Ancestor Story: Arnold Vinakmen

Arnolds Roberts Vinakmens was born March 14, 1911, probably in Tukums, Latvia. He was the second son of Vilis Augusts Wihnstein and Emiija Karline Veisbergs. Arnolds, like the rest of his siblings, went to Russia (Siberia) with his parents and two brothers sometime around 1914, only to return home (with a new sister, Alise) a few years later, during the Russian Revolution.

Arnold’s father Vilis abandoned his family sometime after the birth of his last son Fricis in 1921, and his older sons, Arnolds included, left home to find work. Arnolds worked for the railway in Latvia. He married an ethnic Russian woman, Valentina Ivanova Fedorova (born December 19, 1912) sometime around 1936, and their first and only son, Juri (pronounced “YOU-ree”) was born on December 13, 1937 in Daugavpils, one of Latvia’s largest cities located in southeastern Latgale.

Sometime after Juri’s birth, likely after 1941, Arnolds and Valentina moved to another large Latvian city, Valmiera, (located in northern Vidzeme) where Juri attended elementary school and Arnolds once again worked for the railway.

Arnolds is listed in the book “These Names Accuse”( However, I am going to assume this is not because he was arrested and deported by Soviets, but because during the German occupation of Latvia following the mass deportations of 1941, being that Arnolds lived on the other side of the country as the rest of his family, perhaps his family lost communication with him and considered him “missing” when the Latvian authorities asked people to report those family members who had been deported. His key number of “4” indicates that he was reported as “missing since the last days of Soviet occupation”, his last address known being Daugavpils.

Arnolds and Valentine moved to Riga in the latter half of the 1950’s, where they had a small house and a large garden (my own Opa and Oma Karlis and Berta also kept a large, beautiful garden) on an island in the Daugava River. Their son Juri moved to St. Petersburg, Russia (then called Leningrad) to attend a Military Academy. He would become an officer, stationed in the Far East of Russia, and later in his life he became a successful doctor.

Arnolds and Valentine (Valija) lived at their house in Riga and enjoyed summertime visits from their grandchildren for many years.  As they aged in the early 1990’s, they moved to St. Petersburg to be closer to their son Juri, so he could help care for them. Arnolds passed away in 1993, at the age of 82, and Valentine passed away in 1995, aged 83.

Amazing, Arnolds was the last Vinakmens sibling for me to learn his fate. All five Vinakmens siblings lived until at least the age of 80. Quite an accomplishment, given the circumstances they faced!


One thought on “Ancestor Story: Arnold Vinakmen

  1. Sveikis, I am starting on this road myself and have been in Riga these past 2 months and have visited 6 arhives so far..My story starts in Australia but my parents did not want to discuss anything about their families, due in part I suspect from the heart break leaving had caused.I found one uncle in the “books of the deported” and this may have played a large part in their anguish as I suspect that they thought they were the only survivors.I only skimmed your pages and will now go back for a more in-dept look at your history. It is a huge project you have completed, It is lovely and I commend you for your work. I however smiled at your title 52 ancestors in 52 weeks. I started with the national archives and then rapidly moved in to the parish records. I go back to Tukums tomorrow and hopefully get another lead. I think it will lead to Rojas. The interest lies in . the trail. I also am in the Family tree DNA Project but do not hold out much hope there but it is of some interest as I think of myself as a reindeer herder from the past. My daughter lived in Latvia for a year and found my face on a cave man in one of the museums. I would like to keep in touch. Kind Regards Egons

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