Celebrating Our Latvian Heritage

My great-grandfather came to this new land through Ellis Island back in ought five.  (I'm actually not sure of the year).  He told his Russian-name-that-begins-with-an-S to the clerk, who converted it to "Smith." My grandfather did some research and found out that our actual Russian name before that day was "Sementer" which in fact has to do with working in a cemetary.  How lazy or stupid was that clerk that "Sementer" was too hard for him?  Anyway, lazy-stupid-immigration-official (LSIO) named the Smith clan.  In a way, I think we were upgraded - from cemetary workers to craftsmen of steel, gold and iron.  It's a shame LSIO didn't put our name down as Kennedy.

I believe that I have previously written about how other names in my family were derived.  I was named after some random guy named Russell Smith who lived in Austin in 1965 because my parents were searching for a name to go with Smith that wasn't too common and looked in the Austin phone book (remember phone books?).  By the way, my mother strongly denies this story, although she was the one who told it to me years ago. 

Abby and Alexis (aka Twina and Twinby) were named through our fundraising efforts, where we sold naming rights through e-Bay (remember e-Bay?).  Though Kaileigh did pick Abby's middle name.

Well, Humana did some research and re-named the twins based on the Russian names they should have had.  We just switched insurance companies at work and I recently received my new insurance card.  I fully admit that my handwriting is less-than-perfect.  It was the only "N" I got at Doss Elementary.  Every year.  When all my other grades were "E" (not even "S", though I once got a cryptic "J").  But even taking into account my less-than-perfect handwriting, it's not credible that they read:
Abignil Smith
Alerizk Smith

The only credible explanation is an attempt to return the Sementer family to the vaguely-Russian (or perhaps Polish) names we should rightfully have (though none of the family is from Poland).  Or that LSIO's great-grandchild is a lazy-stupid-insurance-officer (LSIO).