The Cirksis Family

Just a quick post today. One of the Latvian genealogy blogs that I follow has launched a competition! If you would like to win a 2013 calendar from the "Latvians Abroad - Museum and Research Centre" you can find details on   Discovering Latvian Roots . The competition requires you to "describe something passed down to you by your Latvian ancestors - be it a physical object, a song, a recipe, a photograph – that makes you feel connected to your Latvian heritage, and why". While they are probably not the oldest things passed down to me, I recalled two carved wooden plates that have been in our family since before I was born. I don't know exactly where they came from, they may have been carved in Australia for all I know but there is something about them that makes me think they are Latvian in style at the very least. You be the judge: One of two carved wooden plates past down to me from my father. I don't know who carved them, when or where. I'm...

The following is from a speech which Janis CIRKSIS delivered detailing his experience as a Latvian returning home after 50 years of Soviet occupation. It was written in around 1997 so most likely a lot has changed since then. It is a deeply personal account of his experience and by no means is it intended to be indicative of a more general experience. Having said that, it does express many of the daily struggles of Latvians as they tried to reestablish their independence after 50 years of occupation. The original document is written in a script font and thus I have had to transcribe it manually.  In order to publish something this week, I have decided to break it (arbitrarily) into 2 halves. As per usual, I would love to hear from you. In particular How do you think life in Latvia has changed since 1997? Life after 50 years in Latvia By Janis CIRKSIS Tonight I would like to share with you my experiences and observations about the present life in Latvia. I visited Latvia fo...

Given the relatively narrow focus of this blog I have been quite surprised by the number of visitors that have viewed my posts. It seems that I have had over 600 unique visitors over the past few months. This presents an interesting question for me: Are the people viewing this blog CIRKSIS family members or people interesting in Latvian history? If you are a CIRKSIS family member I would be interested in hearing from you. I am particularly interested in anyone who has information on the origins of the family name. If you are interested in Latvian history, what aspects are you interested in? So even if you don't think we are directly related, why not post a message in the comments section of message me on twitter @cirksis? I like to pop a photo into most posts so here is today's: Here a few of the family heirlooms. On the top left is a ring given to Janis CIRKSIS by his mother during WWII. On the top right is a 1 Lats coin, it is made form silver and was worn on a neck...

While many Western English speaking nations define themselves in relation to their attitudes and there "way of life", Latvian folk song, folk tales and the Latvian language itself is considered fundamental to the Latvian identity. The language itself was born of the peasant farmers and solidified by Latvian academics who studied under Russian rule during the 19th and early 20th centuries.   See my article on   The Latvian Ethnic Identity  for an in depth account of how Latvian Ethnic Nationalism came into being. During the Soviet occupation, the Latvian language became endangered by mass deportations and immigration from the Soviet Union. Today the Latvian language continues to be an endangered language as the Latvians, Latvian Russians and stateless Russians in Latvia attempt to clean up the enthno-social mess left behind by the Soviets. It is no surprise then, that the Latvian Diaspora considered it vital to maintain Latvian language culture in their new homes. One ...

There are many more photos to come! I am quite eager to have the scanning part of my project done so that I can get on with some "real" in-depth  research. It was with that in mind that I hired a professional scanning service  at a local shop. The scanning was to have been completed about a week ago. Unfortunately, the shop mistakenly scanned the photos at a very low resolution. Obviously this has put a bit of a spanner in the works as I can't invest any money in the software and services I will need to obtain until I am sure the scanning is complete and paid for. Rest assured that I will continue to post something at least once a month. As I mentioned in a past post this will mean that some of the commentary will be a little superficial at times. As new information comes to light, I will update these posts. I am also aware that some of the photos appear a little on the small side in the posts. If you haven't tried it already, they are all "clickable" an...

For most people born into families that have enjoyed several generations of freedom and democracy  -as is the case for most people living in Western society - it is difficult to even imagine the day to day fear and depression of living under an oppressive regime.  The closest I can ever hope to come to understanding is through the photos of some of my family members that stayed in Latvia during the occupation. Not all of the photos are depressing, some show how difficult it is to crush the human spirit. The following few photos illustrate: I believe this photo was taken in the 1970s in Latvia. It shows My grandmother, Katrine CIRKSE in her house.  While it is a relatively new tradition to smile for photographs, the look on my grandmother's face speaks to me of a deep sadness. By this stage of her life she had outlived her husband and two out of three of her children.  It must have been difficult for my farther to see photos like this and not be able to return to ...

Edit: New information from the International Tracing Service suggests that the photos contained in this post may actually be from Barum DP Camp in approximately 1948. If you are able to confirm this or otherwise identify the location pictured, please leave a comment below and I will amend the captions. I have been busily scanning photos and documents for the past several weeks so unfortunately I haven't been updating this site as much as I would like. On a positive note, just as I think I have nearly scanned everything, I find more documents and photos. This meaning that once I have finished scanning, I will have a heap of material to post from. In the mean time I will try and post a few bits and pieces as I scan them. Unfortunately, because I am busy scanning at the moment, I won't have much time to research and write about what I post so my intention is to update some of these posts in the future as more information comes to light. In the mean time here are some photos f...