Latvian Genealogy Forum

I wonder if anyone can help me on this. On the family tree and writings a ancestors first name is known as Fricis , but on the birth and marriage records his first name is Fritz. Can I assume that Fricis is a short form of Fritz?

Fricis is not a short form of Fritz, rather it is the Latvian spelling of Fritz. The old records were kept mostly in German and Russian, and even the rare records that are in Latvian still use German spelling rules (since Latvian spelling wasn't standardized until the 1920s). Standardized Latvian spellings have most male names with an "s" or "is" ending.

Other examples:

Mikkel, Mikel -> Miķelis
Mahrt, Marz, -> Mārts, Marcis
Martin -> Mārtiņš
Jahn, Jan, Janne -> Jānis
Peter -> Pēteris
Jeannot, Zhanno -> Žanis
Ans, Hans -> Ansis
Carl, Karl -> Kārlis
Dahw, Dahwe -> Dāvis
Paul, Pavel -> Paulis, Pāvils

Thanks Antra. That solves that puzzle.