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I got back from vacation yesterday. Quick summary is:

Part of a day in Zurich - museum going.

On to Latvia. A fair amount to see in Riga including Jewish sites and a lot of Art Nouveau architecture. A couple of excursions, with the highlight being Kuldiga. On to Daugavpils (aka Dvinsk), which has family connections.


Next, to Lithuania. Zarasai, Dusetos, Panevezys, Kedainiai, Josvainiai. A couple of days in Kaunas, including time at the archives and some interesting genealogy research. Vilnius, via Trakai. Center of Europe.


Flight to Minsk. A few days in Belarus, including excursion to Polatsk and Vitebsk. Less success with family research, but did commune with Marc Chagall.

Long flight home. Much to catch up on. Including here.

52 Ancestors Week 34 – Non-Population

The theme for Week 34 (August 20-26): was Non-Population.

Non-population census records refer to information other than population statistics. There were various social statistics schedules (e.g. mortality), as well as agriculture and manufacturing censuses along with the census records for years from 1850-1880 in the U.S. There were also manufacturing schedules for 1820.

As far as I know, none of my family was in the U.S. during those years, so those don’t do me any good. There was a 1935 Census of Business, which might have some information. Unfortunately, these do not appear to be available anywhere on-line. (Please tell me if I am wrong about that.) So this is not really a prompt that I have much to say about, at least until I have a lot of free time to spend at the National Archives.

52 Ancestors Week35 – Back to School

The theme for Week 35 (August 27-Sept. 2) was Back to School.

I have believed for a long time that my father, a proud alumnus of City College of New York (or, as it was generally referred to in our house, the Harvard of the Proletariat) was the first member of my family to graduate from university. Dad got a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1961.

During my recent trip, I discovered that Meir Bruskin, my great-grandmother’s nephew (i.e. my first cousin twice removed), had at least been a student at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania in the mid 1920’s. There is more research I need to do there, but he may have beat Dad out in the education sweepstakes.