Hello,

Thank you to everyone who translated the captions on my last post. I have found more documents. I have a few questions:

Can anyone help me with finding more information on this field hospital from World War II? My grandmother was a nurse for 121 Feldlazaretts mot. She went by Märie Lame as a nurse but her name was Mērija Lāme.

My grandfather was a soldier, I have no idea where he was stationed but I know he was forced into the German army and escaped with his family to Canada. His name was Peters Dominiks Utnāns.

They had two children before they left for Canada, Sylvia Utnāns and Peter Utnāns.

I can’t find record of their births, of their marriage, anything online. Can anyone help with my research?

I am also looking for ship manifests that left from Bremerhaven or Bremer port in Germany and went to Halifax between 1950 and 1953. The ship they sailed on was the “Migrant Ship Nelly”

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. My grandparents have been gone for 30 years and I was 4 when they passed. They didn’t tell anyone about their family left in Latvia out of fear of retribution for escaping Latvia.

I’ve attached some photos and documents I have. I feel like I have pushed my research as far as I can and I have come up nearly empty.

by KhalesiDaenerys

4 comments

  1. The address is someone that sent my Grandpa mail from Latvia. I am unsure what the name is as it seems like it is written backwards… is the name Logina Nataljia or Natalija Logina?

    I also wanted to add I am waiting on dna test results from ancestry.ca but I am wondering if there is a better dna test that more Latvian people would have taken or if people in Latvia would use Ancestry.ca.

  2. So you’re like, 1/3 latvian! Awesome!

    Can’t help you, though. But I wish you find anything and everything you need!

    We have our National Archive, that has been made available on the web. Haven’t tried it out yet, but I’ve heard it has digital info from even church stats.

  4. I strongly suspect the third document is marriage certificate, find someone who can translate from German. It says she was born in Ventspils on 14 March 1922 and he in Rudzāti parish in Daugavpils region on 15 March 1915. You will need to know faith for earlier times, he is very likely Catholic and she probably Lutheran. Due to privacy reasons vital records in Latvia are published only 110 years after birth, so you’d need to go to archives. Otherwise you can find digitized documents on FamilySearch or https://raduraksti.arhivi.lv/ However, you should first check out https://arolsen-archives.org/en/ it has ton of information on WWII refugees, which often includes information on families.  There are Facebook groups like Latvia geneology, Dzimtas detektīvs and Ciltskoki (as well as Ciltskoki website) which are very active and could help you. 

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