Latvian Genealogy Blog

Imagine – you can simply "ask" your research notes instead of spending hours digging through long documents! In today's post, I'll introduce you to NotebookLM – a tool that can become a genuinely good helper in family history research. Why is NotebookLM special? NotebookLM is a Google-developed tool with one very significant difference from other AI – it works ONLY with the information you give it. As a result, there is little (or almost no) free fantasizing! All sorts of fab

Every year in genealogy brings its own challenges and discoveries, but 2025 was special. It made me reevaluate my work, taught me to adapt to new circumstances, and at the same time reminded me why I do this work at all – because it interests and engages me. I love that the result of my work is personally meaningful to someone. And what actually happened this year? If I had to say it in one word – I think I can safely say it was dramatic! The biggest events were concentrated

Why I've Been Waiting for This Just a week ago, during a lecture for family history researchers in Valmiermuiža, I said that I was impatiently waiting for the moment when artificial intelligence would finally be able to read handwritten texts. Until now, my experiments with different AI models for reading Latvian genealogical documents had been rather unsuccessful. But then Gemini 3 Pro Arrived A bit about why I put this to the test: I've spent more than 15 years reading Latv

I would like to introduce another family history book that I had the pleasure of contributing to. Its structure, in my opinion, can serve as both inspiration and a practical example for researchers who wish to create their own family books. Peter Paul, who lives in Basel, is a descendant of Ludvigs Pauls , a Latvian baptized in the Zaļenieki parish, Latvia. In 1889, Ludvigs’s father purchased the very same “ Daukšas ” homestead where the renowned Latvian poet Aspazija was bor

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

Interwar Records Have Moved Offline Anyone actively researching Latvian family history has probably noticed that interwar-period documents are no longer available online (on the FamilySearch website). From now on, passports, passport books, and the 1935 and 1941 census records can only be viewed at the Latvian State Historical Archives. But time and again, I’m reminded — without archival documents, it’s often impossible to move forward. A Research Trail That Almost Went the W

New Documents Keep Surfacing Did you think your family research was finished and complete? In truth, it never really is – almost every week new documents appear that can enrich or even change the story. I work in the archives since 2006, and I keep learning about new sources. Two Types of Researchers It seems to me there are two types of researchers: those who trace their ancestors and then stop, and those who simply can’t. They go on to research relatives, friends, acquainta

In this post, I will once again turn to my experience with the family book. The book has finally been printed, and I can now show and...

You’ve probably also come across an old passport without a photograph—just a thumbprint instead. One of Aleksandrs Pelēcis’s stories...

One of my major projects over the past six months is finally nearing completion—a family book I have been compiling on behalf of a...

Where State Pension Files Are Kept Train Driver. Edited photo from the book Latvian Railways 1918–1938. Railway employees, like other state workers, were entitled to state pensions. These pension files can reveal significant facts for family history research. Where can they be found, and what information is contained within these files? If your ancestor worked in the railway service, it is worth checking whether their pension file is preserved in the archives. In this context

Two Names, One Person? Created by Dall-E Perhaps you’ve encountered a situation where a soul revision list includes just two names—Juris Mārtiņš, for example. But which is which? Are these two given names, or is one a surname? This week I was researching the soul revision lists for Bābele Manor (Germ. Barbern). I read these revision lists in the German gothic handwriting nearly every week, and mix-ups like this one — a name that could be a patronymic or a second given name —