School Records

Ever wonder how your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents did in school? You may just be able to find out. Numerous Latvian school records are held at the Latvian State Historical Archives, mostly for the inter-war period (1918-1940).

Of course, to be able to use these records, you need to know where they went to school, and [...]

Project Update – May 1, 2010

The Latvian Record Project has been updated!

I have added 1506 new entries to the indexes, covering Lēdurga births 1895-1899, marriages 1895-1899 and deaths 1895-1900. Note however that unfortunately records for 1897 are not available, and are probably lost.

Compared to the previous updates, you’ll note that I’ve pared down the information available in the indexes. This [...]

International Tracing Service

I first read about the International Tracing Service about a year ago when searching for more information about post-World War Two Displaced Persons Camps. According to their website, their history starts in London in 1943, as a tracing bureau for people missing due to war. After the war, they continued to work to identify and [...]

Importance of Farm Names

Before I went to the Latvian State Historical Archives for the first time, I didn’t pay much attention to farm names. Sure, I knew the name of the farm where one of my grandfathers grew up, but I didn’t attach a significance to it beyond an address.

My work in the archives showed me just how [...]

Project Updates – January 21, 2010

The Latvian Record Project and the Latvian Surname Project have been updated!

The Surname Project has 61 new names, including LAPSA and DZĒRVE.

The Record Project has 1075 new records, including Limbaži baptisms 1900-1905, Lēdurga baptisms 1900, Limbaži marriages 1900-1905, Lēdurga marriages 1900 and Suntaži marriages 1900-1905. For all records, Limbaži is missing 1904 and Suntaži is [...]

Latvian Record Project

Now it is time for the unveiling of my most ambitious project – the Latvian Record Project!

That’s right, I’m working on transcribing and indexing all of the Latvian records that I can. I’m starting with Lutheran church records, and will move on to the Latvian portions of the All-Russia Census at some point.

The only records [...]

Surname Saturday – Radziņš

Today I’m featuring one of the new surnames I’ve discovered in my family tree – Radziņš (feminine form Radziņa, the surname of one of my great-great-grandmothers.

Marija Radziņa was born on November 16, 1856. I am not sure yet where she was born, but she married Pēteris Celmiņš sometime before 1878, when their first child was [...]

Mysteries Revealed – And Created

So today was my second day, and first full day, at the Latvian State Historical Archives.

I was able to view the passports I mentioned in my previous post, belonging to Pēteris Celmiņš and Anna Celmiņa (born Liepa), and confirmed that they are the correct individuals, and thus able to add their information to my family [...]

First Day at the Archives

So I have arrived in Latvia, and today I made my first trip to the Latvian State Historical Archives.

And I may have already found something!

Since it takes them a few days to find and bring out the requested documents, for the most part today was just filling out the forms to request the items I [...]

Working With The 1895 Census

I have had a bit of time now to look at some of the Latvian records for the 1895 All-Russia Census, though I am still on holiday. Just can’t keep away from the genealogy!

The form format is predictable, even if the languages in the headers seem to change – the Krustpils headers are solely in [...]