February Ancestors

For the sake of brief entries, I am not footnoting the facts in this ongoing memorial. Sources have been noted either in other blog posts or in my family history books.

2 February 1854 William Charles Dougall was born at Vankleek Hill, Canada West, second child and second son of Peter Dougall and Catherine “Kate” Fraser. His parents moved to the town of Renfrew, Ontario, where William grew up. He went to school until at least the age of 14 and worked with his blacksmith father in building horse carriages. William followed his older brother John to Winnipeg, Manitoba, by 1891 to start a carriage-making business. William was my paternal grandfather who died long before I was born.

4 February 1906 Otto Freibergs was murdered by Tsarist troops at Madliena, Riga District, Latvia. Otto's story was told in a previous blog. Conflicting information surrounds his date of death, complicated by distance and the foreign language factor. The date of death given here came from his son in 1933 in the Book of Remembrance (Latvijas Revolucionārio Cīnītāju Piemiņas Grāmata, reprinted 1983) where survivors and witnesses to events of the 1905-1906 revolution were testifying. If the February 4^th date is New Style (Gregorian calendar) the date at the time could have been 22 January 1906. I am told Otto's gravestone in the family plot shows merely the year 1905 (perhaps mis-read for 1906 on a weathered stone?).