Three Years!

This blog is three years old today! As I’ve said in previous blog anniversaries, when I first started this blog, I never imagined that I would get the response that I have. I’ve had people contact me from all over

Surname Saturday – Olympic Victors

Time to celebrate the Latvian medalists of the 2012 Olympics! This can fit in nicely with Surname Saturday – let’s take a look at their names, shall we? The first Latvian medalists of 2012 were bronze medalists MÄrtiÅ†Å¡ PÄ¼aviÅ†Å¡ and

Ä» is for Ä»audis

We’ve stumbled onto a particularly difficult letter for the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge… Ä». “Ä»” is an odd letter – sort of like the “ll” in “million”, with more of a “y” added to it. The only word

Ä¶ is for Ä¶imene and Ä¶iploks

So I have finally ran out of regular genealogy-related words for the more unusual letters of the Latvian alphabet for the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, so we’re off to surnames… so today for Ä¶ we have Ä¶imene and

Surname Saturday – Surnames of Jumurda Estate, 1826

I’m starting a new Surname Saturday feature – each week, I will profile the surnames of a different manorial estate from the 1826 revision list. Why 1826? That is the year that surnames first appeared in the revision lists –

Surname Saturday – Different Kinds of Hills

As many of you probably know, the Latvian word for hill, “kalns”, is a fairly common Latvian surname, particularly in its diminutive form KalniÅ†Å¡. But there are many different kind of “kalns” as well, as evidenced by my journeys through

Surname Saturday – Å Ä«rs

Welcome to the return of Surname Saturday at Discovering Latvian Roots! Today’s surname is Å Ä«rs – this is the maiden name of my great-grandmother Lilija, who married Augusts LÅ«kins in 1921. Lilija’s parents were JÄ“kabs Å Ä«rs and KristÄ«ne Kukure. This

I’m Back!

Sorry for my long absence, this last semester of classes has just been extremely time-consuming. But everything has been submitted, and there is only one component left to my program prior to graduation in the spring – completing my internship!

Surname Saturday – Government Approved, Part 4

It’s been six months since I posted one of these lists… well, better late than never! The summer was very busy, and I moved, and only now have I recovered where I put these papers. Onto the names! As before,

Surname Saturday – Government Approved, Part 3

Sorry for the long delay, school has been absolutely out of hand! But the summer arrives a week from now, so hopefully there will be more time to write here. I believe I’ve caught up on my email correspondence recently