January 20: Day of the Barricades

January 20 is a day of remembrance in Latvia, for an event in more recent memory than others – in this case, the time of the barricades, and subsequently, the end of the Soviet Union.

Latvia had already declared independence from the Soviet Union, but there was still fear that the Soviet Union might try to retake the country by force. At the beginning of January 1991, they started to try and do just that.

This is when the barricades were built, across Rīga and in other parts of the country as well. While the barricades took place over a period of days, January 20 is chosen as the remembrance day because it was on this night in 1991 that five people were killed during attacks by Soviet forces, including filmmakers Andris Slapiņš and Gvido Zvaigzne. You can visit the website for the 1991 Barricades Museum here.

Let us all remember those who gave their lives for the cause of freedom. Let us honour their sacrifice, and never take our freedom for granted.

Plan of Attack: Finding Anna Liepa in the RÄ«ga Records

My most difficult ancestor is my great-grandmother Anna Liepa. The reason for this is because she was born in RÄ«ga, and RÄ«ga is a big place. This means that any record search inevitably takes forever, since there are many records to search.

So I have formulated a precise plan of attack for finally finding her and her family, and, hopefully, getting them out of RÄ«ga to a locale that is much more friendly to research (that is, the country, or a smaller town). Since I’m in Latvia right now, I’ve got all of the archives at my disposal, which should make this easier.

Let’s start with what is known about her:

  1. Anna Liepa was born on September 22, 1895 (N.S.), at the time of her birth her birthday was September 10, 1895 (O.S.).
  2. Her father’s name was Fricis.
  3. She was likely not an only child – my father has mentioned that there are Liepa cousins somewhere in Australia, so they could be descended from her siblings. (If any of you Liepa cousins in Australia are reading this, do leave a comment!)
  4. She married Pēteris Eduards Celmiņš on September 17, 1919.
  5. My earliest known address for her is Romanova iela (street) 62/64, apartment 4. She left this address on December 16, 1919 to move to Skolas iela 4, apartment 22 with her husband. Romanova iela is now known as Lācplēšu iela.
  6. Anna was a bookkeeper, and worked for the cooperative association “Konzums” from November 1, 1912, for at least ten years, possibly longer (my family has a certificate that was presented to her on her ten-year anniversary of being with the company).
  7. Her son Juris was born June 8, 1920, and her daughter Skaidrīte on July 7, 1921.
  8. Anna and her husband moved around frequently in the years following their marriage, living both in Rīga and Jūrmala, before eventually settling at Mātīšu iela 51/53 in 1934.
  9. Her husband PÄ“teris died in 1943, her son Juris and his new wife Zenta left for the West in 1944.
  10. Anna died in RÄ«ga on June 20, 1987.

So, knowing that, let’s see what I’ve got on her father. Unfortunately, nothing concrete. I know that there were several Fricis Liepas living in RÄ«ga at this time from different address books. However, all of them also had a penchant for moving around, since the addresses are different each time.

1903 address book

-Fricis Liepa, Dundagas iela 1.

-Fricis Liepa, Zeļļu iela 6, apartment 21.

1912 address book

-Fricis Liepa, Vidus iela 4, apartment 17.

-Fricis Liepa, Sabiles iela 16.

-Fricis Liepa, Dārtas iela 50. (Dārtas iela is now E. Smilģa iela)

1925 address book

-Fricis Liepa, Matīšu iela 43, apartment 46.

-Fricis Liepa, Talsu iela 9, apartment 57.

I plotted these all out on a map (with the exception of Dundagas iela, which does not appear to exist anymore, and I can’t find an alternate name for it), and found that four of them were concentrated in the same area, in the district of Ä€genskalns in “Pārdaugava” (the left bank of the river Daugava, while the Old Town and main “city centre” are on the right bank). Could this make it more likely that three out of the four are actually the same person? Maybe, maybe not.

However, the only birth record I have for an Anna Liepa is from the St Paul’s Lutheran Church, which is in the main city centre, quite distant from the addresses in Ä€genskalns. I would need to find an address book closer to her date of birth.

My theory is that the address mentioned above on Romanovas iela was her family’s address at the time she left it. She left that address only a couple of months after getting married, so it would make sense. This address is also close to the St Paul’s church. But this could then mean several things – a) they moved around a lot prior to settling there, since there is no Fricis Liepa at that address in any of the address books; or b) Fricis died not long after Anna’s birth, therefore none of the listings above for a Fricis Liepa are connected to Anna.

So this is all to say: Anna’s origins are a big puzzle. What am I going to do to try and straighten out this puzzle?

  1. Try and locate the house books for Romanovas 62/64. Problem here seems to be that the archives only seem to have the book for 1900 – which may be too early. We’ll see. Also I noticed in the index for house books that there is also a Romanova iela 62/66 – which is a bit odd, because it skips 64. Maybe I should go down there and check the building layouts out, and see if there were some changes back and forth, or if 62/66 is a completely separate building from 62/64.
  2. Try to find Anna’s employment records. Records do exist for the Konzums company, so maybe they have some personnel files that list her address?
  3. I could try looking at the tax rolls for RÄ«ga, and see if I can find her anywhere. Since she started working at Konzums in 1912, which was before independence, there might be a record of her in 1394. fonds – RÄ«ga tax records.
  4. Continue to make my way through the All-Russia Census. Since this was taken around the time of her birth, the areas to concentrate on are the ones around St Paul’s Church.
  5. Find more address books – the National Library apparently has a number of them, so I can go check those out and see if there are any listing a Fricis Liepa in 1895.

So that’s where I’m going to start, and see where it leads me! Hopefully the house books and Konzums files are detailed enough to get me what I’m looking for, because otherwise the tax lists and All-Russia Census could involve a great deal more legwork. Wish me luck!

Birth Record of KarolÄ«ne Matilde Baburs – December 31, 1867 (O.S.)

Caroline Mathilde, daughter of worker Martin Babbur and his wife Edde born Jansohn. Baptized by Pastor Getter(?) in the church [Church of Jesus, an evangelican Lutheran church south of the Old City of RÄ«ga]. Godparents maiden Caroline Wendt, worker Martin Lasmann and Jann(?) Krasting.

Usually I post records on the day of the event based on the Gregorian calendar, but for this event, I’m making an exception, due to its special circumstance.

The year an event takes place often matters. So what happens when the year suddenly changes? My great-great-grandmother Karolīne Matilde Baburs was born on December 31, 1867 according to the Julian Calendar. When the change to the Gregorian calendar happened, her birthday would have changed to January 12, 1868.

This calendar switch happened in 1919 in Latvia, according to the Latvian-language sources that I’ve found. This means that KarolÄ«ne would have just turned 51. I wonder what she thought about celebrating her birthday not only on a different day, but a completely different year. Was she sad that her birthday was no longer on a “special” day? Or relieved? Was she happy to be born at the “beginning” of the year, rather than the “end” of the year?

Photo of KarolÄ«ne at her husband’s funeral in 1928.

Surname Saturday – Å Ä«rs

Welcome to the return of Surname Saturday at Discovering Latvian Roots!

Today’s surname is Å Ä«rs – this is the maiden name of my great-grandmother Lilija, who married Augusts LÅ«kins in 1921. Lilija’s parents were JÄ“kabs Å Ä«rs and KristÄ«ne Kukure. This is the family that I’ve been researching the most lately.

Jēkabs Šīrs was born on the Stābeģu estate, north of Aloja, in 1862 to parents Jānis Šīrs and Kristīne Kwante. However, his family was originally from the Pučurga estate near Burtnieki lake, about 30km southeast of Stābeģi. The family moved to Stābeģi in 1858, and then in 1863 moved back to the Burtnieki lake area, first to Milīte estate, and then to Vilzēni estate.

Revision lists for Pučurga estate show that the Å Ä«rs family was living there when they received the surname, and prior to that as well, matching for ages, fathers’ names and farm. The ancestor of JÄ“kabs who would have received the surname was his grandfather Marcis, son of Tennis. Tennis died in 1806, prior to emancipation from serfdom, and thus prior to surnames.

The name Å Ä«rs is not of ethnic Latvian origin, but names of non-Latvian origin were often held by ethnic Latvians. The name is most likely of German origin. In the old records, it is recorded as “Schir” or “Schihr”. My German surname dictionary shows the surname “Schier”, which comes from the Middle German word schÄ«r for “clean, shiny, pure”. It is attributed to both High and Low German, though in this case the Latvian name probably comes from the Middle Low German, since this language was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League (which was prominent in Latvian territory in the 13th to 17th centuries) and left a number of loanwords in the Baltic languages (see here).

Did Marcis choose this name, or was it assigned to him? What meaning did it hold for him? He was already a family man, having been married by 1816 (prior to surnames), and having four living children (Marija, Jānis, Līze, Jēkabs) in 1826 (first revision list after surnames). Were they a very virtuous family in the community, to be considered an example that others should aspire to? Or was the name given in jest? All questions I wish I could answer!

Support This Site, Support My Trip!

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 RÄ«ga, 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 RÄ«ga, $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 RÄ«ga (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 RÄ«ga, 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.

I’m Back!

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 LÅ«kins 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!