Resources

General Latvian Genealogy Resources

Raduraksti - a project of the Latvian State Historical Archives. Digital images from Latvian church records, the 1895 Census and revision lists.

ROOTS=SAKNES - provides an excellent overview of what every researcher in Latvian genealogy and family history should know before starting out.

International Tracing Service - if your family emigrated from Latvia during the Second World War and spent time in Displaced Persons camps after the war, you can place a request with the ITS to find out if they have any documentation in their files on your family during this time period.

Ciltskoki - a Latvian-language site that provides indexes for records found on Raduraksti. Some parts of the site are available in English, but most is in Latvian.

Surnames

"Patrilines, Surnames and Family Identity: A Case Study from the Russian Baltic Provinces in the Nineteenth Century" by Andrejs Plakans and Charles Wetherell in The History of the Family, Volume 5, Number 2, pages 199-214, 2000.

Lexikon der Familiennamen, R. Kohlheim & V. Kohlheim, Dudenverlag, 2008.

Uzvārdu došana Kurzemes un Vidzemes zemniekiem., Kr. Upelnieks, Valters un Rapa, 1938.

Latviešu personu vārdu un uzvārdu studijas. E. Blese, Rīga, 1929.

Translation Aids

Historisches deutsch-lettisches/lettisch-deutsches Ortsnamensverzeichnis - City/town/parish names in Latvian and their German equivalents (exonyms).

Wikipedia - more German exonyms in Latvia.

Letonika - a wide range of online Latvian-other language dictionaries, including Latvian-English and Latvian-German.

Englisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Englisch Wörterbuch, Sonderausgabe.

Latvian-English/English-Latvian Dictionary, M. Sosāre & I. Birzvalka, Hippocrene, 1996.

Vācu-Latviešu/Latviešu-Vācu Vārdnīca, L. Vjtare, Avots, 2005.

Geographical Aids

Baltic Maps - modern day searchable map.

Latvijas ceļu karte, Š.Z. Departments, 1940.

Latvijas topogrāfiskās kartes, Armijas štāba Ģeodēzijas-Topogrāfijas daļas izdevums mērogā 1:75 000, 1920-1930. CD produced by Jāna Sēta.