Houston... We have lift off...

Houston: We have lift off...

Well, I think I nailed it today. We have our man. I think somebody should pour a drink.

It turns out that the Civil Records are in conflict with the Parish Records. In the civil records, Geert Rosenthal married Lihse Smilge, not Lihse Buvekoke. I think that should about seal the deal here.. How many Latvians, by the name of Jahn Rosenthal were born in 1885, to Geert (Georg) and Lihse (Louise) Rosenthal, borther's name of Martin, best friend at sea by the name of Alexander, that left home at 15 and went to sea, last seen in England, working on a foreign ship? The odds against finding another one are pretty damn slim.

Now for the details. The real birthdates, I have recorded separately from the details below.

The Nogale Civil Parish List for 1870 shows Gottfried Rosenthal, age 45, married to Anne Marie Rosenthal also age 45. They had seven sons, Anson, Geert, Ans, Fritz, Kristjahn, Fridde, and Jan. There is a bit of confusion with Anson. It shows his father as Gottfried, but his age as 37. That would make Gottfried only 7 when he had him. I suspect Anson is Gottfried's brother. Anson moved to Riga in 1870. So that leaves 6 sons for Gottfried. There is a record of Fritz's death in 1916.

Geert Rosenthal marries Lihse Smilge who was born in 1841. Her parents were Jane and Anne Smilge. They have four children, Fritz, Jahn, Martin, and Anne. The interesting thing is that the Latvians, typical of them adding letters to the end of a root name, pronounce Martin as “Martinsh”. He is only 1 1/2 years younger than Jahn. That fits with the confusion about Dad's middle name being Martin and he was upset when Dad's birth was registered because Grandma got the name wrong. He would have wanted the name to be spelled so it was pronounced Martinsh. This is the brother that Jahn would have considered his “Twin” and must have been the one that died in France. We are going to have dig through the Russian Civil records and the parish records to find that one out. Surprisingly, the Russian records from 1910 forward are not very complete. And if the body was never returned home, then I doubt it would be in the parish records. So our father, Alexander Martin Rosenthal Sr. would have been named after Jahn's sailing buddy, Alexander, and his second name would have from Jahn's younger brother, Martin, who died in France.

It will be possible to go further back in the records than this, although the strategy changes a bit. Before the 1830's most Latvians did not have surnames. They had family numbers. During the transition from numbers to surnames, the Rosenthals were family #60. Before that, they were family # 3.

I also found some records of a Buvekoke family. The spelling is a little different than before, but the archivist assures me that typical of Latvians, the spelling of the last name is just not a big deal. She re-emphasised to me that it is a phonetic language, not a hard and fast language like English. There is a daughter Lihse in that family, born in 1850. She would have been just about the same age as Lihse Smilge. I suspect it is the parish priest who made the mistake.

I also found civil registry records from 1918, that show residents in the area when the Latvian republic first started. Not much.. Anna Smilga, age 61. Anna Smilga age 76. Jahn Smilga age 72, Kristaus Rosenthal age 66. I am not hopeful of finding relatives.

So there you have it. Most of the family tree...And now to pursue further back on raduraksti, and to find the missing links from Blythe England to Canada.....