Brigitte T.

So, my father called his cousin, Brigitte, for the first time. He got the number from his cousin Karina in Latvia. The call didn't go very well. She wasn't particularly interested in starting a relationship, citing her age and the fact that there was no attempt on the part of anyone to do so years and years ago. My dad did discuss visiting with her when he next visited Latvia, and she said that she would be willing to and even offered to let him stay with her. I found that to be interesting given the very direct and dismissive way in which she said that she didn't want any sort of relationship. My father noted that we didn't even have any contact information for her and have only recently -through my research, I might add- found out her name and so forth. He said that he isn't the person who didn't maintain the relationship with her and her family -it was his parents. That didn't seem to placate her.

I hope that -over time- she becomes a bit more interested, understanding and forgiving.

We did learn that she was married and had at least one daughter and two grandchildren. I am going to attempt to contact them via frype.com

CONFIRMED!

Great news! I have now confirmed that almost all the living Vigerts in Latvia are relatives of mine! I was lucky enough to find someone online, sent them a note about the information I had about my Vigerts and asked her to inquire with her older relatives to see if any of it sounds familiar. She did and we thought we may have shared a common ancestor, so she visited a grave of someone who was born in the 1880s to confirm the date of her relative with the date of my relative on the birth documents that I found. IT WAS A MATCH! She didn't know that this person had at least four other siblings -one of which was my great grandmother, Julia Vigerte.

I am super excited about this. She seems to share a strong interest in researching this stuff. She has sent a couple of pictures (I anxiously wait for more to be sent!) and has some interesting -though sad- stories about some of our shared ancestors.

It has made me wish that the TRUSINSKIS that I had emailed in Latvia were as interested as this person. I am even more sure that some of them are the descendants from a common ancestor. I believe that because every single TRUSINSKIS I have found in my research from the 1800s is related in some way to each other! I have never found a TRUSINSKIS in the records to whom I could NOT show a relation. Remember: the problem I have is that I cannot review almost any records from here in Minnesota, USA, that are from 1905 or later. **If any of you (KARLIS, ROBERTS, etc) or your relatives read this, send me a note!!! All specific information about living individuals will be private, so do not worry about that if that issue is a concern.

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.

A Latvian connection found...

...for someone else. :p I made contact with someone in Latvia who shares a similar name. He gave me a bit of information (I LOVE google translator!) It has yet to be determined that he is a relative of mine, but -based upon the information that he sent me- he is very likely related to someone in the US with whom I've been in contact on a limited basis. I sent the US guy the info and told him to contact me if he was interested in learning more about or getting the contact information for the guy in Latvia. I hope he responds. Of course, I am hoping this leads to some connection to my family tree.

a new source found

I was contacted a few days ago by a woman of Latvian descent. She found me through the message board on ancestry.com. She suggested a Latvian website for me by which I could contact people with a similar surname in Latvia. In fact, she did her own preliminary search and noted how she found around 20 people with the name Trusinskis or Trusinska (the female version of Trusinskis). One has to be invited into the website and she graciously offered an invitation which I, of course, accepted. I will post any successes that I have!