This is the second in a series about myths relating to Latvian genealogy. Go check out the first one about record availability here! Today’s myth: “My ancestors only spelled their surname one way.” Wrong. Very wrong. Very incredibly wrong. If
O is for Orthography
I know, I know, it has been a long time since I updated on the Family History through the Alphabet challenge. I was already behind when I joined, now I’m even further behind! But no matter. I will catch up
Making Sense of Exonyms
So after puzzling through the various alphabets and orthographies, you have been able to establish what your ancestors’ names would have looked like back in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is a great first step towards tracking them
Important Latvian/German/Russian Words
Language can be one of the biggest obstacles to tracing Latvian genealogy. However, it is not an insurmountable one. Most records follow specific patterns, and once you know what to look for in the patterns, you can easily find what
Changes in Orthography
What happens when you apply the orthography of one language to a fairly unrelated language? A right mess, that’s what. As mentioned before, up until the 1890s most church books in Latvia were written in German. German is, as its