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We already celebrated Latvian Olympians in last week’s Surname Saturday post, but I’m dedicating another week to them, since Latvia scored one last medal on the final day of the Olympics! This was a silver medal in men’s 4-man bobsleigh, to go along with the two bronzes in luge and silver in skeleton won previously, [...] Just like in 2012, Surname Saturday here at Discovering Latvian Roots is celebrating Latvia’s Olympians! Now, I’m not sticking only to the medalists. And there’s a reason for that, which most Latvians, and others paying attention to the Latvian Olympic team (which this week included all of Canada), will know full well – whatever the medal [...] Time for Week 2 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge! As noted in my first post of this challenge, I am starting with my most ancient known ancestors. This week’s ancestor: Walter (Rudzītis) Roop, born c. 1773 and died 1847. Unfortunately I do not have a precise death date for him, since the death [...] Today’s Surname Saturday name is Rudzītis! This Latvian name is the diminutive of “rudzi”, which means “rye”. It is a relatively common surname, found in many Latvian parishes, including Bauņi, Galgauska, Dauguļi, Krāslava, Lēdurga, Limbaži, Nabe, Sece, Sidgunda, Skaņkalne, Stopiņi, Taurupe and Umurga. Rye is a popular Latvian foodstuff, its most popular form being rye bread, [...] If you’ve been paying attention to the Latvian Surname Project, you’ll have noticed that I’ve filled in some gaps in the map on the front page – having added names from the parishes of Ainaži, Ipiķi, Lode and Vaidava, I now have some names for all of the parishes of pre-war Valmiera county! The parishes [...] Like in many other countries, rural properties in Latvia are known by names, rather than by street numbers as is typical in an urban setting. However, unlike most European countries, these rural Latvians really only acquired surnames in the early 19th century. What this means is that large numbers of Latvians have surnames that came [...] If you’ve been to the Latvian Surname Project, and looked at the map on the front page, you’ll have seen that most of eastern Latvia (Latgale) is blank. Not anymore! Recently I’ve had the opportunity to spend time reading a book called Latgaļu uzvōrdi, palames un dzymtas by Leonards Latkovskis. This book, as well as time spent [...] What do we have for today’s Surname Saturday? A new content category on the Latvian Surname Project! If you’ve stopped by the Latvian Surname Project recently, you may have happened across some of the work I’ve been doing adding surnames from some of the earliest estate revision lists. I’m adding these for two reasons: One, because [...] This is part of my series of interesting newspaper articles that I find in the old Latvian newspapers available through Periodika. Most of the articles I post are in some way related to migration, wars or other events that are of particular genealogical note. Source: Jaunākās Ziņas (Latest News), March 16, 1940 New Surname, by Andris Bērziņš “It [...] Now, the title is a bit of a misnomer. There isn’t a Latvian royal family. Nobles in Latvia were typically German, sometimes Polish, sometimes Russian. But this post is about a group in Latvia that can be considered the closest thing to nobility that ethnic Latvians have – the “kuršu ķoniņi”, or “Curonian Kings”. This group [...] |
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