Ancestry update

Liepaja, Latvia
My first stop in the quest for ancestors has been Liepaja, Latvia. A city of about 80,000 people today. It boasts a long history as a port and fishing town going back as far as 1292. It has been severely damaged by German bombs dropped from dirigibles in WW I, and had troops move through and back many many times. The population has been eradicated several times over the course of history, most notably, the Germans and then the Russians..In Latvia it is known as “the city where the wind is born”. Damn it is windy every day here.Not to mention cold.. It may be beautiful in summer but in late fall, not so nice.....

From the point of view of ancestry quest, it is of note, because a Louise Rosenthal shows up as Godparent to many children in 1884-1886. It appears she was a busy body for those years! At least popular in her social circle. Louise is not a common Latvian name, hence the interest. So far, (Nov 12,2010) no other records of her, nor Georg, nor Jahn Rosenthal have surfaced.

This location also fits in with some of the folklore stories that we are trying to piece together.. Jahn Rosenthal's uncles were fisherman. Apparently two of them died fishing and their stiff frozen bodies were returned to Jahn's parents place after they were found. This is a story that was passed down from Jahn, to Alex Sr, to us. Whether it happened while Jahn was living with his parents or before he was born is unknown. No record of 2 Rosenthals or Smelg (Smelga or Smelge) brothers has been found yet. Liepaja had a population of 29,000 in 1881, and considering it is one of the few ports in Latvia, it would be fair to assume that it had an active fishing fleet on the Baltic Sea. So that story fits.

Alex Rosenthal Sr tells a story of how Jahn Rosenthal was known with his workmates in Canada for being extremely proficient with a broad axe. There are a lot of old log homes here built with timbers and logs that have been built with logs that have been squared with a broad axe.. And very well done at that. It is possible that he learned his skills with a broad axe as a youth. The area south of town is mostly forested, and there was a timber industry here.. So that kind of fits.

The records that we have found that depict Rosenthal's are the Latvian records of St Anne church.
St Anne Church originally on the north side of the river was relocated to the south side (old town) of Liepaja. Originally a church for both Latvians and Germans, when St Trnitatis was built, most of the German congregation moved there and St Annes remained predominantly Latvian. Today, there are no records at the church. There are only the records on the web to go by. The older graveyards are located on the north side of the river just a half a kilometer from the bridge.. A morning of tromping around the gravestones revealed nothing. The first graveyard is very poorly maintained. I found graves where people were buried as early as 1849. Others as recent as 2007. Some graves have tombstones with writing and dates on them, but most do not. Most are unmarked, or marked by a little granite pillar with no writing on them. Many of the marked tombstones were granite markers with bronze plaques on them. At some point in time, grave robbers have gone in and pried the bronze markers off, obviously to turn them in for scrap metal value. Sad to say the least. Out of perhaps 500 graves that I looked at, there were only 25 that had identification on the grave. There is not official record of who is buried where.. The local municipal government is working at trying to get that together, but they have scant information to work with. I walked to the second graveyard and found it to be in a poorer state of repair than the first.. After a morning of tromping through knee high weeds, in driving rain, I decided to call it quits. All in all, I think the graveyards here are a dead end. I shall return to birth, marriage and death records...

There is an archive office in town, but unfortunately today is Saturday and it is closed. I am going to visit the local museum this afternoon, and enquire about a historical society that could perhaps shed some light on things. Other than that, I will do further scanning and maybe stay here until Monday morning when it is open.

An interesting note... After being drenched and cold from the graveyard expedition, I knew of a little pastry shop that is close to my hotel.. Delectable pastries.. mmmmmm As I was sitting there sipping my coffee and warming up, I overheard the couple beside me speaking English. I found my way into the conversation... She is Latvian, from Riga, and he is Columbian.. We got to talking and I asked her if she thought the name Rosenthal was Latvian or German. She put it this way... She said that in the early days of German conquest (circa 1300) that the Germans gave many Latvians their names.Truth or fiction? Kind of like picking a name out of a hat, and you are it! Strange...