Sofiya Khaya (1874-1874)

Sofiya Khaya Sara Mattison was born in Riga on 27 January 1875 (according to other sources — 1874), into the family of local Jews Izrael Savelovich Sak (Zak) and his wife Rivka, née Sak.
On 19 March 1893, at the age of 18, she married the Friedrichstadt townsman Abram Aronovich Mattison. It appears that by then she had already been living with her father in Friedrichstadt, since passports were issued for her there annually from 1890 to 1893.
According to family legend, her husband Abram Mattison descended from Spanish Jews who had made their way to the Baltic region by way of Holland.
On 14 July 1894 a son, Shabse Meyer, was born to Abram and Sofiya.
At the start of the 20th century the family moved to South Africa, to Willowmore. Abram went first. Sofiya followed him, abandoning her medical studies, taking her son with her.
Abram soon died of appendicitis, and Sofiya decided to return to her homeland, to Riga.
Her son remained in South Africa in a foster family. He later became a soldier, and took part in the First World War in forces under the command of General Smuts.
It is not known exactly when Sofiya Mattison settled in Riga. She received her Latvian passport in July 1926.
The second half of the 1920s was for her a time of frequent moves. After changing several addresses in different districts of Riga, in 1932 Sofiya settled on Jelgavas Highway (today Vienības gatve), at house no. 17. She lived here until the war.
It appears that she managed to escape death in the first months of the occupation. Sofiya Khaya Sara Mattison was moved to the Riga ghetto in the second half of October 1941. There, most likely, she perished before the middle of December 1941.

LSHA F.5024 Op. 2 D. 765, sheets 12v.–13 - Vital records book of the Riga Rabbinate (1893) LSHA F.1394 Op. 1 D. 3038, sheets 78v.–79 - Family list of Jewish townspeople of Riga. Family No. 256 (1872–1901)
LSHA F.1394 Op. 1 D. 3059, sheets 246v.–247 - Family list of Jewish townspeople of Riga. Family No. 256 (1887–1901)
LSHA F.1394 Op. 1 D. 3062, sheets 371v.–372 - Family list of Jewish townspeople of Riga. Family No. 256 (1902–1913)
LSHA F.2996 Op. 12 D. 9332 - Passport of Sofiya Khaya Sara Mattison (1926–1928)
LSHA F.409 Op. 2 D. 149, sheet 344 - Correspondence on the compilation of family lists (1914) LSHA F.2942 Op. 1 D. 1017, sheets 44v.–45 - House register. Avotu St., 16a (1926–1932)
LSHA F.2942 Op. 1 D. 15137, sheets 41v.–42, 55v.–56, 72v.–73 - House register. Jelgavas Highway, 17 (1931–1943)