For genealogists, invaluable resources can be found not only in archives but also in museums and libraries. This time, I will focus on my experience with the collection at the Cēsis Museum, leaving libraries for another discussion.
A few years ago, I was preparing lectures for the online course organized by the Cēsis Museum for family history enthusiasts. During one session, museum staff introduced us to materials held in the museum's archive. It was then I discovered that several parish registers from the Cēsis region are housed not in the Latvian State Historical Archives but in the Cēsis History and Art Museum. Among these are records from the Rauna Lutheran Parish, which were of particular interest to me lately.
Parish Registers in Museums
Parish registers often found their way to museums during the Soviet era when parish members themselves handed them over. At the Cēsis Museum, the collection includes membership lists of various regional parishes from the 19th century, communion registers dating as far back as the late 18th century, and church records and card files from the interwar period. Most of these materials are exclusive to the Cēsis Museum and are not available in the Historical archives in Riga or on the Raduraksti website.
For my research, the most valuable finds were several parishioner books from the 19th century for the Rauna parish. Parishioner registers are relatively rare in the Latvian archives but are invaluable for genealogical research. They list entire families by residence and, in this respect, are similar to soul revision lists. However, unlike the latter, parishioner registers also include birth dates.
Example from Paulenhof (Kalna Buļļi)
Below is an example from the records of the Kalna Buļļi (also Buli) homestead in Paulenhof (Latv. Paulu muiža). These entries are from the 1811 Rauna parish membership lists, a time when surnames had not yet been assigned. Identifying individuals is possible only after thoroughly examining soul revision lists from later periods, using ages and the names of family members to pinpoint the desired family.
As can be seen, these records significantly enrich the family tree. From the soul revisions, I only knew that the oldest ancestors at Kalna Buļļi were Jānis and Māše, along with their approximate ages. From the parishioner registers, I learned their exact birth years and dates, their birthplace, and even their parents' names. In some cases, there were additional notes about the year of death or marriage.
Abbreviations in the Records
The entries include many abbreviations. For example, "Jehk" stands for Jēkabs, "San" (with a line over "n") is Zane, and "Msh" is Māše. "K. Bullis" refers to Kalna Buļļi. The notes often indicate a change in residence.
Communion Registers and Later Documents
In the example below, a column lists reading skills (in German, Kentnisse im Lesen) and knowledge of religious teachings (Kentnisse in der Religion).
Here are some abbreviations and their possible meanings:
L.zml – Lesen ziemlich – reading fairly well
Kt gut – Katechismus gut – good knowledge in catechism
L. mm – Lesen mittelmässig – average reading skills
Kt. Mm. – Katechismus mittelmässig – average knowledge in catechism
The latest Rauna parishioner register was compiled in 1858 and subsequently updated. The museum also holds a card file of Rauna parish members from the 1920s–1930s, though it is incomplete and did not include the surnames I was researching.
Accessing the Materials and Exploring Other Museums
Unfortunately, there are currently no plans to digitize these parish records. To view them, one must contact the Collections Department of the Cēsis History and Art Museum (located at Gaujas Street 6) to arrange a visit.
It is likely that other museums also hold parish records from their respective regions. However, there is no centralized database for locating these materials. While there is a national database for museum collections - the Joint Catalogue of the National Holdings of Museums nmkk.lv, it is not comprehensive. Many museums maintain their own internal databases or card files. The best approach is to contact each museum individually, visit in person, and review their collections. Besides parish records, other valuable materials may include local history expedition notes, photographs, historical artifacts, and documents.
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