Many people believe in the miracles of the Internet and think that it is a place where an answer to any query about their families could be found in a moment. Really, you could expect miracles, but you should not rely on them. So start with a bit more traditional things, and be ready to put a lot of effort into the work.

Collect all the information you can around you. Gather all the documents, the photographs, the letters, the postcards, the diaries etc. of your family, no matter in what language they are written and how important they seem to you. Interview all your living relatives, the friends of your family, acquaintances of your parents or grandparents. It is very important to start the job today, tomorrow you will gather considerably less information.

What information is important that you could find in the memories of the people you ask about your family history? There are special questionnaires elaborated for this purpose - see, for example, Rootsweb. I think you may ask for the following information:

What were the names of your ancestors, and how theses names were spelled in different times? Were they ever changed and if, yes, then how?

What were the reasons and details of the emigration? What were the routes of migration?

What was the religious affiliation of your ancestors? Did they ever convert to another religion? Were they active in the church or the parish organizations?

Where your male ancestors served in an Army, if any? What was their military rank, speciality, participation in any warfare etc.?

Where your ancestors or relatives were baptized, confirmed, married, buried?

What was the education of your parents and grandparents? What schools they graduated from?

What were their professions? How they acquired them? What they did for living?

What were their hobbies? What groups of interests they belonged to? Did they ever attend any clubs, circles of interests, chorus etc.?

What were their political sympathies? Did they ever belong to any political organizations?

May be they were arrested or put in jail? Where, when and by whom?

Try to get all possible information from official sources of your country.

The sources of official information are different in various countries, and they depend on the way how your ancestors entered the country. You may study the possibilities on the spot. For example, in the USA you can start from getting a copy of the application card for the Social Security Index number of your non-living parents, grandparents or other relatives, also the copies of the immigration documents and the citizenship applications would be desirable. If your ancestors arrived in the USA before the WW1, then the Passenger list of the appropriate ship will bring a lot of information, if found.

It is worth of getting Census information, mainly because it provides data about the birth place. According to the US legislation the information of Censuses until 1920 is freely available, and it will be available for the Census of 1930 beginning from 2001. (Actually, it is already available, and the data of all Censuses are indexed and made available online. Connect to the Family History Site. )

Of course, it is also desirable to collect all the birth, death and marriage certificates you can. Quite possibly that each one of them will add some information, may be only a bit, however.

The main task of these investigations is to find the names of the people, the birth dates and the place your ancestors came from. These are the data you should have to apply to Latvia archives for further information. As the spelling of the person and the place names may have changed during the time, you should not expect that the information in the documents will be easy to understand. You may also consider that the clerks, who filled up the forms, might be not awfully well educated in spelling of non-English names, and your ancestors could also make mistakes and could have some reasons for hiding something from the officials and even to say direct lies. In the doubtful cases it is rather usual and sometimes fruitful practice to open a discussion in an appropriate newsgroup on the Internet.

It would be a good idea to visit the nearest Family History Center (FHC) of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Days Saints (aka Mormons). There are about 3500 FHC all over the world, and quite probably you have one near your home. According to the information on the Internet, in the Centers no religious propaganda is going on, so you can pay a visit even if you do not plan to join the Church. Firstly, you can find there well-experienced volunteers with whom to discuss your problems, secondly, you can study there the copies of revision lists of the Russian Empire and the church books and other information sources for the region of Latvia. It should be mentioned, however, that the investigation of these documents could demand more linguistic qualification than you supposed you have. Some information about the activities of the LDS Church in Latvia you may find in another Page.

The sources of the official information on the Internet are very limited, you should apply for it in Latvia archives. The general information about the system of archives in Latvia could be found in the Page on Latvia archives. The experience in the usage of Latvia Archives by Jewish family history investigators is described in the Home Page of SIG Latvia of JewishGen.

Judging from the mails I receive, I conclude that some people in West truly believe that all of the archives in Latvia were destroyed by stupid and savage Bolsheviks. Whatever you think about the Bolsheviks, you may know that neither archive system nor documents in the archives were destroyed intentionally. At least, it could be said about the genealogy relevant information sources. Unfortunately, I can not say that all was done for gathering those documents that were not in archives, though it would be quite important for family history research to keep them there. For example, many documents from church archives were recycled in the paper factories, and only some of them were saved by collectors. See about these documents in the special page.

In any stage you are welcome to share your information, your doubts and your problems with the people in various Fora on the Internet. One of possible choices is to subscribe to the discussion list Roots which is to some extent relative to this Site ROOTS=SAKNES.