When a researcher delves into Latvian church books, they inevitably encounter historical place names. How can one interpret these names,...

Once a genealogist has gathered family information, they can turn to the broader historical context. What is the history of a specific...

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

Is a church congregation the same as a parish? Are a manor and a parish one and the same? How should one understand the administrative...

What could be simpler than finding people in address books? But which address books and from which periods are available to us? And which...

These are the books I most frequently use when doing a genealogical research. Some are available online, but most can be found in...

In my previous post, I briefly mentioned criminal cases. This time I want to write more about them. What are criminal cases and where to...

I have always been more interested in how my ancestors lived or what they were like than the number of them I can add to my family tree....

Last time I wrote about the Kurzeme and Vidzeme address books, but what about Latgale? Latgale was part of the Vitebsk Governorate, had a...

Did my ancestors have an estate? No, of course not. But life in the countryside in the 19th century was closely linked to the estate....