Marriage in Latvia

The old marriage legislation of the Russia Empire was in force until the marriage Law of Latvia was adopted on February 1, 1921. The general principles of the new Law were similar to the marriage rules of the Lutherans that were obeyed in the Russia Empire. At the same time, serious changes in the marriage procedure were introduced. Now the Church and the State were separated, the just created civil registers were the State institutions, and the couples could be joined in matrimony either by the department of civil registers (DCR) or by some confessions.

I do not know how the list of these confessions changed in time, but in 1935 it comprised the following 9 confessions:

Evangelic-Lutherans;
Reformats;
Roman Catholics;
Greek Orthodoxes;
Old Believers;
Episcopal Methodists;
Baptists;
Seventh day Adventists;
Moses faith (Judaists).

 

Procedure of joining in matrimony

The betrothal was not necessary for the marriage, however it was legally accepted. The advertising of the future marriage was obligatory. The religious confessions organized this advertising according to their own rules. See about advertising (proclamation) in churches of Ev.-Lutheran Church in the description of marriage in the Russia Empire.

The departments of civil registers had their own procedure. First, the new couple ought to inform the civil register at the bridegroom living place about their intention to be joined in matrimony. Then an advertisement was to be published for 2 weeks in the DCR’s premises of the living places both of bride and bridegroom. It could be simply a leaflet on the wall of the DCR office, but in practice it happened that the lists of the future married people were also published in local newspapers. The friends and relatives of the future spouses sometimes were also informed about the planned marriage by specially printed cards, but they had no official sense.

For example, Riga DCR published the lists of the future marriages in the newspaper “Jaunākās ziņas”. Unfortunately, I do not know how regular was the practice, and I am afraid it did not always happen, because I have rather many issues of the newspaper and only some of them contain the list. Two samples of these publications are available on this site. The general conclusion I made of reading these lists is that they contain relatively many names not characteristic for Latvia, which should made them interesting for non-Latvian family history researchers.

If in 2 weeks the DCR received no objections to the marriage, then it was decided that the couple can be married, and the director of the DCR joined them in the matrimony or made the certificate about successful advertisement. With this certificate the couple could go to any other DCR or to an appropriate church (if it recognized the certificate as the proof of successful advertisement) and the actual marriage could take place there.

According to the Law, only a registered marriage was the lawful marriage. If a couple was joined in matrimony by any DCR, then the registration occurred automatically. If an appropriate clergyman joined a couple in a church, then it was his duty to inform in written form the appropriate DCR about the marriage and, as soon as the official information was received, the DCR registered the marriage. It was important that the DCRs were the only institutions that could produce any documents of legal force concerning marriages.

a) if the bridegroom was younger than 18 or the bride was younger than 16. However, if the couple had been joined in matrimony in spite of this obstacle, the marriage was not cancelled, if the bride became pregnant either the spouses reached the legal age before the court decision was made.

b) it was prohibited to marry siblings, half-siblings, stepparents with stepchildren. Marriage of an adoptee and the adopter was not banned, but the adoption became null and void after marriage.

c) if another marriage of one of declared spouses legally existed.

d) if the bridegroom or the bride of not lawful age (21 years) had no agreement of the parents or the guardians. If they did not agree without serious reasons, then necessary permission could be obtained in the appropriate institution of guardianship.

e) a women was to wait at least 300 days after the end of the previous marriage until she could be married for the next time. However in some cases it was not obligatory: 1) if the women gave the birth to a child in less than 300 days after the end of the previous marriage; 2) if the just divorced spouses joined in matrimony again; 3) if after 4 months of the end of the marriage a doctor certified that the women was not pregnant - it was not possible to diagnose pregnancy earlier than 4 months at that time, you know; 4) if the court, which divorced the marriage, agreed to the new marriage.

Divorces

The Latvia laws acknowledged the following grounds for divorces:

1. Adultery, excepting the cases when it was committed with agreement or encouragement of the other part, or the other part forgave it.

2. Threat for life or health. Beating or torture of the other spouse.

3. Unwarranted absence for the time more than 1 year.

4. Lasting mental or contagious disease.

5. Disreputable deed, dishonest or unchaste life.

6. Infertility or inability to pursue conjugal life.

7. Aversion against conjugal life.

8. Destroyment of the marital life to the extent that it was not possible to continue the life together.

9. Separate living of both spouses for the period more than 3 years.

10. Mutual agreement of both spouses.

The statistics of divorces for 1930 by grounds could be found in the special Page.