Introduction

For those who don’t know me, let me take a minute to introduce myself. Professionally, I’ve been working as an orchestral violinist for more than thirty years. But for even longer, I’ve been pursuing my family history. Having seen printed genealogies for my mother’s side of the family, I was inspired while I was still

Latvia Journal

The following is a brief account of my last visit to Latvia in 2003. In August of 2003, I had the incredible experience of traveling to Latvia and meeting an entire branch of my family that I had learned of just a few months before.   It was a life changing experience.  Not only did I

Talsi and Valdemarpils, 1989

I originally wrote this for an old family newsletter, The Thal Gazette. Now over thirty years ago, our brief visit to Talsi and Valdemarpils feels like a completely different time. Because of the recent “openness” of the Soviet Union, our family was able to visit our “hometowns” in Latvia this summer. The four of us