Through the website Periodika, the Latvian National Library offers digital scans of newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most newspaper editions available are from the 1920s and 1930s.
The user interface is available in Latvian and in English, though, obviously, the newspapers themselves are in Latvian (with the exception of one German-language and two Russian-language newspapers). They are also searchable – but with a few things to note:
- They have been digitized for search purposes by OCR (optical character recognition) – this means that it isn’t perfect. If you rely only on searches, you might not find everything you are looking for. If you know what you are looking for and when, it is also a good idea to scan through the paper yourself to see if the OCR didn’t pick it up.
- Diacritic marks matter. When I looked up the surname of one of my great-grandfathers: “Lukins” gave me different results than “Lūkins” did (but both search results included him, since sometimes the diacritic was used and sometimes it wasn’t). So if the name you are looking for uses diacritics, search for the name both with and without them.
- If the name you’re searching for resembles another Latvian word, put it in quotation marks. When I just searched for Francis (a family surname), without quotation marks, it also modified that to include Francija (France) as a result. But if I put “Francis” with quotation marks, I got closer to results I was looking for without having to wade through articles about France. However, this also runs the risk of leaving out the name when it is declined into various cases, so use this with caution, and run some more searches with the name in its declined forms.
I found articles that referred to three of my great-grandparents, and I’m still looking through all of the Saeima (Parliament) meeting notes that include my great-grandfather Augusts Lūkins, who was a member of the 3rd and 4th Saeima. A great find to learn more about these family members!
Have you found any interesting articles about your ancestors? Do you need help determining diacritic marks or case declensions of your Latvian surnames? Let me know and I can help!
When Latvian peasants were choosing surnames after emancipation from serfdom, they were strongly encouraged by the German and Russian rulers to choose names in their own language, and were forbidden to choose names of local nobles or famous people.
While not all obeyed this directive and chose German names (or had German names assigned to them by clerks), many did choose names from the Latvian language. Predictably, most of these names were drawn from elements important to the everyday life of peasants.
Which brings us to today’s Surname Saturday – Latvian surnames that have roots in food or food production! I’m going to tell a story of preparing dinner. Surnames I’ve come across appear in bold, the English translation and in what parish records I’ve seen them in brackets.
Before you can even start to prepare dinner, unless you are a Mednieks (hunter; Liepāja) or a Zvejnieks (fisherman; Skulte, Sece), you will need to pay a visit to the Miesnieks (butcher; Brenguļi). You should also thank the Arājs (ploughman; Sece) and Gaitnieks (farmhand; Lugaži) for the work they’ve done in the fields. And, of course, the Pavārs (cook; Kastrāne, Limbaži, Suntaži)!
Protein is important. At the moment, on the menu you will find Zaķis (rabbit; Limbaži, Kastrāne, Vidriži) and Līdaka (pike; Limbaži, Smiltene). I’m not sure how common Lasis (salmon; Bīriņi) was in Latvia in the nineteenth century, but you will find it on today’s menu. If you are a vegetarian, you will need to settle for an Oliņa (diminutive of egg; Lēdurga).
No meal is complete without grains. But what grain? You can have auzas (singular Auza, diminutive Auziņš – oats; Straupe, Limbaži, Suntaži), mieži (singular Miezis, diminutive Miezītis – barley; Limbaži, Suntaži, Vidriži) or rudzi (singular Rudzis, diminutive Rudzītis – rye; Lēdurga, Limbaži, Nabe, Sidgunda). From these grains we can make a Maizīte (diminutive of bread, refers to sandwich in modern Latvian; Sece, Lēdurga) or a Sausiņš (rusk; Limbaži).
You can’t forget the vegetables! Before the arrival of the Kartupelis (potato; Ikšķile) in Europe, the Rācenis (turnip; Limbaži, Rauna) was a staple peasant food. These can be supplemented with kāposti (singular Kāposts – cabbage; Aloja), sēnes (singular Sēne – mushroom; Trikāta) and zirņi (singular Zirnis – pea; Mangaļi). Maybe later you can also have some other saknes (singular Sakne – vegetable; Dunte).
Perhaps this all seems quite bland. Not to worry – spices to the rescue! Would you prefer Kanēlis (cinnamon; Limbaži), or perhaps Ķimenes (caraway; Skulte, Vidriži)? Or maybe just Ķiploks (garlic; Smiltene) would be to your taste?
What would dinner be without dessert? You could have an Auglis (fruit; Sece) like an Ābols (apple; Limbaži) or a Plūme (plum; Kastrāne, Lēdurga, Limbaži, Nabe). Other than just Cukurs (sugar; Trikāta, Vijciems), I’m afraid we’re limited in other saldumi (singular Saldums – sweet treat; Limbaži) at the moment.
To drink, unless you are a Vīndzērājs (wine drinker; Rīga), you will be drinking Ūdens (water; Lugaži) today.
When you’ve finished your meal, be sure to push in your Krēsliņš (diminutive of chair; Rauna) when you leave the Galdiņš (diminutive of table; Ludza).
I hope you enjoyed your time in this Latvian peasant kitchen, and I hope to see you again next Saturday when we talk about the local wildlife!
Today’s Forename Friday is dedicated to given names that relate to fire and light.
This is an interesting category, because so many Latvian names come from it. But as I’ve mentioned before, even though there are many names in this category, the PMLP personal name database shows that for the most part, they are not frequently used.
The most popular names relating to fire and light are both womens’ names – Ausma (“dawn” or “daybreak”) has 4670 entries (name day June 26) and Vizma (from “vizmot”, “to shimmer”, “to glitter”) has 1031 entries (name day August 26). The most popular male name of this category is Auseklis (“morning star”) with only 124 entries (name day December 14).
Names relating to “spodrs”, meaning “bright” appear as well – the feminine Spodra (309 entries, name day January 4), the male Spodris (120 entries, name day January 28) and the female diminutive Spodrīte (44 entries). Also related are Blāzma (“glow) with 3 entries (name day February 8), Gaisma (“light”) with 37 entries (name day December 14) and Spīdola (from “spīdēt”, meaning “to shine”) with 25 entries (name day February 2).
But what about fire? While no names come up with “uguns” (“fire”) as an element, there are flames and sparks – Liesma (283 entries, name day September 18) and Dzirkstīte (diminutive of “dzirksts”, 58 entries, name day December 7), respectively.
In Latvian stories and myth, Spīdola and Auseklis both come into play. Spīdola is a character in the Latvian national epic “Lāčplēsis”. Auseklis is one of the gods of the Latvian pantheon. “Dzirksts” is also the name of a popular Latvian chamber choir in the Toronto area. They celebrated their 25th anniversary last year.
Do you have any fire or light names to share? Any Latvian ones that I missed?
I’ve been looking through the church records for the Sece Lutheran congregation, in southern Latvia. South of the Daugava river, between the towns of Jaunjelgava and Jēkabpils. My great-grandfather Brencis Līcītis is allegedly from around this area, born in the neighbouring Sērene parish. Many Sērene baptisms took place in Sece, so hence my reason for looking here.
And I came across something I didn’t expect – a baptism for a child whose father appears to be from Great Britain!
Certainly, people travel. But in the 1870s I would not expect to find a British person living in rural Latvia (at the time part of the Russian Empire). Perhaps in major centres such as Rīga, Daugavpils or even Jelgava, or port cities such as Ventspils or Liepāja, but in the country, at least 100 kilometres from any of these cities?
But it is unmistakable – the father is listed as Charles Garrod, British, of the Anglican faith (remember that this is in a Lutheran church book). He appears to be married to a Marie Neppert (Lutheran) and their daughter Ellen Emily Anna was legitimate. It does not mention Marie’s origins, but since a number of people sharing her surname are listed as witnesses, I’m inclined to believe that she is from the area, and thus most likely German or Latvian.
The other curiosity about this record is shared by the rest of the 1870s records I’ve looked at so far. They are indicated as whole as being 1870, 1871, etc., but then the top birthdate of each page (and sometimes other records on the page) are listed as “1800″ and the annotation “Transport” on each page. I’ve seen such a notation in parish population registers, when someone has moved to the parish, or moved to a new home in the parish, but I’ve never seen this in church books before. Does this mean that mass numbers of people moved to the parish in the 1870s, all who were born at least 70 years earlier, and had their birth records re-registered to this parish? But birth records typically indicate the farm name, and most of the ones shown are well within the possible boundaries of this congregation, so it doesn’t seem like they have moved from anywhere.
So there are two mysteries to solve here (besides my mysterious great-grandfather) – what was Charles Garrod doing in Latvia, and why are the Sece church records indicating all of the 1870s births as “Transported” from some other location? Ideas, anyone?
The Latvian Record Project and the Latvian Surname Project have been updated!
The Surname Project has 100 new names, including KALĒJS and ZVEJNIEKS.
The Record Project has 368 new records in Limbaži marriages 1890-1899.
That’s all for this update! Updates will happen, on average, every ten days.
This edition of Surname Saturday is about the surname Kukurs.
I have chosen this surname for two reasons – a person with this surname in my family tree is currently giving me trouble, and I happened across the definition of this word in my Latvian etymological dictionary while looking for something else.
The root of the word “kukurs” is the verb “kukt”, meaning “to become crooked”. A “kukurs” is a “crooked back” or a “hard lump of earth”. It is likely that this was given as a nickname to someone with a hunched back, and the name later stuck as a surname. I haven’t seen many nicknames-turned-surnames in my work with Latvian names yet, so this was an interesting find.
Now, onto my ancestor – her name was Kristīne Kukurs. She married Jēkabs Šīrs sometime before 1899, and had my great-grandmother Lilija in Mangaļu parish, just north of Rīga. Kristīne and Jēkabs divorced in June of 1923 for reasons unknown. He died several months later, and she died in 1945. She had two brothers living at the time of her death, Andrejs Kukurs and Augusts Blaus. As to why this second brother has a different surname, I do not know yet. It is possible that he was adopted, or that he was from a different marriage than Kristīne and Andrejs.
I know her father’s name was Andrejs as well. Three separate documents tell me that she was born in Limbaži. Two of those documents (the 1935 census and the 1941 census) also tell me that she was born in 1872 (one also mentions the date – November 22). The third (a document where she is signing over ownership of a property to her daughter) does not mention a date of birth.
But she isn’t in the 1872 birth records for Limbaži. Or 1873. Or in the post-October 1872 or 1873 records for any of the parishes surrounding Limbaži. There is a mention of a Karlīne Kukurs born in Umurga parish (just to the east of Limbaži) in that time period, but the name of the father is different, so this could be a cousin. I’m currently looking in the surrounding years for Limbaži, and then I’ll move on to doing the same for the surrounding parishes.
Kukuri is also the name of a hamlet in southern Latvia, southeast of Auce, just a few kilometres from the Lithuanian border. I don’t believe this has any relation to my Kristīne Kukurs, since Limbaži is in the north of the country, but if I still see no sign of her in the Limbaži area, it is another location to consider.
For now, back to the record books! I will also be updating the Record Project and Surname Project this evening. Lots of new names added!
Today’s edition of Forename Friday is dedicated to names derived from the word “saule”, meaning “sun”.
Names derived from “saule” are not very popular, even though a number of them exist. But when I searched the PMLP personal name database for names involving “saule”, the first result surprised me – Saulcerīte, with 117 entries (name day December 21st). This name is derived from “saule” (sun) + “cerēt” (to hope), thereby having a meaning such as “sun-hopeful” or “hoping for the sun”. I would have expected simply Saule to be the most popular, but it only had nine entries.
The second most popular “saule”-derived name is the male name Saulvedis, meaning “bringer of the sun”, with 28 entries (name day December 22nd). Saulis has 17 entries. The names Saulius (25 entries) and Sauls (5 entries) also appear in this list, but due to their name endings, I believe they are most likely Latvianized forms of names from other languages, and in that case, probably not derived from the Latvian word “saule”. It is possible, however, that the name Saulius derives from the identical Lithuanian word.
The final single entry for a “saule”-derived name is Saulstarīte, a female diminutive of “saules stars”, meaning “sun ray”, with three entries.
In Latvian mythology, Saule is the sun goddess. She is one of the most powerful deities of the Latvian pantheon. The word “saule” is also a component of a variety of placenames, such as Saulkrasti, just north of Rīga. “Saulkrasti” means “sun coast”. Near the city of Bauska, just north of the Lithuanian border, there are also two towns named Jaunsaule and Vecsaule, “new sun” and “old sun”, respectively.
Are you familiar with any sun-derived names in other languages? Share them below!
There quite a number of people interested in Latvian genealogy, but there is no Latvian genealogical society.
Until now!
If you’re interested in helping start up the Latvian Genealogical Society, please go and read this page on my main site, and send me an email!
I’ve also revamped my website layout, hopefully it is easier to follow now. If I’ve made a goof somewhere, do let me know.
Language can be one of the biggest obstacles to tracing Latvian genealogy. However, it is not an insurmountable one. Most records follow specific patterns, and once you know what to look for in the patterns, you can easily find what you are looking for.
Most Latvian religious records are not in Latvian. They are usually in German or Russian. I have seen some old church records in Latvian, but these are generally quite rare. Most religous records after 1891 will be in Russian, since it was at that time the czar handed down a decree that all vital records should be recorded in Russian. Not all congregations followed this, however, and some records remain in German, which was the most common language in the records prior to this time. However, some denominations already kept records in Russian before 1891, namely Orthodox and Old Believer congregations. Jewish records are often kept in two languages, one being Yiddish and the other German or Russian, depending on time period and location.
The formats for records vary widely, therefore it is important to be able to recognize the German or Russian words for the types of entries you are looking for. Below is a list of keywords, in English, Latvian, German and Russian of words commonly appearing in records (brackets show words as they appear in the records in old Russian orthography). Keep in mind that the endings may change, since Latvian, German and Russian all have a noun case system.
- Births – Dzimušie – Geborene – Рождений (Рожденныхъ)
- Baptisms – Kristītie – Getaufte – Крещений (Крещенныхъ)
- Marriages – Laulātie – Getraute – Браки (Бракъ)
- Deaths – Mirušie – Verstorbene – Умершие (Умершіе)
- Given name/Surname – Vārds/Uzvārds – Name/Familienname – Имя/Фамилия (Имя/Фамилия)
- Child – Bērns – Kind – Ребёнок (Ребёнок)
- Father/Mother – Tēvs/Māte – Vater/Mutter – Отец/Мать (Отец/Мать)
- Godparents – Krustvecāki – Taufpaten – Крёстнии (Восприёмники)
- Day – Diena – Tag – День (День)
- Month – Mēness – Monat – Месяц (Мѣсацъ)
- Year – Gads – Jahr – Год (Годъ)
If there are any other words you’d like to know, just ask!
The genea-blogging community has Surname Saturday, so why not Forename Friday? This is not meant to exclude those from cultures where given names appear after surnames, but there is no day of the week starting with a G for “given name”, so this is the next best option. Feel free to participate in talking about given names regardless of your culture’s name order.
I’m going to use this weekly prompt to discuss Latvian given names that are unique to the Baltics. They are a bit less common than ones that are a part of the “common European heritage”, but do appear with increasing frequency, particularly in diaspora communities. Many of these names or variants of them are also Lithuanian, due to the close relation between the Latvian and Lithuanian languages.
A quick primer on Latvian given names: Nouns in Latvian are gendered, masculine and feminine. Proper names are no exception. Just like for other nouns, male names always end in “s” or “š” in the nominative form. This is a grammatical rule and I believe a law as well – Latvia has a series of language directives that tell how names from other languages are to be translated to Latvian, and this usually includes making male names end in s or š. Women’s names end in “a” or “e” (surnames usually follow this same rule, but are a bit more flexible, and I will get into this at a later date).
Latvian names also appear in a “name calendar”, where each day of the year has several names attached to it. Latvians celebrate name days with flowers and gifts. I’m told that they used to be considered more important than birthdays, but the tradition seems to be going by the wayside in the modern world. You can view a Latvian name calendar here (interface in English).
A useful tool for finding out the popularity of Latvian given names is this site by the Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (this page is available in Latvian only). You enter the name, and click search (“meklēt”), and it brings up the number of people in the Latvian Population Register with that name and that name in combinations (in the case of middle names). It does not appear that the total displayed for the main entry includes the combinations as a part of its total. However, due to the time-consuming nature of counting them all together, for my posts here I am only going to use the total displayed for the main entry.
The most popular Latvian names are names related to the common Judeo-Christian/Greco-Roman/etc. heritage of Europe. Names such as Jānis (John – 58,627 entries), Marija (Mary – 19,036 entries), Kristīne (Christine – 14,785 entries), Juris (George – 18,694 entries) and Anna (Anne – 25,962 entries) are all quite common.
But back to the uniquely Baltic ones!
Today: Names that are variations on the word “laime” (luck, joy, happiness).
Laima is the most common female variant, with 2366 entries and the name day on February 11 (it is also a popular name in Lithuania). Laimonis is the most popular male variant, with 1648 entries and the name day on October 29. The other “laime” variations with more than a hundred entries are Laimdota (see below) and Laimons (a spelling variation of Laimonis) with 684 and 434 entries respectively.
In the old Latvian pantheon, Laima is the chief goddess of luck and fate. Laimdota (literally “given joy” or “given by joy”) is the name of the main female character in Lāčplēsis, the Latvian national epic. Other name variants on “laime” include Laimute, Laimīte, Laimnesis (“bringer of luck/joy”), Laimdots, Laimrota, Laimis and Laimutis. Interestingly, “Laime” does not appear as a name.
The goddess Laima often appears in a trinity with the other two fate goddesses, Kārta and Dēkla. The name Kārta does not appear in the register at all, and Dēkla has only one entry, and this entry is as a middle name.
Laima is also the name of the biggest Latvian chocolate manufacturer. The Theodor Riegert company was founded in 1870, and was a large chocolate manufacturer in the Russian Empire. After Latvian independence, those operations were taken over by the Laima company in 1924.
Does your language have any names relating to luck, joy or happiness? How popular are they?
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