Discovering Latvian Roots

Discovering Latvian Roots

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Mappy Monday – Ancient Names for Latvian Territory

Latvia wasn’t always called Latvia – and for most of history, you won’t have found a place called “Latvia” on a map. Only in the 20th century did Latvia become an independent country. This also means that if you are

Antra August 31, 2015August 30, 2015 geography, history, religion 1 Comment

Finnic Influences in Latvia: Language and Vocabulary

This is the last post in a series on Finnic influences in Latvia. You can also read the other posts in the series about Finnic influence on place names and personal names, as well as read about population crossover at

Antra August 27, 2015August 27, 2015 geography, history, languages 1 Comment

Mappy Monday – The River Gauja

A lot of attention is paid to the Daugava, the biggest and longest river in Latvia, that goes through the middle of the country – but few outside of Latvia know about the Gauja river, which is the longest river

Antra August 24, 2015August 24, 2015 Cēsis, geography, history, Sigulda, Valmiera No Comments

Mappy Monday – Ethnic and Religious Enclaves

Latvia is not and has never been one monoethnic entity. Certainly, Latvians – and Luteran Latvians, at that – have made up the majority, but they are not the only ones living in Latvia. Throughout the years, there have been

Antra August 17, 2015 farms, geography, history, languages, religion No Comments

Finnic Influences in Latvia: Population Crossover

This is the third post in a series about Finnic influences in Latvia. You can read the first one about place names here and the second one about personal names here. Today we will be looking at population crossover. But

Antra August 13, 2015August 9, 2015 geography, history, languages, Rīga, religion, Valka No Comments

Mappy Monday – Administrative Divisions?!

One common point of confusion/frustration when it comes to tracking Latvian locations on maps throughout the centuries is the big jumble of administrative divisions. Some have stayed constant and relatively simple – like cities, albeit increasing in size – while

Antra August 10, 2015August 6, 2015 farms, geography, history, resources No Comments

Mappy Monday – Prefixes Everywhere!

Rural Latvia was and is covered with farms – usually quite small in size, and all with names. Many of these names have been around for centuries – in most cases, longer than surnames. Many of these farm names come

Antra August 3, 2015July 20, 2015 Cēsis, farms, geography No Comments

Finnic Influences in Latvia: Personal Names

Time for my second post on Finnic influences in Latvia – see the first one on place names here. This post was planned for last week, but then my laptop’s motherboard died, and since it would have cost so much

Antra July 30, 2015July 31, 2015 geography, given names, history, surnames No Comments

Mappy Monday – Both Sides of the Daugava

Daugav’ abas malas, mūžam nesadalās, ir Kurzeme, ir Vidzeme, ir Latgale mÅ«su… (Daugava and both its shores, never divided, here we have Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Latgale ours…) -“Daugav’ abas malas” (composer J. Norvilis) There are many iconic images and ideas in

Antra July 27, 2015 geography, history, Rīga No Comments

Mappy Monday – All Roads Lead Out of RÄ«ga

I know the saying is typically “all roads lead to X”, but in this case, both are true, though I’ll be talking more about RÄ«ga rather than the rest of the country for this. Many old cities have pretty some

Antra July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 geography, Rīga No Comments
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