However, [...]]]> As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be heading to Latvia in January for four months, doing an internship at the Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Centre. I’m going to have a lot of interesting and exciting things to do while I’m there, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated about the different activities going on.

However, there is one downside to this trip – my college program mandates that these internships are unpaid. This is probably because museums are generally a non-profit field, which means that budgets can be tight, so in order to make sure everyone can get an internship, they make it such that they have to be unpaid, so it doesn’t wear on an institution’s budget. It makes sense.

I have a variety of scholarships, student loans and savings that are covering the basics for this trip and internship, but I’ll also be working hard in my spare time to increase my knowledge base in Latvian genealogical records (which I then pass on to you!), and I could use a little bit extra to help support that work.

And this is where you come in! If you believe in the work that I’m trying to accomplish with this website, I would greatly appreciate your support – and you can get all sorts of interesting results from that support! See below for a variety of options, and then email me at (this is an image to prevent spam, you will need to type the address into your email program), and we can discuss your needs. All rates are in Canadian dollars.

I’ll accept a certain number of research projects on a case by case basis, for $20/hour plus photocopying costs. If you are interested in going to Latvia to do research yourself in the future, but would like to know ahead of time what kinds of sources are available for the parishes you’re researching, then that will be $25 per parish or small town, $50 for cities (with the exception of Rīga, Daugavpils and Liepāja, which are too large to be able to be constrained to such a project). Record lookups can also be available, depending on the record, number of pages, etc. Contact me, and we can work out an appropriate solution.

If you’re comfortable with the research that you have, but want a visual of the places your ancestors lived in, or the cemeteries they are buried in, then a variety of photo package options are possible – $10 for a photo montage of relevant areas of Rīga, $25 for a photo montage of a place in Latvia accessible by public transport. If you want a cemetery search included in those rates, it will be $20-30 for Rīga (depending on the size of the cemetery, and you must know the name of the cemetery), and $50 for other places in Latvia. For a place in Latvia without public transport access, it will be at least $100 for the photo montage and cemetery search, since I would need to rent a car or hire a taxi. Let me know what area you’re interested in and I will let you know if it is accessible by public transport or not. Any photographs of areas specific to your family (homesteads, gravestones, etc.) will remain exclusively for your use unless you give permission otherwise, but photos of public areas of town such as churches, town squares, etc. I may share on this website and in my published works.

For research clients, I will add in photo/cemetery packages as an added bonus – for every $100 of research you sign up for, I will include a photo montage and cemetery search for one town or parish accessible by public transport.

Important to note for photographs – I will be in Latvia from January to April, so it will be mostly winter. If you want spring photos (which would be taken in April), be sure to reserve early. I can’t control the weather, so depending on weather patterns, it might even end up being snowy then, I’m not sure. My previous trips to Latvia have always been in the summer, with the exception of one trip in December a few years ago, where it only snowed the morning I left.

Those are the personal options available to you – there are also a variety of ways how you can support and sponsor this site in a more general sense. The results from this work will be sent to you personally, as well as posted on this website for everyone to learn from. You can choose to remain publically anonymous if you want, but I will create a “Sponsors” page on this website, where, with your permission, I will post your name and a link to your website if you have one. Contribution amounts, email addresses, etc. will not be published – just names and websites.

I can compile parish histories more detailed than what you’d find on Wikipedia or elsewhere on the Internet – these would focus on the 19th and early 20th centuries, would provide statistics about the community, different businesses, the goings-on in the parish – whatever can be found from parish records, parish court records, local newspapers and formulated from statistical sources such as census or revision list records and so on. Histories for rural parishes can be sponsored for $50 each, towns for $100 and cities for $200 (again, excluding Rīga, Daugavpils and Liepāja). Like research projects, these will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

Maybe you’re interested in starting a One Name Study, and want a starting point for some of your Latvian surnames (or you dont know where your ancestor was from, so you want me to keep an eye out for possibilities). I can record every instance of the surname that I see. Since this is a “passive” project, rates will be per instance of the surname – 10 cents per mention of uncommon surnames, 5 cents per mention of common surnames (if you’re not sure what constitutes “common” vs. “uncommon” – ask me. As a general rule, if you look at my Latvian Surname Project, if a surname has more than ten places listed next to it, it is common). Thing to note: If you don’t know where your ancestor was from, and that is your reason for initiating this search, I will not take on such an assignment for common surnames, since there are way too many possibilities to make such an exercise relevant.

Perhaps instead of a parish, you want to know everything you can about a given manorial estate – the starting point for this would be the revision lists of course, and from there I can look into land records (not available for all regions), estate plans, estate records, and so on. These would rely on a different set of documents from the parish histories I mentioned above – they would probably end up being more socioeconomic in nature than the parish histories, which would be more historical and cultural. These rates would be the same as the parish histories – $50 for small manorial estates (less than 50 farms, as per a revision list), $100 for large manorial estates (more than 50 farms).

This is all just a starting point – if there’s something you don’t see mentioned that you are interested, let me know and we can work something out. Thank you for your support!

Note: I am not a charity, just one person trying to help advance the field of Latvian genealogical research. If you would like references from past clients, let me know and I can arrange that.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently studying Applied Museum Studies. This means my internship needs to [...]]]> Sorry for my long absence, this last semester of classes has just been extremely time-consuming. But everything has been submitted, and there is only one component left to my program prior to graduation in the spring – completing my internship!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently studying Applied Museum Studies. This means my internship needs to take place at a museum or archives, anywhere in the world – and I’ll be heading to Latvia! I will be working at the Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Centre, an institution that I mentioned on my blog last year. This is an extremely exciting opportunity.

Since I’ll be in Latvia for four months, this also will provide me with plenty of time that I can spend doing genealogical research – for myself, or for you! Please stay tuned for a post on the variety of things that I could do for you while I’m there.

In the meantime, I have three weeks until I leave, and in that time I have a lot to accomplish:

1. Organize all of my notes so that I have a clear plan of attack for my personal research.
2. Scan the rest of the old family photographs that I have.
3. Update my long-neglected Latvian Surname Project – I’ve still been collecting names, but I haven’t had the time to add them to the site since starting my program. Soon, I promise! I have over 1000 names in my database, and more being added every day.
4. Make a lot of posts here!
5. And, if I have time, work out the roots of my Lūkins and Celmiņš families – these were both very large families in their respective parishes (Jaunate and Vijciems), based on what the revision lists tell me, so I need to work out who each of their progenitors were.

Well, off I go to start accomplishing this list!

I never imagined I’d get the response that I have. Turns out there are a lot more people looking for their Latvian roots than I thought!

I know the past couple of months have been relatively slow on here. Between going on my trip to Latvia, then moving to [...]]]> One year ago today, I created this blog!

I never imagined I’d get the response that I have. Turns out there are a lot more people looking for their Latvian roots than I thought!

I know the past couple of months have been relatively slow on here. Between going on my trip to Latvia, then moving to a new city and starting school (in what is apparently the busiest and most stressful semester of my program), my attentions have been divided to say the least.

But I’m starting to streamline things. Prioritize things. And one of my priorities is to give this blog – and all of my projects – the attention they need.

Most importantly of all, I need to give you, my readers, the attention you deserve. I know there have been some unanswered comments and unanswered emails. I will hopefully get to them all in the next couple of days. I appreciate your patience, and hopefully my new priorities and organization will mean that I get to responses faster.

Thanks for being along for the ride. It’s been an amazing year, I know I’ve learned a lot, and I hope you have too!

There’s [...]]]> Sorry for the lack of posting the past couple of weeks – I was making my way home from Latvia, and then, just four days after getting home, moved across the province. I’m mostly settled in now, and starting to process everything I learned and found while I was researching in the archives in Latvia.

There’s just so much that I learned, so much that I could share, that I don’t know where to start!

What do you, my readers, want to read about? Is it surnames and the history of them that you’re interested in? 20th century census records? 19th century revision lists? Military records? Land records? I’ll talk about them all eventually, but if there’s something specific that you want to hear about, do let me know, and I’ll get to it as soon as I can!

Now, these indexes are simple – family name and number, and the farm names and numbers they appear in on the specified estate. More information is on the Revision Lists page.

The revision lists I’ve indexed aren’t available online yet, but they might be [...]]]> So the new project that I’ve been working on – revision list indexes!

Now, these indexes are simple – family name and number, and the farm names and numbers they appear in on the specified estate. More information is on the Revision Lists page.

The revision lists I’ve indexed aren’t available online yet, but they might be soon. For now, you’ll need to consult the records onsite at the Latvian State Historical Archives. I’ve provided the fond/abstract/item information you will need, as well as the microform call number.

Today I’ve added the list for the Dikļi estate. Let me know if you’re related to family 56 – Graumann. They’re my ancestors too!

How many indexes there will be in all, I can’t say. Depends on how much free time I have while I’m at the archives this week – this is my last week. When I get home next week, I’ll start into posts about the whirlwind of the past month and all of the different kinds of records I’ve been working with. I’ll be making these posts in amongst moving – I’m moving four days after I get home!

What I can say though, is I’ve been learning so much and I’ll have lots to share with you all when I [...]]]> Sorry about things being quiet here lately – I’ve been busy at work in the archives during the week, and on weekends going out to different places in Latvia to visit where ancestors lived.

What I can say though, is I’ve been learning so much and I’ll have lots to share with you all when I have a moment, and then more when I get home.

If you’re wondering about Project Updates, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about them, but my travel netbook doesn’t have the ability to automatically include Latvian diacritics, and copy/pasting them into large documents is an incredibly time-consuming experience. Expect these to return mid-August, once I’ve returned home and moved to a new city.

I’ll also have a few special surprises in store when I have a moment – hopefully the first should be up by the end of the weekend!

What [...]]]> I will be traveling to Latvia this July! This will be an opportunity for me to do some more research and gain more familiarity with the different resources available. I will be going back to school in the fall, so I won’t be able to make another trip like this for at least two years.

What does this mean for you, my readers? I can offer various lookup services for different records, maybe even take pictures of ancestral homes. We can also discuss research services, but that will be on a case-by-case basis. Research services would start at $20/hour, specific record lookups would be a flat rate, depending on the type of record.

If you’re looking to plan your own research trip to Latvia at some point, but want to know ahead of time what specific records are available for your parish (for example, population registers, different types of estate documents, etc.), I can also offer a survey of sources. I will examine the specific fonds pertaining to your parish to compile a specific listing of the documents available, as well as more general fonds to find items of interest for your parish. This service is available for $25 for rural parishes or small towns. Larger towns and cities will be on a case-by-case basis.

Interested? Email me: and we can discuss details (you will need to type the address into your email program, I have it here as a gif to prevent spam). If there is something you’re interested in that I haven’t mentioned, let me know and we can see if we can work something out. Any details you provide to me about yourself, your family and your research will be kept completely confidential. If you want to know more about me, I have provided some more information on the “About” page, and you can always email me to ask any questions you may have. All prices are in Canadian dollars and taxes may apply.

More posts on history and migration to come soon! While in Latvia I also plan to go to the National Library, where there could also be a variety of useful sources for family history researchers. I’ll keep you posted on what I find there as well.

In honour of that overdue milestone, I’d like to open the floor to reader suggestions. What would you like me to write about? Are there periods of Latvian history you’d like me to explore in more depth? A record type [...]]]> So I’ve had this blog for about seven months now. I completely missed my six-month blogiversary!

In honour of that overdue milestone, I’d like to open the floor to reader suggestions. What would you like me to write about? Are there periods of Latvian history you’d like me to explore in more depth? A record type you’d like me to detail? Would you like to see parish profiles, discussions about historical buildings, or something else along those lines?

Leave me a comment and let me know what you’d like to see! I’ll also be making some announcements at the beginning of June to complement the new site additions for the month. I’ve been busy, but they’re not quite ready to launch yet!

J.M. of Tracing My Roots, in the post The Effects of War, describes the lingering effects of war after the battles are over, and how in this particular case they influenced the life of a [...]]]> Welcome, everyone, to the 28th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy! This month’s topic was War Stories.

J.M. of Tracing My Roots, in the post The Effects of War, describes the lingering effects of war after the battles are over, and how in this particular case they influenced the life of a German ancestor living in the Netherlands.

In her post Ray, Karen of Ancestor Soup writes about the peacetime and wartime activities of Flight Officer Raymond Christensen, a WW2 pilot, as told to his friends back home in the USA.

Next, Brenda Dougall Merriman talks about the experiences of her ancestor Otto during the 1905 Revolution in the Latvian provinces of the Russian Empire.

Al of Al’s Polish-American Genealogy Research discusses how the Franco-Prussian War Impacts the Wierzba’s from Lipusz, and how this may have influenced their decision to emigrate to the United States.

Finally, in the post War Stories, Antra of Discovering Latvian Roots recounts her great-aunt’s memories of a childhood spent in rural Russia to avoid the battles of World War I being fought in Latvian territory.

That concludes this month’s carnival! May’s edition will be hosted by J.M. of Tracing My Roots, and the topic will be “Religion, religion as part of the life of an ancestor, sources about an ancestor that are connected to their religion, basically anything to do with religion would be accepted.” The deadline for submissions is May 14th, and the edition will be posted on May 17th. Submissions can be made on the Carnival’s BlogCarnival submissions page.