Reviews

By unveiling the online service Raduraksti in December, the Latvian State Historical Archives (Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs) has put a smile on many peoples’ faces. For various archive users—from professional researchers to amateur genealogists—this new service will make researching family histories much easier.

It will no longer be necessary to physically turn up on the archives’ doorstep to access some of the records. Admittedly only a small percentage of records are online so far, but by the end of 2008 the plan is to have all church records of all denominations digitalized. Headway also is expected on making available census data from 18th and 19th century tsarist Russia (which Latvia was a part of intermittently). So far on offer are Lutheran church records dating back to the middle of the 18th century, searchable by region or congregation. Available records only go forward in time as far as 1905.

The records contain a register of births and baptisms, including the names of parents and their profession, godparents’ details and name of the person who performed the baptism. Also available is a register of confirmations, engagement announcements, marriages and deaths.

You will be required to register as a user of this online service. Having reached the digitalized records, you will find that they are usually handwritten in German (using the old German orthography) or in Russian. Although you can zoom in to try to make more sense of the text, bear in mind that by increasing the size of the text you lose resolution and the text will become distorted. Deciphering the records may be tedious and time consuming.

The Latvian project was inspired by the Estonian Saaga service launched in 2005 by the Estonian Historical Archives. All Lutheran and Russian Orthodox church records from Estonia, as well as other documents, are available online.

Various other places provide tips and offer access to information regarding Latvian genealogy. One such site is the Ciltskoks blog, where an enthusiast shares his tips (in Latvian only) on searching the Web for specific Latvian genealogy sites.

Meanwhile, ciltskoks.lv provides an online tool to create your own family tree, complete with a photo and video gallery, a calendar and a travelogue section. You will need to register before you can use the site, but click on “Kas ir ‘boon’?” for a preview of what the site offers.

Also worth a mention is Roots=Saknes. The site was originally started in 1993 by Bruno Martuzāns at LATNET (the Latvian Academic Computer Network). Having received numerous requests for help from all over the world, and not being able to reply to many of them initially, he decided to set up a Web site that would at least point people in the right direction and contain tips on how to go about researching genealogy in Latvia. The site is in English and doesn’t look that flashy, but it is very helpful.

Don’t forget the Latvians Online Looking for Friends and Relatives Forum where some of our helpful members also have a wealth of genealogy information to share with others.

The Raduraksti site created by the Latvian State Historical Archives allows users to peruse church records, such as this one from Sunākste, to find information about genealogy.

Comments about this article

Sandy Wallace

I've been looking for two family connections in Latvia and I'm happy to be able to have use of on-line searching. My family name was Rekstin and the other name, from Riga also, was Chablowsky. We don't know how the rest of the family in Latvia lived and we are curious about them.

04 Feb 2008 (United States)

Ieva O Hartwell

I have used the Raduraksti site and feel that the article should have mentioned that the records currently available are only from Kurzeme. Other areas of Latvia will be added later. Since my family comes from that area of Latvia, I have found some of the birth records I have been looking for, but the searching has been very tedious. It would be helpful if the site would provide a translation of the German column headings (pre-1892) and the Russian column headings (1892 - forward) for the various types of records (birth, marriage, death). Some of the entries are easier to decipher than others because of the handwriting of the individuals who entered the records. The marriage records include a reference to another register, but as far as I can tell, these registers are not yet online, if they even will be.

07 Feb 2008 (United States)

marina skaidra maskalans

I also went on the site Raduraksti, to seek my latvian relatives and ancestors, but didn't find it helpful as the writing was unreadable and the site had only info from before world war II, could you please give me other helpful sites, I also tried writing to the offivcial history archives in Riga, but couldn't send them the e mail, it kept coming back.

24 Mar 2008 (Italy)

Jack A. Callies

I have found Raduraksti to be very helpful in tracing my RENNER ancestors. I just started searching the site a few weeks ago and have already found 10 references to my grandfather's family. There are many records left for me to search and hopefully I will have more success.

07 Apr 2008 (United States)

patrickbuckley

Shalom and greetings everybody, Family history is an important subject. If you dont know youre past, you dont know youre future. Im thinking of visiting Latvia to get in contact with family members, it could be that i will bring my Latvian wife with me, kind regards.

12 Jul 2008 (Great Britain (UK))