So last month I posted a “Plan of Attack” for finding more about the origins of my great-grandmother Anna Liepa. So, how has it gone?

Not all that well, I’m afraid.

1. The house book for Romanova iela 62/64 did not yield any results for anyone in her family, nor did any books for 62/66.
2. The tax lists of the late 1890s have resulted in no results for her father, thus I couldn’t connect to her family since I’m not completely sure of her mother’s name. I am about 80% sure that her mother’s name is MÄ«le (maiden name BuÅ¡s), but not 100% certain.
3. None of her employment records appear to survive, even though the cooperative association “Konzums” archival records say that they should.

So where does that leave me? Well, I may have a few leads.

1. The St Paul’s Church records show a Fricis Liepa who died in 1897. He died at the age of 36, and was married, so it is conceivable that this could be Anna’s father. It could explain why I can’t find him in the tax lists (though while looking through them I did see a number of people mentioned who had died prior to their compilation, so who knows how accurate of a measure this could be).
2. The 1899 address book lists an entry for “Liepa, M. Widow.” Since my best option for Anna’s birth record lists MÄ«le as a mother, this could fit, given the death record mentioned above. The address is listed as Tallinas iela 23, which is only a few blocks from St Paul’s Church.
3. In the pre-1897 period, we have listings for 3 “F. Liepas” – at Akmeņu iela 8 (1887/1888), MÅ«kusalas iela 19 (1893/1894) and Upes iela 9 (1893/1894). None of these are in the vicinity of St Paul’s, but they merit a look anyways, since I don’t know about events that took place before Anna’s birth in 1895.

So, the current order of business: Check for house books for those four addresses. They are my best leads to linking Anna to her family. I will also order Anna’s death certificate, and hope that it lists both of her parents’ names. Even if it doesn’t, I’m hoping it would list her middle name, because that is the main obstacle that is preventing me from linking my Anna Liepa to the one birth record of an Anna Liepa that I’ve found – since this record mentions a middle name of “Natalie” and I have not seen that associated with my Anna Liepa.

Stay tuned – I’ll provide updates on this search, but I also have some posts coming on a variety of Latvian migrations, that I’ve been learning about at work as well as in the archives. So if your Latvian ancestors migrated to places like Brazil, Russia or China, you will want to keep an eye out for those posts!