DAVID Mendelsohn, of Michigan, wants help to trace his roots in Riga, Latvia.

David grew up on Kibbutz Ein Harod and served in the Israeli army. In his early 40s, he moved with his family to America.

"My grandfather Alfred Mendelsohn's parents, Albert and Sara Mendelsohn, came from Riga and I also have a connection to the Gordon clan," David said.

His maternal grandparents were Issac and Elisheva (Bessie) Canton.

As for the Gordon clan branch of the family, David was told about a Highlander who fought in 1854 with his regiment at Balaclava - one of the battles in the Crimean War.

After the war, this Gordon Highlander stayed in Russia, where he enlisted as a professional soldier, guarding Tsar Nicholas.

He fell in love with a Jewish girl, whom he married - becoming David's great-great-grandparents. One of their daughters married a Mendelsohn.

According to a book by Byron Farwell on the Victorian Army, a Gordon Highlander once prayed in the West London Synagogue.

Email david_mendelsohn@hotmail.com