Recently, I received a question: how does one transition from church records to revision lists? How can you determine which revision list to search in? In one parish, there may be several estates, and within one congregation, there may be people from multiple estates.
Let me start by reminding you that genealogy works by moving backward in time. You begin with the most recent records and follow the trail of known information. For instance, if you’ve found an ancestor in the 1941 census, it likely includes their date of birth and parish.
From there, you should visit the website Ciltskoki.lv and check under the "Palīgs" (Help) section to see which church parish (Latv. draudze) or parishes the people from each particular civil parish (Latv. pagasts) belonged to.
You can also use the Parishes and Estates Map (Latv. Draudzes un muižas) to identify which church was closest to your ancestor’s place of residence. This map is located on the same Ciltskoki website under the Noderīgas adreses>Vecās. See under Kartes (Maps).
What to Do Next After Finding a Baptism Record?
For example, let’s say you’ve located a baptism record from the Jelgava St. Anne’s rural Latvian congregation, which included many peasants from surrounding districts.
The record indicates that Katrīna Lizete is the daughter of Indriķis Zariņš and Dore, residents of the "Līči" farm on the Lapsk[alns] estate.
The name of the estate or civil parish points you toward the correct revision list. In many church books, the estate or farm name is listed first in the baptism register. Often, these names are abbreviated, requiring you to identify which estates existed in the given district and decode the abbreviations. For this, you can use Google or the page Vietvārdi Latvijā (Place Names in Latvia).
Challenges with Transitioning to Revision Lists
In this particular case, only the 1797 and 1811 revision lists have survived for Lapskalns Crown Estate. Unfortunately, this is a common issue for many estates in the Jelgava district and Kurzeme region as a whole. Only a few revision lists have been preserved, which limits the ability to "jump" from church records to revision lists.
Even if all revision lists up to 1858 had survived, Indriķis and Dore Zariņi still could not be traced in the revision lists because the gap between 1858 and 1888 is too large. This means you’ll need to search through other church books until at least the 1860s. If you can find baptism records from the 1860s, there’s hope of identifying the family in the 1858 revision list.
Searching for Residents Between Revision Lists and World War I (1858–1914)
Information about residents during this period can be found in civil parish inhabitant lists, but these have not survived for every district. These lists are stored in the relevant civil parish's administration (latv. pagasta valde) collection at the Historical Archive.
To determine which civil parish to look in, consult the Baltisches Historisches Ortslexikon, which I wrote about in a previous post. For example, for Lapskalns, the lexicon states that in 1912 it belonged to Valgunde parish, while in 1938, it was part of Svēte parish. Therefore, you should search in the Valgunde parish collection at the Historical Archive to see if it includes any lists of residents.
Continuing Research Using Only Church Records
It is also possible to continue your research using only church records. If the family did not change parishes and the church books have survived, their records will remain available.
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