On this page, I'll share some of the Briss Family mysteries I'm currently puzzling over, along with any clues I've discovered. If you can help solve the mysteries, please drop me a line! Also, if there's a Briss mystery you would like to have an answer to, I'll post it on this page until the answer is found.
There is a road connecting Riga (the capital of Latvia) to Birzai, which holds a lot of Briss history. It seems to be a very old trade route. In fact, in the late 16th century, Birzai was granted the privilege of forcing all merchants en route to Riga to stop first in Birzai. Did the Briss family come down from Latvia, into Lithuania?
There is a little town named Skaistkalne, just over the Latvian border. It lies on the same route that connects Riga to Birzai. Does it hold any clues to the origin of the Skaist families?
Jack Miller has said that his mother (Annie Miller, née Briss) had an uncle in Lithuania named Velvel Maas, who owned a dry-goods store. Where did the Maas family live? Who are our Maas cousins today?
Where did the Skaist surname come from, and are we related to other Lithuanian Skaist families around the world? I have so many clues (but so few answers!) to this mystery that there is a whole section of this site devoted to the Skaists.
Solly Josset has spoken of a lady named Muma ("Auntie") Chaya, who lived in Skuodas along with Zundel Skaist's family. Also in Skuodas was Zundel Katz, "a cousin of Notte Skaist." Zundel Katz had two sons, Sam Katz and Oscar Katz, who both went to South Africa. Oscar Katz had a son named Hertzel who has migrated from South Africa to Israel. How are the Katzes related to the Brisses?
Yentel Skaist was married and had a son before the Nazis invaded Lithuania in 1941. What was her husband's name? What was her son's name? Did any of them survive the war?
Lazar Skaist was a rabbinical student in the early 20th century. Did he become a rabbi with a congregation of his own? Did he marry? Have children? Did he survive the war?
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