Clues to the Past: Photography Studios
Old family photographs are so precious. Some of us have hundreds, some may have only a handful and sadly others […]
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Riga
Latvian Song Festivals – the Voice of a Nation
The importance of song and dance to the people of the Baltic nations cannot be overstated. For many decades, song
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Riga Address Books: Locating Your Ancestors in Riga
The 1810 Riga address book (on the left) is the earliest that I found and the 1930/1931 (on the right)
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Attack Under the Gogol St. Viaduct – 1925
On Tuesday, the 22nd of September in the year 1925, Andrejs Blezurs arrived at the Riga docks, having just completed
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Finding and Using Latvian Maps
Any historian or genealogist will agree that maps are an essential tool to making sense of research, creating mental images
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Kārlis Zāle – Shine Like a Star!
How to Represent Freedom In 1922, the Prime Minister of the newly independent nation of Latvia, proposed erecting a new
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Olga’s “Party Picture”
This is definitely my favourite of all the old photos my father-in-law has from his father’s family. My husband and
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Birth, Death & Chocolate – 11 Miera Street (Part 2)
History & Style In the first years of the 20th century, architects such as Mikhail Eisenstein created the opulent buildings
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Birth, Death & Chocolate – Miera Street, Riga (Part 1)
The name for this street, ‘Miera iela’ or ‘Peace Street’ in English, goes back to the mid-19th century. But until
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Baltic Germans – Legacy of the Crusades
Founding and Early History More than seven centuries ago, groups of Teutonic knights and warrior monks (known as the Livonian
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Murderer Exonerated – The Tragic Death of Andrejs Zekants
The world suddenly stopped. The cold dark winter air was violently sucked from his lungs. Andrejs stumbled but kept on
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Lāčupes Cemetery – A Forest Oasis in Riga
Lāčupes cemetery is a serene wooded oasis just north of the industrial neighborhood of Iļģuciems in Riga, located in the Kleistu
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Three Days of Glory – A Romanov Visit to Riga in 1910
For three days in the middle of 1910, the city of Riga hosted an unprecedented visit by the Tsar of
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St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Riga
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church is one of the most prominent churches in Riga. Until the middle of the 1800s, there
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Iļģuciems – Industrial Riga in the Early 20th Century
The neighbourhood of Iļģuciems on the west bank of the Daugava River in Riga was an important industrial centre as
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