On Parish Names and Borders

To find someone, you first need to know where to look. The same goes for family history. Before you can begin your research, you have to know which parish your ancestors lived in. Sometimes it’s enough to know which congregation they belonged to — but that’s where things get tricky. A parish (pagasts) and a congregation (draudze) are not the same thing. Let me share a confusing little case I ran into involving both.

A Confusing Certificate

This one research started with a certificate issued by the Aumeisteri–Palsmane Lutheran congregation, stating that Kārlis was born in 1914 in Zvārta­va parish.

So I open up my trusty reference on Ciltskoki.lv (Ciltskoki.lv → Palīgs (Help) → Baznīcu grāmatām un dvēseļu revīzijām (Church books and Soul Revision lists) → LUTERĀŅI (Lutherans) →Pagasti >Draudzes (Parishes > Congregations) and see that Zvārta­va parish belonged to Gaujiena congregation.

Parish vs. Congregation

Then why is the certificate from Aumeisteri congregation? I read it again:

“According to the entry in the personal record book of the Aumeisteri Evangelical Lutheran congregation, page xx...”

Ah — so the certificate doesn’t confirm baptism in the Aumeisteri congregation; it simply notes that there’s an entry in their personal register. That means the person was, at some point, a member of the Aumeisteri congregation, but not necessarily baptized there.

Finding the Baptism Record

I look up Gaujiena congregation’s baptism records — and bingo! There he is: Kārlis, born in Zvārta­va parish. The birth date and parents’ names match perfectly. I’ve found the baptism record.

Parish Inhabitant Lists

But I want to dig deeper — can I also find the family listed in any parish resident registers?

I check the Zvārta­va parish board records (fund 1296, inventory 1, file 7) from 1903–1905, but no luck. The family wasn’t registered there yet at that time. All right, let’s see what I can find for Aumeisteri parish.

The Aumeisteri Name Trap

First things first — the correct name is AumeistEru, not AumeistAru. It’s such an easy mistake to make, but that tiny detail matters. When searching the Historical archive database , you need to search for “Aumeisteru.”

The Aumeisteri parish board archive (fund 863) only starts from 1904, and there are a meager two files. So what about earlier records? It seems nothing survived. But what about later — there should be documents from the Latvian Republic period (1918-1940), right?

Here Comes the Cirgaļi Parish

I google “Aumeisteru pagasts” and discover on Wikipedia that in 1925, Aumeisteri parish was renamed Cirgaļi parish. Great! That clears things up. I look up Cirgaļi parish (Latv. Cirgaļu pagasts) in the archive database and — perfect — there’s a collection (fund 5783) covering 1927–1944. The file list even includes resident registers and passport books from that time.

Check the Maps as Well

Just to be sure, I also check historical maps on vēsture.dodies.lv. The farm where Kārlis was born in 1914 was part of Zvārta­va parish on both the 1934 and 1940 Latvian road maps (1934 and 1940 Ceļu karte). Today, that same area belongs to Gaujiena parish. No wonder family researchers can go a little crazy trying to make sense of it all!

In the end, there’s no way around it — if you want to find something, you have to dig deep and understand the history, including the changes in administrative borders and place names.

P.S. If you’re passionate about researching your Latvian roots, I’ll be covering this very topic in my new course, “Researching the Interwar Period (1918–1940)”. You can find more information and join the course here.