo had been sitting in an album and I had never taken it out to examine it though, I had some idea that it must be the Pirtneiks (my grandmother's) side of the family. Today, while I was checking off the scanned photos to ensure they were a...

Peteris Čirksis as a young man As some of you will know, for about a year now I have been trying to discover what happened to my lost uncle Peteris Čirkšis. As with many things in my family history, I neglected to ask questions of my family members while I had to opportunity. Perhaps I was too young to care about history, perhaps like most young people, I thought I knew everything already. But also I think I was probably too young to know what questions to ask. So what do I know about Peteris? I know he was the son of a farmer who was able to acquire a small patch of land after the Latvian war of independence.  He was born in 1922 in Nīca near Liepājas, Latvia and died in 1941 at the hands of the NAZIs. These are the facts. But who was he really? The only account I have of Peteris' life comes from what I remember my father telling me about him. But memory is a fragile thing, second hand memory is even worse. As a researcher what I want is confirmed and verified fact...

This will just be a quick post to highlight a website that I found particularly interesting: The Center for Baltic Heritage I'm not sure why but there seems to be two web addresses for this site so I will link the other one as well...   The Center for Baltic Heritage On their about page they say they stared in 2000 after finding an alarming " lack of material and information" about the soviet occupation of the Baltic states. They state that nearly a decade later "   Individuals, organizations, and regimes continue to perpetuate misinformation rooted in Nazi and Soviet propaganda whether through ignorance or to serve their own purposes ." This is  something  that I have personally experienced while trying to find information on Latvia during WWII. A youtube search of "Latvia WW2" is instructive. One of the links is from a Russian (who will remain nameless so as not to promote links to  misinformation ) is so far removed from the fact...