The beginning of the Baptist religion in the region of Latvia was in the 1850s, when some Lutherans from Liepāja [Libau] went to Klaipeda [Memel] and were baptized into the Baptist religion. The Church recognizes its beginnings from September 10, 1861 when 72 (other sources - 75) Latvians became Baptists and were baptized by A.Gertners. Later Baptists' numbers grew steadily though not very fast.

The main place of Baptist activities was Kurzeme [Kurland] province. The promotion of the confession in the Southern regions of the province was led by Jēkabs Iņķis. Other names of Baptist preachers of that time mentioned in /LKV/ vol.2 were - J.Vikstrēms, J.Neibuks, J.Eidemanis, J.Zirnieks, J.Rumbergs.

The Baptists were not recognized as a legal religion until 1879, when the Empire level Law was adopted. Then the Baptists were tolerated, and according to this Law their civil registration went on at pagasts level as was the case with the Old-believers. Other confessions kept the civil registers for themselves.

The Baptists were quite active in organizing some migration on a religious basis. The first of the migrations occurred in the 1890s, when some Baptists went to Brazil. In 1902 a Baptist preacher Jānis Iņķis was sent by the Riga Baptists to Brazil for missionary activities among Latvian colonists. Some migration, at the beginning of 1900s, was organized to the United States as well.

The greatest migration took place in 1922 and 1924 to Brazil again. At that time a total of about 2200 Baptists migrated from Latvia to Brazil. A short overview of the migration and the life of Baptists in Brazil prepared by V.Gruber is made available on this Site. No doubt, lists of emigrants should exist somewhere, but I have no idea where they are.

Information in /LKV/ vol.2 says that there were 9288 active Baptists in 80 parishes with 102 preachers in Latvia at 1927, and their total number together with children was estimated at about 20,000. The president of the Church was Jānis Aleksandrs Freijs (b. 1863). The same source informs us that at that time some controversies ocurred amongst the Baptist leaders, and V.Fetlers was the leader of an opposition group. Some information about this man and his work may be found in another Page of the Site.