Latvian Genealogy Blog

My grandfather's drawings captured impressions from the long journey home in 1945-1946. The title syas: Light! Reading through my family history, I discovered a sad coincidence - in two generations, my ancestors married during wartime, and instead of a honeymoon, they were forced to become refugees for months and even years. World War I Refugee Journey (1914-1921) My great-grandparents, originally from Kurzeme, married on August 23, 1914 - just after World War I had begun. Th

Two Brothers, Two Different Fates This week I thought about an interesting fact that led me to read the conscription rules of the Latvian Legion. Specifically, of two twin brothers, only one was drafted into the Legion, while the other was later conscripted into the Red Army. How could this happen when both were the same age and, according to the rules, young men were conscripted as soon as they turned 18? The mentioned twin brothers were born in 1926 and turned 18 in August

This week I researched a family that emigrated to Canada in 1899. Having left when Latvia was still part of the Russian Empire, family members visited Latvia during its period of independence in the 1920s. What information can be found in immigration files? Creadted by DALL-E Why Emigration Records Are Hard to Find in Latvia Finding information about emigration in Latvian archives can be challenging. Our archives don't hold ship passenger lists. While some emigration document