General Web Resources

• The Genealogy Home Page http://www.genhomepage.com/
  

• National Genealogical Society http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/
  

• Treasure Maps, the "How-to" Genealogy Site http://www.firstct.com/fv/tmaps.html

On-line searches

There are several searchable databases on the Web. Don't be surprised if you don't find any matches, as there are very few Latvian entries as yet.

• Roots Surname List Name Finder http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Genea/rsl
  
  This database consists of data submitted by genealogists. Each entry is effectively a one-line (80 character) record that consists of five fields:
  
  LastName First_known_date Last_known_date Places_of_residence Submitter
  
  An entry has two components, the data itself and information on how to contact the submitter (the fifth field):
  
  Cirulis c1860 now
  LVA>MAR>DZA>LeCannet,FRA dags
  dags Dags Grinbergs, saule@poboxes.com

  In the example, the 3-letter abbreviations stand for Latvia (LVA), Morocco, Algeria and France, respectively. The list of abbreviations, which includes countries and some cities, too, can be found at http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/codes/.
  
  

• Roots Location List Data submitted as shown above can then be parsed to search for place names and those currently researching in those areas: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Genea/rll?LTV
  

  LTV,Jekabpils(Jakabstat) 1800-now kates LTV,Jelgava
  1823-1926 stanj
  LTV,Riga 1863-1892 stanj
  

  (Curiously, the abbreviation for Latvia in the above example is "LTV", rather than "LVA", as defined in the ISO standard.)
  
  
  

• GENNAM-L Archive Page http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop?list=SURNAMES - email messages to the GENNAM-L mailing list. For reference, this resource contains only about two dozen matches on Latvia.
  
  

• Helm's Genealogy Toolbox Surname/Family Queries http://www.genealogytoolbox.com/
  
  Besides doing a search, there's also a forms-based page for submitting a query to other readers of the page. Here's a sample submission:
  
  

  SURNAMER, SURINAMER, ZURNAMER, ZURINAMER, ZHURINAMER, or
  ZHURNAMER especially
  in Latvia, Lithuania, Holland, Suriname, South Africa, Australia,
  and Israel.
  Judith Langer Caplan <Judith27@aol.com>

• Roots-L Library http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/filelist.html

Researching from afar (without the Web)

One of the more important resources for genealogy research is the Mormon church (The Church of the Latter Day Saints), which is probably the world's largest maintainer of genealogical information. There are numerous LDS Family History Centers in the USA, Canada, British Isles, New Zealand and Australia; a list can be found at http://www.genhomepage.com/FHC/fhc.html. If you happen to live near one of these centers, or have the opportunity to visit one, you're apt to find some interesting information in the following resources:

• The microfiche of Latvian resources

• Ancestral File

• International Genealogical Index (IGI)

• Family Registry - names of researchers working on a particular name. On microfiche.

Shown below is an example of the data available from the microfiche on Latvia. Note that the text of the records reproduced on this microfilm is in German. Depending on the period, however, the text could be in German, Russian or Latvian. Note, too, that the place currently known as Dundaga was then known, in German, as Dondangen. In this case, the two place names are very similar; in other cases, though, the name changes are not obvious at all. For example, Mitau is the place known presently as Jelgava. A database or list of alternate place names would be of great interest to Latvian genealogical researchers. I would very much like to hear from anyone who has such a list, or even the beginnings of one.