Latvia Gazetteers

In order to research your family in Latvia, it is essential that you have identified the actual town name of where they came from. It is not enough to know only ‘Latvia;' you really need to determine the town name the district/province name.

Once you have determined the name of the town your ancestor came from, you'll need to locate it in a gazetteer to find both current and historical town names, jurisdictions, and the parish.

Modern day Latvia is divided into four primary regions: Kurzeme, Zemgale, Vidzeme, and Latgale. Kurzeme and Zemgale were previously the Courland (also known as Kurland) gubernia of the Russian Empire, Vidzeme was the former Livland (also known as Livonia or Liflandia), and Latgale was a part of the Vitebsk Gubernia.

Introduction


A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or index. Depending on the gazetteer, it may contain information about locations such as:
 * their jurisdictions (gubernia, province, county, uyezd, etc.)
 * parish churches or synagogues
 * location of civil registration offices
 * population numbers
 * postal facilities
 * communication facilities (telephone, telegraph, and so on)
 * local commerce, agriculture, manufacturing works, canals, docks, and railroad stations
 * schools, colleges, and universities

Gazetteers are produced to cover a country generally, and cover the locations as of the date they are published. Historically, Latvia was a part of the Russian Empire - the gubernii of Courland, Livland, and Vitebsk.

JewishGen Communities Database
The JewishGen Communities Database contains data on approximately 6,000 Jewish Communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It is a great resource to help you locate your ancestor's town - regardless of whether or not your ancestor was Jewish. You can use this database to find modern and historical place names as well as jurisdictions over time. To learn how to use the JewishGen Communities Database "How to" Guide.
 * First, read through the [[Media:1 - Instruction - JewishGen Communities JMR.pdf|Instruction.]]


 * Practice what you learned with the [[Media:2 - Activity - JewishGen Communities JMR.pdf|Activity.]]


 * Use the [[Media:3 - Key - JewishGen Communities JMR (1).pdf|Answer Key]] to check your answers.

Familio
The Familio place name database contains information about places in the former Russian Empire and modern-day countries of Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia. In order to use the database, you will need to search using the Russian spelling of a town name. This can be located through Google Maps or Wikipedia articles about the town.

The website is is in Russian, but can be easily navigated using Google Translate. To translate the page into English, right click anywhere on the page and select the option Translate to English. To search, type the Russian version of the town name into the search by settlements box. You must type the name of the town in Russian characters. If you search in English, you will not get any results. You have the option to filter by country (Страна), Region (Регион), and District (translates as area) (Район). Hit enter on your keyboard, or click Find (Найти).

An entry contains information about a town including references to other gazetteers (may link to the Spiski Mest), for both historical time periods, as well as modern day gazetteers. There may also be additional information about the town available by investigating the tabs found underneath the map:
 * If you click on the Surnames (Фамилии) tab, you'll find other surnames that other Familio users are researching.
 * The People (Люди) tab includes individuals in the Familio family tree database associated with the town.
 * Sources (Источники) are a list of available records for the location (this has not been added for many entries in the database, but will be added in the future).
 * The Parishes (Приходы) option lists the nearest parishes (this has not been added for many entries in the database, but will be added in the future).
 * The Discussion (Обсуждение) tab is available to collaborate about the town with other Familio users.

Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii
The Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii, often referred to as simply the Spiski, is the foundational gazetteer for the Russian Empire. The gazetteer is organized by locality - first by gubernia (province), then by uyezd (county), and finally by the city, village, colony, or town. Each volume contains a locality index at the back of the book. In order to use this gazetteer effectively, you'll need to know which gubernia your ancestor's hometown was located in. Latvia consists of three former gubernia: Courland, Livland, and Vitebsk. Find links to each of these gazetteers below:


 * Courland Gubernia Spiski Mest, 1859.
 * Vitebsk Gubernia Spiski Mest, 1906.
 * Alphabetical List of Volosts of Livland Gubernia, 1887 (alternate gazetteer - in German and Russian).

Print Only Gazetteers

 * Baltische Postorte, 1632-1917/8 Harry von Hofman. Baltische Postorte, 1632-1917/8 : in den Sprachen Russisch, Deutsch, Estnisch, Lettisch, Litauisch und Polnisch ; mit Eröffnungsdaten und Klassifikation der Postanstalten, Angabe der Leitämter, Bahnanschlüsse etc. sowie Zugehörigkeit zu den späteren Staaten Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Russland oder Polen. Hamburg, Germany c1996 - Identifies postal offices for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by their Russian and native names.
 * Baltisches historisches Ortslexikon Hans Feldmann. Baltisches historisches Ortslexikon. Köln, Germany : Böhlau Verlag, 1985. - A German compilation for Estonia and Latvia that identifies the parish to which a place belonged. It includes parish histories. It is deficient is providing the Russian name for Baltic localities. The entries are in alphabetical order. The text is in German. -- Lists the parish.
 * Verzeichnis lettländischer Ortsnamen Hans Feldmann. Verzeichnis lettländischer Ortsnamen. Hamburg, Germany : Harry V. Hofmann, 1963. Language: German and Latin.
 * Baltische Lande Baltische Lande. Darmstadt, Germany : Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973. Cartographic materials in German.
 * Vasmer, Max. Russisches Geographisches Namenbuch, Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1964-1981. Nachtrag (Supplement), 1988. 11 vols. (FHL INTL Book 947 E5r).

Additional Resources

 * FamilySearch Places
 * Cities, towns and villages in Latvia, sorted by Districts
 * Fallingrain - Latvia Gazetteer
 * Latvia as an Independent State Dr. Alfred Bilmanis. Latvia as an Independent State. Washington : Latvian Legation, 1947.
 * Latvia as an Independent State Dr. Alfred Bilmanis. Latvia as an Independent State. Washington : Latvian Legation, 1947.