In the 1890s, Russian, instead of German, was required as the administrative language in the Baltic governorates. Church books had to be written in Russian.
Below is an example of a Lutheran baptismal record in Russian. Beginning in 1892, church books in Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, had to be written in Russian. The example is from St. Martin's Church in Riga (Mārtiņa baznīca) and represents a typical listing for Latvians living and working in Riga: the father is a factory worker, and the birth address of the child is not stated. Some abbreviations are:
Род. for "parents"
ур. for "née" (meaning the maiden name of the mother)
Воспр. for "godparents"
Крещ. for "baptised" (referring to the church where the child was baptised)
The names and surnames in parentheses in the English translation give the Modern Latvian orthography, however back in the nineteenth century, German orthography rules were used to write in Latvian.
