28 December 2009

Kurschinsky and Latvia

Are you researching Kurschinsky genealogy -particularly in the Baltic area? If so, I have information which may be very, very useful in aiding your search! Contact me if you want me to share it with you.

14 November 2009

Australia and other updates

Did you know that websites can be enabled to track who visits the site? It is a useful tool because you can see their search parameters, from where in the world they came, how many pages they visited and for how long. People who visit the site might be searching for "genealogy Latvia" or "Truschinsky" or "Gangnus" or "Kurland, Lettland", for example.

It is interesting in many respects, but one factor I find continually amusing: there is a "relative" in Australia who had quite clearly expressed strong interest in my research and said he was willing to share whatever he felt comfortable sharing. I made the mistake of giving him a glimpse of my research and then, despite many attempts to contact him (though spread out over quite some time), he just stopped replying. The amusing part is that he continues to visit the site, yet isn't polite enough to send a note. I had wondered at the reasons for this behavior. It seemed as if someone told him not to write or maybe his father shared some sort of sordid detail about my grandfather or grandmother about which I am unaware. My father did call his father in Australia and he described the attitude from Helmut as "less than friendly". I suppose when you research family trees you may find such people, huh? If that were the case I'd want to know! It would make the research all the more interesting! It is for that reason, many of my breakthroughs are not posted here. I am an economics teacher, so I state, "NO FREE-RIDERS HERE!" :-p

24 October 2009

Lydia Trusinsky Has Passed Away


My grandmother, Lydia Erica (Till) Trusinsky has passed away (4 October 2009) . She was born in Latvia and was a part of the ethnic German community there (Baltendeutsche). She died in Florida at the age of 96 years old. She was a refugee in World War I and World War II. She moved to the USA in 1949 with her husband and three children -specifically to Minnesota. There, she continued her career as a seamstress. Her husband died in 1983 at the age of 72, while her youngest son died in 1988 from a heart attack at the young age of 42. She continued to live in Minnesota until just a couple of years ago, though for years before that, she had stayed in Florida with her daughter, Sigrid. She is survived by her daughter, Sigrid, and her son, Karl, as well as her 5 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

12 April 2009

Brigitte Truschinsky, part 2 FOUND

She has been found! I am currently corresponding with a relative of mine named Karina from Latvia. She is the daughter of my father's uncle. Her mother either chose to remain in Latvia after the Germans were pushed out by the Soviets or returned to Latvia from a displaced persons camp after the war. I do have a few relatives (who, again, where ethnic Germans) who chose to return to Latvia after World War II. One relative said "you can't ever escape the Russians". Well, I inquired about August Johann Theodor Truschinsky and what I knew about him (apparently married twice and had three children, though we only knew the name of one, "Brigitte"). I enclosed an old photo we had in my letter to her with these facts. She "looked up" this person and found her! I don't know how she went about looking up this person, but she told me that they had a great conversation and are now friends! She shared that Brigitte had a sister named Erica who died in 1993 and also a bit about August -a man I had been trying to find out more information about for what seems to be quite some time! She said that August was a member of the Latvian Legion -a unit made up of ethnic Latvians who faught for the German army in World War II. Others might more accurately describe them as fighting against the Russians, not for the Nazis. He survived, but was captured by the Soviets and sent to Moscow for some period of time. All of the allies (except the Soviets, of course), after investigating the role of the Latvian Legion in World War II concluded that they were, indeed, clearly electing to fight the Soviets, instead of really fighting for the Nazis. The Finns did the same thing, but in the role of allies not actually a part of the German military machine. Indeed, documentation from the German military demonstrates increasing concern about the loyalty of the Latvians. I am looking forward to learning more about him and his daugthers. A major bummer of this information is that it doesn't seem to show that he had any male children, so that I still have yet to find a link between the various "Trusinskis" and "Trusinska"s (Latvian spelling of Truschinsky) in Latvia with our Trusinsky/Truschinsky's in the USA.

13 February 2009

Brigitte Truschinski

There is a Brigitte Erkens-Truschinski in Germany. When I first found this person on the internet, I was initially very happy. My research shows that I have a 2nd cousin who is named Brigitte Truschinsky who was born in Latvia in 1936. I looked further into this name and found her AIM "handle" and her profile said that she was 55 years old. That would mean that she was born after 1950, so it isn't the same person. Bummer.