It is too easy, especially when reading records that require interpretation of handwriting in an unfamiliar language, to pick out the main details – date of birth and parents – but ignore the details that are “not strictly necessary” –
Working With Revision Lists
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that the Kurland revision lists are up on Raduraksti. Good news – the Livland (Vidzeme) revision lists are up too! Now here is your guide to making sense of these documents! I’m going
Records after 1905
In my last post, a reader requested that I talk about records after 1905. So here we go! There are lots of different types of records available for the post-1905 period – however, as of right now, none of them
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
Getting Started with Latvian Research
I’ll admit, this post is long overdue. It should have been one of the first posts on this blog. But it is here now! For the purposes of this post, I am assuming several things. The main assumption is that
Importance of Farm Names
Before I went to the Latvian State Historical Archives for the first time, I didn’t pay much attention to farm names. Sure, I knew the name of the farm where one of my grandfathers grew up, but I didn’t attach
Myths About Latvian Research
[This post was written for the 26th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, hosted by Jessica’s Genejournal.] There are thousands of people in the West with Latvian ancestry. Many are searching for their Latvian ancestors, but
Old Newspapers Online at the Latvian National Library
Through the website Periodika, the Latvian National Library offers digital scans of newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most newspaper editions available are from the 1920s and 1930s. The user interface is available in Latvian and in
Navigating Raduraksti
I make many references to LVVA’s Raduraksti. It is the best resource for people researching their Latvian family history if they’re not able to go to the LVVA itself. The collection of documents available there is growing – recently they
Tips, Tricks and Websites
[This post is written for the 24th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, hosted by Al’s Polish-American Genealogy Research.] The topic for this Carnival is Tips, Tricks and Websites. I’ve already outlined the websites useful for