Sometimes, in soul revisions (censuses of the serf population), you may come across notes stating that a peasant had fled or that...

Many state officials have personal files stored in archives, including teachers. What kind of information can be found in teacher files?...

This time, I want to explain with an example why it's important to pay attention to godparents in baptismal records. Godparents can...

I am by no means an expert in Jewish genealogy, but occasionally I have had the opportunity to search for information about Jews as well....

I have previously written about searching for homesteads on maps, but this time I want to share my recent experience. In August and...

Some enthusiastic readers convinced me that I should continue the story of Jānis Sirms's adventures in America. What jobs did Latvian...

In the third and final part, Jānis Sirms has finally saved enough money and is able to set out on his journey to America. What prompted...

Part 2: Continued from Jānis Sirms's memoirs about his journey from Courland to America in 1888. Why didn’t he board the ship in Hamburg?...

How did Latvians travel to America in the 1880s? Why did they emigrate? What challenges did they face? How long was the journey? Read...

Currently, my focus is on the story of an emigrant. A person who left Latvia around 1909. Why did people emigrate at that time? And what...

Summer is a great time for traveling and visiting relatives. Instead of sitting at the computer or in the reading room of an archive,...

Last time, I wrote about Latin abbreviations, but this time I want to look at some Latvian abbreviations in church books. It seems that...