Now you get to do the same for the places they lived! [...]]]> So after puzzling through the various alphabets and orthographies, you have been able to establish what your ancestors’ names would have looked like back in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is a great first step towards tracking them back through the years.

Now you get to do the same for the places they lived! Sometimes this is easy, sometimes it is not. It will involve juggling not just alphabets and orthographies, but languages as well.

In the various records, the rural places where people lived are most commonly identified with two parts – the estate name, followed by the farm name. Many estate names became modern civil parish names, but smaller estates came under different civil parish jurisdictions in the early twentieth century. Therefore, it is important to identify not only the modern-day civil parish your ancestor is from, but what all of the estates in the area were, since they may not have been from the one that gave the name to the modern civil parish.

Estate names are usually German. In Russian-language records, they may have been given Russian names, but in my experience, the Russian records continue to utilize the German names. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.

German estate names, compared to the modern Latvian ones, can take various forms. They could be nearly identical – compare Autz and Auce, Rujen and Rūjiena. A further step along, they could be almost identical, as long as there is an understanding of German and Latvian pronunciations, such as Wolmar and Valmiera, Zarnikau and Carnikava.

Then there are translated names, which require some familiarity with both languages – this can be seen most often with names prefaced by “New/Young”, “Old”, “Small”, “Big” – “Jaun” (“Neu”), “Vec” (“Alt”), “Maz” (“Klein”), “Liel” (“Groß”). It may only be this initial suffix which is translated, the rest of the name might be one language or the other. Other place names in this category would be ones such as Lemburg and Mālpils – both mean “clay castle”, but without knowing the translation, it would be difficult to connect them as one and the same.

While names fitting the above three categories are the majority that I have come across, there are some that have no resemblance to one another, either in meaning or in appearance. Without prior knowledge, how would one know that Friedrichstadt and Jaunjelgava are the same place? Or Wenden and Cēsis?

Thankfully, when it comes to finding out what places are now known by what names, resources exist. I find them excellent tools, and I hope that you will as well.

• Wikipedia’s “List of German Exonyms for Places in Latvia” is a great place to start. Most larger places are mentioned here.
• If the Wikipedia article does not have the place you’re looking for, check here next. While many entries are the same, there is some variation.
• If you keep seeing an estate name, but haven’t been able to match it to anything, it could have been a smaller estate. Consult this map. An index is provided, but only references the grid number, which can cover quite a wide area, so it will take some hunting on the map to locate it. The advantage, of course, is that you can compare this map to a modern-day one to get a clearer picture of where precisely the estate was located.

Once you have established the name and location of the estate, the rest should be relatively straightforward. Even though estates typically had German names, individual farms on the estate typically had Latvian ones – and these names most often remained the same upon independence in the early twentieth century, and, in cases where the farms continue to exist, retain the same names today. The main exception to this is again the prefix situation described above – while the main portion of the name might be written in Latvian, the prefixes could be in German or Russian.

Now that you have your estate name and farm name worked out, it is time to place it on a map created after independence. I have an atlas issued in 1940 that belonged to my paternal grandfather that he brought with him to Canada. I also have a CD that I acquired while I was in Latvia at this store that contains detailed topographical maps of Latvia, including farm names. These maps were made between 1920 and 1930, and I have them at the 1:75 000 size. Using these resources, I have been able to precisely identify the farms of all of my known ancestors.

Being able to accurately identify not only what estate someone lived on, but where on the estate they lived, can be vital to determining what church they would have most likely attended, and, consequently, what church records you should be looking at. If their farm was equidistant between two churches, they could have even alternated which one they went to, so records could be found in both. It is worth checking all of the churches in the area if there are numerous possibilities.

Are there any exonym resources you’ve found useful? Share in comments!

Most Latvian religious records are not in Latvian. They are usually in [...]]]> Language can be one of the biggest obstacles to tracing Latvian genealogy. However, it is not an insurmountable one. Most records follow specific patterns, and once you know what to look for in the patterns, you can easily find what you are looking for.

Most Latvian religious records are not in Latvian. They are usually in German or Russian. I have seen some old church records in Latvian, but these are generally quite rare. Most religous records after 1891 will be in Russian, since it was at that time the czar handed down a decree that all vital records should be recorded in Russian. Not all congregations followed this, however, and some records remain in German, which was the most common language in the records prior to this time. However, some denominations already kept records in Russian before 1891, namely Orthodox and Old Believer congregations. Jewish records are often kept in two languages, one being Yiddish and the other German or Russian, depending on time period and location.

The formats for records vary widely, therefore it is important to be able to recognize the German or Russian words for the types of entries you are looking for. Below is a list of keywords, in English, Latvian, German and Russian of words commonly appearing in records (brackets show words as they appear in the records in old Russian orthography). Keep in mind that the endings may change, since Latvian, German and Russian all have a noun case system.

• Births – Dzimušie – Geborene – Рождений (Рожденныхъ)
• Baptisms – Kristītie – Getaufte – Крещений (Крещенныхъ)
• Marriages – Laulātie – Getraute – Браки (Бракъ)
• Deaths – Mirušie – Verstorbene – Умершие (Умершіе)
• Given name/Surname – Vārds/Uzvārds – Name/Familienname – Имя/Фамилия (Имя/Фамилия)
• Child – Bērns – Kind – Ребёнок (Ребёнок)
• Father/Mother – Tēvs/Māte – Vater/Mutter – Отец/Мать (Отец/Мать)
• Godparents – Krustvecāki – Taufpaten – Крёстнии (Восприёмники)
• Day – Diena – Tag – День (День)
• Month – Mēness – Monat – Месяц (Мѣсацъ)
• Year – Gads – Jahr – Год (Годъ)

If there are any other words you’d like to know, just ask!

But the website can be a bit [...]]]> I make many references to LVVA’s Raduraksti. It is the best resource for people researching their Latvian family history if they’re not able to go to the LVVA itself. The collection of documents available there is growing – recently they also added revision lists for some towns and cities.

But the website can be a bit difficult to navigate if you don’t speak Latvian. The main headings are available in Latvian, English, German and Russian, but when you get to the records part of the site, category headings are only available in Latvian.

So this post will help you navigate through them!

As of today, January 14, 2010, there are three categories of documents that appear when you click “Contents”:

• Baznīcu grāmatas (Church books)

• Dvēseļu revīzijas (Revision lists – lit. “Soul revisions”)
• Tautas skaitīšana (Census – lit. “Counting of the people”)

“Baznīcu grāmatas” further subdivides into:

• Baptisti (Baptists)

• Ev. lut. (Lutheran – most Latvians are Lutheran, if you do not know your ancestor’s religion, starting here would be your best option)
• Pareizticīgie (Orthodox)
• Rabināti (Jewish)
• Reformāti (Reformed)
• Romas katoļi (Roman Catholic)
• Uniāti (Eastern Catholic)
• Vecticībnieki (Old Believers)

After choosing a religion, there will be another choice screen – some religions only have one of the options, others will have both.

• “Apdzīvotās vietas” (Inhabited places) – choose this option if your ancestor lived in the country or in a small village. Then once you select your ancestor’s place of residence, it will present you with a number of nearby congregations that your ancestor could have been a member of. When I first began my searches for my great-grandfather Arvīds Francis, I was confused when I couldn’t find him in the records for Limbaži, since I was told that they lived in the area. When I learned further that he grew up in Nabe parish, I went to look at the options for Nabe, and was given three congregations to choose from: Limbaži, Lēdurga and Turaida. I eventually found him in Lēdurga, where his farm was listed as the one in Nabe parish that I was familiar with.

• “Draudzes” (Congregations) – if you know the specific congregation your ancestor was a part of, or if they lived in a city, choose this option. Many cities are listed in the “Apdzīvotās vietas” section, but some, such as Jēkabpils, Krustpils and Rēzekne, are not, and can only be accessed through the “Draudzes” category. If in doubt, check both categories.

Once you have found your congregation, documents are available by date and by type of document. “Dz” – birth/baptism, “L” – marriage, “M” – death/burial are the three most common abbreviations to help you choose the proper document. Additionally, “l” is “Latvian congregations” and “v” is “German congregations”.

On to “Dvēseļu revīzijas”. At time of writing, there are only five cities listed – but I’m sure more will be added over time. Each of these cities has a variety of lists available, some with very long descriptors, which I won’t translate here. But a list of terms that comes up frequently in these descriptions, to help you navigate:

• saraksti (lists)

• nodokļi/nodokļu maksātāji (taxes/taxpayers)
• iedzīvotāji/brīvie iedzīvotāji (inhabitants/free inhabitants)
• amats/amatnieki (trade/tradesmen)
• kristīgie/ebreji (Christians/Jews)
• tirgotāji/zemnieki (merchants/peasants)
• pilsoņi/ārzemnieki (citizens/foreigners)

And finally, “Tautas skaitīšana” – at the moment, this contains only the 1897 All-Russia Census. Whether there plans to digitize the other two censuses – 1935 and 1941 – I do not know. This collection does not contain the entire All-Russia Census, but only the surviving documents from the Latvian parishes, some Estonian ones and some parishes that are now a part of Russia. Unfortunately, “surviving” is an important word here, since many parishes are not available.

Three terms important to know are: