There’s [...]]]> Sorry for the lack of posting the past couple of weeks – I was making my way home from Latvia, and then, just four days after getting home, moved across the province. I’m mostly settled in now, and starting to process everything I learned and found while I was researching in the archives in Latvia.

There’s just so much that I learned, so much that I could share, that I don’t know where to start!

What do you, my readers, want to read about? Is it surnames and the history of them that you’re interested in? 20th century census records? 19th century revision lists? Military records? Land records? I’ll talk about them all eventually, but if there’s something specific that you want to hear about, do let me know, and I’ll get to it as soon as I can!

What I can say though, is I’ve been learning so much and I’ll have lots to share with you all when I [...]]]> Sorry about things being quiet here lately – I’ve been busy at work in the archives during the week, and on weekends going out to different places in Latvia to visit where ancestors lived.

What I can say though, is I’ve been learning so much and I’ll have lots to share with you all when I have a moment, and then more when I get home.

If you’re wondering about Project Updates, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about them, but my travel netbook doesn’t have the ability to automatically include Latvian diacritics, and copy/pasting them into large documents is an incredibly time-consuming experience. Expect these to return mid-August, once I’ve returned home and moved to a new city.

I’ll also have a few special surprises in store when I have a moment – hopefully the first should be up by the end of the weekend!

What [...]]]> I will be traveling to Latvia this July! This will be an opportunity for me to do some more research and gain more familiarity with the different resources available. I will be going back to school in the fall, so I won’t be able to make another trip like this for at least two years.

What does this mean for you, my readers? I can offer various lookup services for different records, maybe even take pictures of ancestral homes. We can also discuss research services, but that will be on a case-by-case basis. Research services would start at $20/hour, specific record lookups would be a flat rate, depending on the type of record.

If you’re looking to plan your own research trip to Latvia at some point, but want to know ahead of time what specific records are available for your parish (for example, population registers, different types of estate documents, etc.), I can also offer a survey of sources. I will examine the specific fonds pertaining to your parish to compile a specific listing of the documents available, as well as more general fonds to find items of interest for your parish. This service is available for $25 for rural parishes or small towns. Larger towns and cities will be on a case-by-case basis.

Interested? Email me: and we can discuss details (you will need to type the address into your email program, I have it here as a gif to prevent spam). If there is something you’re interested in that I haven’t mentioned, let me know and we can see if we can work something out. Any details you provide to me about yourself, your family and your research will be kept completely confidential. If you want to know more about me, I have provided some more information on the “About” page, and you can always email me to ask any questions you may have. All prices are in Canadian dollars and taxes may apply.

More posts on history and migration to come soon! While in Latvia I also plan to go to the National Library, where there could also be a variety of useful sources for family history researchers. I’ll keep you posted on what I find there as well.

In honour of that overdue milestone, I’d like to open the floor to reader suggestions. What would you like me to write about? Are there periods of Latvian history you’d like me to explore in more depth? A record type [...]]]> So I’ve had this blog for about seven months now. I completely missed my six-month blogiversary!

In honour of that overdue milestone, I’d like to open the floor to reader suggestions. What would you like me to write about? Are there periods of Latvian history you’d like me to explore in more depth? A record type you’d like me to detail? Would you like to see parish profiles, discussions about historical buildings, or something else along those lines?

Leave me a comment and let me know what you’d like to see! I’ll also be making some announcements at the beginning of June to complement the new site additions for the month. I’ve been busy, but they’re not quite ready to launch yet!