Guidelines for Commenting

1. Please do not post the same item on multiple posts. You only need to post once for it to be seen.

2. Please include a working email address - if your comment is related to your own personal family history, rather than Latvian genealogy in a more general sense, I prefer to respond by email to maintain your privacy.

3. I don't sell email addresses or send anything to them besides responses to your comments. I am the only person who has access to them.

WW1 Diary - April 1, 1916

Eighteenth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as [...]

Riga Banns, Week of March 31, 1925

Part of my series of publishing the banns read in Rīga in the interwar period. See this post for more details.

March 31, 1925 (published in Latvijas Vēstnesis [Latvian Herald], April 1, 1925)

Railway worker Jānis Rudolfs Kriķis (Palsmane) and Lisete Milda Beitels (Bauska)
Merchant Kristian Marinnus Jeusen (Denmark) and Elvīra Vītols (Rīga)
Artist Sergei Jakovlev (Vilnius) and Tekla [...]

Tombstone Tuesday – Milda and Eduards Miezis

In this series, I am providing pictures of tombstones from Latvian cemeteries, all with death dates prior to 1945. I do not have any further information on the people mentioned.

Photo taken by me, October 2012. Click to enlarge.

Top Inscription: “Še duss” (“Here rests”)

Names: Milda Miezis (maiden name Zaul), born July 8, 1897, died June 6, [...]

WW1 Diary – March 25, 1916

Seventeenth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as [...]

Rīga Banns, Week of March 24, 1925

Part of my series of publishing the banns read in Rīga in the interwar period. See this post for more details.

March 24, 1925 (published in Latvijas Vēstnesis [Latvian Herald], March 25, 1925)

Students Eduards Paulis Čaibe (Īle) and Hermīne Veronika Leimanis (Mežmuiža)
Clerk Paulis Erichs Pētersons (Straupe) and Emma Matilde Miezis (Rīga)
Locksmith Kārlis Wilhelms Kepke (Cēsis) and [...]

Tombstone Tuesday - Augusts and Marija Krūmiņš

In this series, I am providing pictures of tombstones from Latvian cemeteries, all with death dates prior to 1945. I do not have any further information on the people mentioned.

Photo taken by me, October 2012. Click to enlarge.

Top Inscription (on cross): “Salda atpūta, pēc nobeigta dzīves darba” (Sweet sleep after completing life’s work)

Top Inscription (on [...]

Rīga Banns, Week of March 17, 1925

Tracking down your ancestors’ activities in interwar Latvia can be tricky. The official records are not online. Any birth, marriage or death record needs to be obtained from a registry office, either by going in person (cheapest), ordering through an embassy (expensive, or direct from the registry office if you’re lucky) or by asking someone [...]

Latest News – March 16, 1940

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 [...]

Tombstone Tuesday – Minna and Mārtiņš Ozoliņš

In this series, I am providing pictures of tombstones from Latvian cemeteries, all with death dates prior to 1945. I do not have any further information on the people mentioned.

Photo taken by me, October 2012. Click to enlarge.

Names: Minna Ozoliņš (maiden name Brauns), born 1862, died 1917; Mārtiņš Ozoliņš, born 1863, died 1937.

Location:Meža kapi, Rīga

WW1 Diary – March 5, 1916

Sixteenth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as [...]