Ancestral Field Trip

I've spent lots of time in the archives poring over books and discovering all sorts of interesting facts about my ancestors.  But there's nothing like hitting the ground and visiting the places where they were birthed, lived and died.  Antra and I decided to take a field trip north of central Riga to a place called Vecmilgravijs where my paternal great grandparents Sweeders and Stauers lived.  Both families originated from the province of Kurzeme and presumably moved closer to Riga for work just prior to 1890, based on birth records. 

Martins Stauvers married Marija Sweeter in 1891 and they birthed my grandfather Alfreds, along with one daughter and four more sons. Martins died in 1904 of some type of stroke or accident, while Marija remarried Simanis Rikarts and lived till 1954.  Alfreds married my grandmother Amalija Bone in 1919, birthed one daughter and three sons--my father Olgerts is the only one that survived.  Amalija and Alfreds divorced around 1928.  Amalija and Olgerts emigrated to the US, while Alfred remained in Latvia with his mother and died in 1953. 

It took about an hour by local bus to make our way to Vecmilgravijs. We found one place of residence that was still standing, while the other property appeared to heave been torn down to put up Soviet era apartments.  We visited the church where the children were baptized.  It was closed that day--due to cold weather, services were held at the church hall. We also visited the cemetery hoping to find gravestones. There was about a foot of snow in most areas of the cemetery, making it difficult to navigate. But with Antra's keen eyes we found a headstone with the names of Martins Stauvers, Marija Rikarts and Alfreds Stauvers. What a find!!! 

It's a very satisfying experience, so  I lok forward to more field trips like this in the near future. 

 One apartment still standing

Soviet era apartment building

Daugavgrivas baltais baznica (White church)

Cemetery entrance

Family headstone

Vecmilgravijs located at the blue dot