According to the official legislation of the Russia Empire, the civil registers of the old Believers were kept in the local governments. It seems, however, that in practice the Old believer communities had their own registration system. These registers were used for official purposes also in the independent Latvia

I possess a Metric certificate made in Gaiķi community of Old Believers in Daugavpils on May 3, 1922 that asserts that a petty bourgeois of Jēkabpils [Jacobstadt] Semjon Nazar's son Firsov, 39 years old, was married with a peasant of Kapiņu pagasts, Marija Michej's daughter Presņakova, 21 year old, on December 31, 1901.

The document was signed by the chairman of the community V.Koļesņikov and by the secretary of the community (I could not decipher his name).

A document with similar legal capacity was issued by Grebenščikov parish of Old Believers in Riga on January 22, 1936.

This document was made in Latvian using the printed form and was called a copy-translation. Actually it was an excerpt of a birth registry. It informs that on December 26, 1912 in the prayer house of Grebenščikov's parish a male child was christened and named Daniil by the Priest Timofej Jermolajev. The child was born on December 4, 1912. in Riga.

Child's parents were:
the father - Michails Galilejevs, who was a citizen of Bojāri village, Vaivodovas pagats, Rēzeknes apriņķis, Vitebskas province. To tell the truth, I have difficulties to identify the place, because in 1936 Vaivodovas pagasts did not exist and I do not know where it was in 1912.
the mother - Fedosija Galilejevs, Kalugas str. 10, Rīga.

The godparents were - Jefrosims Semjon's son Markovs and Agripina Semjon's daughter Šalajevs.