Welcome to Surname Saturday on Discovering Latvian Roots! Today we’re going to look at Latvian surnames beginning with the prefix “aiz-“. This is a prefix that can mean various things depending on the context, but most commonly it means “beyond”,
Surname Saturday – “Ä€bele/Ä€bols/Ä€boliņš”
Welcome back to Surname Saturday on Discovering Latvian Roots! Sorry I’ve been quite busy recently, but now I’m starting to be able to get back to genealogy and genealogy blogging. Today we’re going to look at names relating to three
Surname Saturday – Early Latvian Surnames
As I’ve mentioned before, most Latvians didn’t have surnames prior to the early 19th century. They were peasants, and until serfdom was abolished, surnames were not a necessity since they were tied to the land. It was only afterwards that
Surname Saturday – Compound Surnames
Welcome back to Surname Saturday on Discovering Latvian Roots! This week I’m going to talk about compound surnames – that is, a surname formed from two words, rather than one. These are a relative rarity in Latvian surnames when it
Surname Saturday – Time for Dinner!
When Latvian peasants were choosing surnames after emancipation from serfdom, they were strongly encouraged by the German and Russian rulers to choose names in their own language, and were forbidden to choose names of local nobles or famous people. While
Surname Saturday – Kukurs
This edition of Surname Saturday is about the surname Kukurs. I have chosen this surname for two reasons – a person with this surname in my family tree is currently giving me trouble, and I happened across the definition of
Surname Saturday – Radziņš
Today I’m featuring one of the new surnames I’ve discovered in my family tree – Radziņš (feminine form Radziņa, the surname of one of my great-great-grandmothers. Marija Radziņa was born on November 16, 1856. I am not sure yet where