Let’s continue the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge! The important word of the day is “parish” – and in Latvian, it has a name with a P too – “pagasts”. Now, this refers to civil parishes, rather than religious
M is for Manorial Estate
This is a good one for the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, something I mention quite a lot but I’m not sure if I’ve ever really defined… Manorial Estate! There were two types of “estates” in pre-independence Latvian society
H is for Hinzugekommen/Abgegangen
Heading into German words now for the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge! Though I’m cheating – there are two words here instead of one, because they are inseparable when it comes to Latvian (and Estonian) genealogical resources. Since Estonian
E is for Emancipation
On to letter E of the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge! E is for Emancipation To many Westerners, particularly Americans, “Emancipation” means the freeing of slaves from slavery, more specifically black slaves in the American South, during the Civil
Paying Attention to Details
It is too easy, especially when reading records that require interpretation of handwriting in an unfamiliar language, to pick out the main details – date of birth and parents – but ignore the details that are “not strictly necessary” –
Working With Revision Lists
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that the Kurland revision lists are up on Raduraksti. Good news – the Livland (Vidzeme) revision lists are up too! Now here is your guide to making sense of these documents! I’m going
Project Update – June 2, 2010
The Latvian Surname Project has been updated! The total name count is now 800, I added 200 new names including TRĪSTILTIŅŠand PODNIEKS. Today I am also launching a new project, the Latvian Farm Project. The goal of this project