Discovering Latvian Roots » records

School Records

Antra — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:41:44 +0000

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 roughly when – if you’re not completely certain what their school years would have been, you can search through a wider year range.

I learned when and where my grandmother Zenta Lukina attended high school from her father’s employment file – it mentioned that she had been admitted to the “M. Bekeru private gymnasium” (gymnasium being a type of secondary education in many Northern and Eastern European countries) in Rīga. From this information, I looked up the relevant fond at the archives, and looked at the abstract to see what kind of information could be found.

A variety of items were available for the school, such as books of students’ grades, and in some cases supporting documents for school admission.

Here I found my grandmother’s grades for her second year of secondary education – she had top grades in Religion & Ethics, Geography, Science and Drawing. She did not do very well in her first term of English, but then improved her grade over the course of the year. In addition to the Latvian language, she also studied English, German, Latin and Russian.

While searching through the files of supporting documents didn’t reveal any of hers, the files did give me a snapshot of the school and her classmates. It was a girls’ school, and the students came from a variety of backgrounds – along with ethnic Latvians, the school also had German, Russian and Jewish students. The Latvian students were from a variety of religious backgrounds – predominantly Lutheran, but also Orthodox, Baptist and Roman Catholic. I wonder if the school had a specific religious orientation that they taught in the Religion & Ethics course, or whether they taught about the variety of religions that the students belonged to.

These supporting documents took a variety of forms – copies of birth certificates (both civil and religious), transcripts from previous schools, diplomas certifying completion of primary school. Thus school records have the possibility to provide more than just information about schooling, but about family and possible other places of residence as well.

The availability of school records varies depending on the parish and the specific school. Sometimes only a few years are available – but these could be the years that you need! In terms of archival fonds, some schools are filed separately, while others are filed together with other schools based on the civil parish or wider administrative region.

Have you found information about your ancestors’ school years in your archival searches? Share your stories in comments!

Project Update – May 1, 2010

Antra — Sun, 02 May 2010 03:13:17 +0000

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 is to make the indexing process faster – they are only intended as a guide, so they will only provide the basic information one would need to find the relevant record in the church books – meaning parish, record type, year, name and record number. That means that I can index more records in a shorter period of time, so look for more soon!

International Tracing Service

Antra — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:35:42 +0000

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 register displaced persons, liberated prisoners and forced labourers. They gained their current name while under the auspices of the International Refugee Organization in 1948.

From their website, I had been under the impression that they only held documents relating to victims of Nazi terror. However, a couple of months ago, one of my readers here informed me that they hold documents on other displaced persons as well, including Latvian DPs, and that they had been able to provide her with a lot of useful documentation.

So at the beginning of January, I submitted information requests for both of my grandmothers. I received a response in mid-February, wherein were full-colour copies of several documents relating to both of them, listing places they had lived, family profiles, where they wanted to go next, and so on.

What information did I learn? Most of the information on my maternal grandmother I had already known, but it did provide some other addresses she had lived at in Denmark. It also indicated her desire to resettle in Switzerland. For my paternal grandmother, Zenta Lūkina, I learned more – I learned that, along with her husband Juris Celmiņš and her parents Augusts and Lilija (nee Šīrs), she departed for Canada from Bremerhaven, Germany on October 13, 1948 aboard the USS General W. C. Langfitt. Her family’s intent was to move to Canada. A “Resettlement Record” for her father, Augusts Lūkins, indicates his primary occupation as “Lawyer”, and secondary occupations of “Occupational Interviewer” and “Gardener”. I never knew that Augusts was a gardener! The family had been housed at DP Camp Noor in Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

These documents have, however, presented a conflict of information in terms of my maternal grandmother’s port of emigration. Here, it says that the SS Samaria departed for Canada from Cuxhaven, but her Canadian citizenship application states that this ship departed from Bremerhaven, some 40 kilometres south. In everything I’ve read about emigration via German ports, these two, while being near to each other, have always been considered separate from one another. My grandmother and great-aunt say that they departed from Hamburg, which lends itself to the Cuxhaven version, since Cuxhaven was the official port from which Hamburg’s ships sailed. But then why write Bremerhaven? Did the ship sail from Cuxhaven to Bremerhaven, and stay in port long enough for it to be considered to have departed from Bremerhaven by Canadian authorities, but officially have departed from Cuxhaven according to German authorities?

That mystery aside, I will be writing to the ITS again for information on my grandfathers, to fill in more pieces of my family’s post-war puzzle.

The service is free of charge. While it could provide information for anyone who had family members in DP camps after the war, it is of particular use to those who are just starting their research into their Latvian ancestors, and may not know where in Latvia they came from. Information cards list all of this information, which will pinpoint the necessary places in Latvia to continue the search.

Provide as much information as possible to make the search easier – any names, places and dates you may have. You might just be able to find the answers to the mysteries you have been seeking!

Have you written to the ITS? What kind of results did you get?

Importance of Farm Names

Antra — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:44:16 +0000

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 important these names are, and they are now what I look at first when looking at an old record.

So what changed? What did I learn?

Knowing farm names makes looking at a census easier and faster. For rural parishes, census records for 1935 and 1941 are usually arranged alphabetically by farm name. It is a great time saver if you know the name of your ancestor’s farm.

Farm names help distinguish individuals with the same name. I have encountered this in my research in Limbaži parish. I was looking through birth records to locate all of my great-grandmother’s siblings when I discovered there were at least four separate men with her father’s name – Ansis Eglītis. Since I knew the name of the farm my great-grandmother was born on, I could identify who her siblings were. I was also helped by the fact that I knew her mother’s full name – Līze Graumane – and that this was also listed. If only the mother’s first name was listed – as is common, particularly in older records – I would have been in trouble, since there were two Ansis Eglītis’ who were married to women named Līze. But because I knew the farm name, I had an extra confirmation that I had the right person.

Farm names can be connected to surnames. This can, sometimes, be a chicken-or-egg situation, but in most cases, farm names came first. Farm names are often based on physical characteristics of the land, and are therefore duplicated many times over throughout Latvia (and these farm names are, consequently, the roots of the most common surnames). In Vijciems parish, where my Celmiņš ancestors are from, there are three farms in a 20km radius called “Celmiņi”. As far as I’ve traced my ancestors, they lived on a farm called “Stampvēveri”. This farm is almost in the centre of the triangle formed by the three Celmiņi farms. I have a suspicion that my ancestors were originally from one of the Celmiņi farms, and then moved to Stampvēveri. Why are there so many farms called “Celmiņi” in Vijciems parish? The area is known for forestry, so it does not seem odd to me that there would be numerous farms called by the diminutive of “tree stumps”.

Knowing a farm name provides insight into another type of history – house history. I have not utilized rural land books yet, but they do exist. I have utilized their urban equivalents, that list occupants and their vital information. I’m given to understand that rural land books provide more information such as farm equipment, animals owned, etc. Some of this information is also available on the 1935 census forms. Depending on its size, there may also be other families living on the farm. They will also appear on the census forms. Census forms will also indicate who is the owner of the property.

Farm names identify concrete places within parishes, which can be located on maps and visited. If you are planning a research or family history trip to Latvia, having concrete locations connected to your family history to visit will make your visit more meaningful. I have only visited one of my ancestral farms thus far (it is owned by my half-uncle), but there are several more I have yet to visit. Contact the current owners ahead of time so that you can obtain permission ot explore the property. You might even happen upon a distant relative by doing so! If you explain your reasons for wanting to visit, most people will be amenable and helpful.

Farm Name Features

Farm names almost always end in “i” – this is a plural noun ending.
If there are farms that were established by family members, the names could indicate connections, for example: “Jauncelmiņi” and “Veccelmiņi” (New Celmiņi and Old Celmiņi, respectively). This is not a guarantee of blood relation, however, since farms can change hands, and several families can live on one farm.
“Leja” means “valley” and “kalns” means “hill” – these are frequently added to the beginnings of farm names as well. It is possible that these come from related properties, or two properties that used to be one, and so on.

Are there any farm names you are particularly curious about? Trying to place a farm on a map? Let me know and I can try to help!

Project Updates – January 21, 2010

Antra — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:36:05 +0000

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 missing 1903. I’m not sure why those records are not available on “Raduraksti”. I guess those years just went missing at some point. There are also no Lēdurga records available after 1900.

I have some interesting blog posts coming up. This past week I’ve been busy getting this record/surname update done, so haven’t had as much time for regular blog posts. But they’re coming soon!

Latvian Record Project

Antra — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:45:31 +0000

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 available on the site thus far are Suntaži birth records for 1900 to 1905 (with the exception of 1903, for some reason those records do not appear to be available). More parishes for this time period, including Lēdurga and Limbaži, will be making appearances very soon as well. I’ve made fair progress with those, but I have some reformatting to do and a few more years to cover before I add them (I’ll be adding them in five-year periods).

The Surname Project will also be updated to reflect new entries and reader submissions in the next couple of days.

Thanks for reading! Suggestions are welcomed.

Surname Saturday – Radziņš

Antra — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:38:43 +0000

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 born. They lived in Stampvēveri, a farm in Vijciems parish in Valka region, in the northeast of Vidzeme province. They had six children that I’m aware of: Voldemārs, Jānis, Emma, Anna, Pēteris (my great-grandfather) and Elza.

This is not a surname I have seen anywhere else in my reading of church books, census records, revision lists or parish family registers, so it is probably a somewhat unusual name. It did not appear in the family register of 1875 for Vijciems parish, so she is probably from a neighbouring parish such as Trikāta.

As to the meaning of the name? “Radziņš” is the diminutive of “Rags”, which means “horn” or “cape”. So it is possible that her ancestors lived on a piece of land jutting out into a body of water, or that they worked with animals such as goats or deer.

Soon I’ll be able to get to work on going through the church records for the area to find out more about her family. However, first I have to arrange all the information I found out while I was in the archives – there is a lot of it!

Mysteries Revealed – And Created

Antra — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:18:36 +0000

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 tree!

I learned that Pēteris was a clerk/civil servant (Latvian “ierednis”, the dictionary translates it as “clerk, official, employee, civil servant”, not completely sure which one applies in this situation, but I seem to recall a family member mentioning either clerk or civil servant), and Anna was a bookkeeper. In the war (it doesn’t specify which war, but since the passport was issued in 1919, I’d assume World War I and/or the Latvian War for Independence), Pēteris served as a “second line land guard”.

I also discovered that the family didn’t live exclusively in Rīga, as I had originally thought. Anna was born in Rīga, as were her children Juris (my grandfather) and Skaidrīte, but Pēteris was born in Vijciems parish, in the Valka region of northern Latvia. Additionally, the family moved quite a bit between 1919 and 1927 – their passports show them registered at at least ten different addresses during this period (and possibly more, there were some more stamps that looked like address changes, but they were covered in registration seals and therefore unreadable).

By a stroke of luck, most of these places of residence were in the seaside town of Jūrmala, which just happens to be where I’m staying at the moment. Therefore, tomorrow’s activities are clear – it being Saturday, and the archives being closed as a result, means that I’m going to go around town and find these old residences!

I must wonder though – why did a family with two young children, and seemingly stable employment, move so many times in such a short time period? Most of the moves occurred during summer (June-August), but not all – sometimes they would even move twice in one year. They lived on the same street three times, at what were probably neighbouring addresses (3-5-7), but the times of residence on this street were always interspersed with other residences as well. Only the first addresses and last addresses are outside of Jūrmala.

Hopefully, this is a mystery that can be solved!

First Day at the Archives

Antra — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:22:11 +0000

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 wanted to look at.

But they also have a computerized database of their pre-1944 passport holdings for people dwelling in Rīga – that is searchable by name. The information the database provides is just first name, surname, father’s name and usually birthdate/place and place of registration, but the full passport file should provide more.

Using this database, I believe I have tracked down my mysterious Celmiņš ancestors – the family whose name I bear, but about whom I know relatively little about.

The great-grandparents I believe I located are Pēteris Celmiņš and his wife Anna (maiden name Liepa). The birthdates listed in the database are a couple of days off from the birthdates I have from their gravestones (one day for Anna and twelve days for Pēteris), but they are the correct month and year. No other people with the same names came close in terms of birthdates, and these were the only Anna Celmiņa (born Liepa) and Pēteris Celmiņš that were registered in the same district as each other, so chances are these are the right people.

I have requested the passport files, and these should include photos – I have a photograph of them, so this should help confirm that I have the right people. It is also possible there was a transcription mistake and the passport file will show the birthdates corresponding to what I have. Sometimes these passport files also include things like marriage certificates, so something like that to further confirm this to be the right couple would be wonderful!

If this is the right couple, my research will take me out of Rīga records, and once again into the north of Vidzeme – a region that is already the place of origin for the families of two of my great-grandfathers.

Friday I go back to the archives!

Working With The 1895 Census

Antra — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:20:35 +0000

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 Russian, but in some Riga areas, the headers are in German, Russian and Latvian (pre-spelling reform, so sometimes difficult to puzzle out).

For the most part, my work has been with the records for Krustpils, to try and place ages/birthplaces for some of my maternal great-grandparents.

While browsing these records, I have encountered many surnames that I had not yet encountered in this region. This is due to the fact that the majority of people in this region at this time were Jewish, and my previous experience with records of this area has only been with Lutheran church records. While I am used to how Latvian names are usually written in Russian, this is my first experience working with Jewish names, so I am not entirely certain as to how well they translate or transliterate into Russian. I am given to understand that many Jews of this time period spoke Russian, so perhaps it is a question more of how well the names translate or transliterate into English, but I will need to study this history a bit more to be able to comment on the accuracy of Jewish names in this census.

Like many other census records, these start with the usual fields: name, gender, relationship to head of household, age, marital status (columns one to five). Column six is a bit more unique to this census – estate and condition. Since most people lived on manorial estates – even if still nominally free – these were still important identifying characteristics. Column seven asks whether or not the person was born there (that is, the place of census), and if not, where they were born.

Column eight is a bit of a puzzle – neither the German, Russian or Latvian text is particularly clear – I can’t find the key German or Russian words in my dictionaries, and the Latvian, being in pre-standardized spelling, is difficult to decipher – I think it may mean either “previous places of residence” or “place of parents’ residence”. Googling seems to give indications that this could be a “registration place” for an event of some sort, probably the birth. But this doesn’t resemble what I can draw from the Latvian text, so I’m not sure. Column nine is clearer – is this the person’s permanent residence?

I *think* column ten asks for the ages of people not currently there, and of people staying there for a time. What this means, I’m note entirely certain, but this column is most often left blank. Does anyone else have any input on this?

Columns eleven and twelve are again familiar – religion and mother tongue. Column thirteen asks about literacy and education, and column fourteen asks about occupations.

I’ll have my hands full with this census for awhile – it appears that they had one sheet per family – unlike other censuses I have worked with, where families were listed one after another on one sheet of paper until there was no more space. But I have patience. Hopefully this census, and then the 1935 and 1941 ones that I will view in Latvia, will be keys to unlocking some more mysterious parts of my family history!

Have you had any luck finding your ancestors in this census? Share your stories in comments!