So you want to use Raduraksti, but you’re intimidated, because you don’t know German or Russian. That’s okay! With a bit of work, you can find everything you need to know from these records, without needing to be fluent, or
Getting Out of Riga
RÄ«ga is the capital city of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltics. Since Latvian records are largely unindexed, this means that locating an ancestor in RÄ«ga is like looking for a needle in a haystack. If your ancestors
Records after 1905
In my last post, a reader requested that I talk about records after 1905. So here we go! There are lots of different types of records available for the post-1905 period – however, as of right now, none of them
Sorting Out Ethnicity
So you have established that your ancestors lived on Latvian territory. But what were their ethnic origins? Latvia has been a multi-ethnic territory for centuries, so the distinctions between ethnic groups might not always be so clear in the old
Britons in 1870s Latvia?
I’ve been looking through the church records for the Sece Lutheran congregation, in southern Latvia. South of the Daugava river, between the towns of Jaunjelgava and JÄ“kabpils. My great-grandfather Brencis LÄ«cÄ«tis is allegedly from around this area, born in the
Merry Christmas! Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!
A very happy holiday to one and all! The Latvian ZiemassvÄ“tki is an ancient celebration, a pre-Christian solstice celebration as in many European cultures. The Latvian name of the holiday never changed to reflect the new religion, however – “ZiemassvÄ“tki”