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

Anyone actively researching Latvian family history has probably noticed that interwar-period documents are no longer available online (on...

Did you think your family research was finished and complete? In truth, it never really is – almost every week new documents appear that...

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...

Railway employees, like other state workers, were entitled to state pensions. These pension files can reveal significant facts for family...

Perhaps you’ve encountered a situation where a soul revision list includes just two names— Juris Mārtiņš , for example. But which is...

You are no doubt familiar with the problem—you come across an interesting article in a historical newspaper, but it’s not only printed in...

In many congregations, only short-form marriage registers are available. These usually list only the names and surnames of the bride and...

In an older blog post , I already wrote about the transition from German to Russian in church books. In this post, I will explain how to...

On June 3, 1891, an order was issued in the Russian Empire that from now on Lutheran church books should also be kept in Russian. The...

In this week's post, I want to share a small piece of advice that I also gave to my course participants. For a family researcher, it is...

This week I encountered a case that reminded me once again - documents cannot be blindly trusted! They need to be verified, and we must...

Reading through my family history, I discovered a sad coincidence - in two generations, my ancestors married during wartime, and instead...

This week I thought about an interesting fact that led me to read the conscription rules of the Latvian Legion. Specifically, of two twin...

Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that I often mention writing a book. Yes, step by step, I am documenting the results of a...

This week I researched a family that emigrated to Canada in 1899. Having left when Latvia was still part of the Russian Empire, family...

Was one of your ancestors a parish elder? What was a parish board, and what did the parish elder do? This blog post will explore these...