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

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

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...

Did your family members leave Latvia during World War II? Then the first place to look for information is the Arolsen Archives in...

Summer is the time for travel, and perhaps you, as Latvian descendants, are planning to visit Latvia. How can you quickly find the first...