The 1897 All-Russia Census

In the winter of 1897, a census was taken across the entire Russian Empire. It was the first and last census that was ever done in Russia prior to the Soviet era (1917-1991). Starting in December 1896 and continuing until the end of January 1897, census counters attempted to interview the entire population.

There were over 135,000 census counters. These were usually literate and upstanding members of each locality: teachers, clergy or military personnel for example. About a year later the census counters returned to each household to review and confirm the details. The census was conducted in December and January because more people would be residing at their normal residence at that time, since mobility was limited in the harsh northern winters.

The results of the census took 8 years to complete with the final districts’ data being published in 1905. In the end, the estimated population of the Russian Empire was 125,640,021. There were 1,435,937 native Latvian speakers, which represented just over 1% of the total population of the Empire. The population of what is now modern-day Latvia was counted as 1,929,387. Riga was the 6th largest city by population in Imperial Russia with 282,200 people.

Most of the census records across the Empire ended up being destroyed with only small pockets of records remaining. Luckily Latvia is one of those pockets. The records for the eastern Latvian region of Latgale is very well intact with the other three areas less so. The records relevant to the Rozentals/Rozenvalds family in the region of Zemgale have not survived, but the records for Kurzeme in the north-west have been useful for researching the Zekants family.

Within the Latvian records there can be found entries in German, Latvian, Russian and Estonian. What language your ancestors’ record was recorded in depends on their proximity to a linguistic border, the social rank of the family and the native language of the census counter. Each record consists of a family page and a farm or estate page. The farm/estate page will list the address, the owner’s name, how many dwellings are on the property and what they are made of (stone or wood for example) and how many family units are all living together at this one address.

How to Read the Records

The family pages can be treasure troves of information for family historians if you are lucky enough to locate your ancestors’ records. I was able to find the entry for some of my husband’s direct ancestors, including his great-grandfather. Here is a breakdown of what the information in each column records:

1) the first and last name of each person living within the family unit (note that this does not always mean everyone in the list is biologically related), there is also usually a patronymic (or father’s first name) which is extremely helpful in genealogy

2) gender

3) relationships between the various people on the list

4) age

5) marital status

6) social class

7) place of birth

8) place of registration

9) place of usual residence

10) notes about people who are temporarily away or temporarily residing here

11) religion

12) native language (mother tongue)

13a) if the person is literate

13b) where the person was educated

14a) occupation

14b) notes on occupation or military status

At the time of this census, Magreete Zekants and her three youngest children, Karl, Teodors and Žanis, were living in the village of Nurmuižas near the town of Talsi. They were living on the property of the Lutheran pastorate. This was land owned by the church and was the dwelling place of whoever was serving as the pastor at the Nurmuižas Lutheran Church. At this time the pastor was Friedrich Bernewitz. Pastor Bernewitz was the also the census counter for the families living on the pastorate. This was lucky for me because it meant the records were written in German, which is much easier for me to translate!

Strangely, Magreete’s husband, Jekob, is not listed as also residing here. We have no idea where he was at this time and why he wasn’t with his wife. The two eldest Zekants children, Lizette and Andrejs, are also missing from the Nurmuižas census. Andrejs was probably already deep into his sailing education and Lizette may have already moved to Jelgava where she would marry six years later.

The head of this family unit, that includes Magreete and her children, is Magreete’s brother, Andrejs Latīnis. Also living here were Magreete’s elder sister Andahrte Latīnis and their mother, Dore Latīnis (born Abolins). Another curious thing is that although Magreete and her children are listed as usually residing at this location, there is a note that they are temporarily residing somewhere else. Unfortunately, we have never found where this is. I suspect it might have something to do with the winter-time education at a sailing school for her boys.

To give you an example of the actual information listed for an individual, I will use Magreete as an example:

1) Magreete Sekante, daughter of Indriks

2) female

3) sister of the Head of Household

4) 43 years old

5) married

6) farmer

7) born here

8) registered in Spahren parish

9) usually resides here

10) temporarily away

11) Lutheran

12) native language is Latvian

13a) can read and write

13b) educated at home

14a) farm worker

14b) (no entry written)

How to Find Records Online

All of the existing 1897 Census records have been scanned and are available on the Raduraksti website (this site requires creating a user name and password but it is free). Once you can login you will see several different types of records available. The one marked ‘Tautas skaitīšana’ is the 1897 Census. Once you click on this you will see an alphabetical list of every available parish (or ‘pagasts’ in Latvian). Within each parish will be one or more record sets that include entries from that place.

For example, if I am looking for Nurmuižas there is only one choice so I click on that and then I can see all the available pages. I open up the first one and start looking! There are 1546 pages for the Nurmuižas section but less than half of those pages are individual family pages.

For the most part you must go through each page looking for surnames (and this could be in Russian so you will need to be able to recognize your relevant surname in Cyrillic). It can become quite tedious and I have literally searched through tens of thousands of these pages, but what an amazing moment when you find something!

There are a handful of digitized 1897 Census records available on Ciltskoki. This is the other ‘Gold standard’ website for Latvian Genealogy (it also requires a username and password but it is free). There are also some digitized 1897 Census records available on Ancestry.com, including some records for Riga.

If your ancestor lived in Riga in 1897, the process is a little different. The city of Riga is listed as a single entry in the list of available parishes. But since Riga was so large the records are further subdivided into small ‘neighbourhoods’. You need to know the exact street or at least a very small localized area of streets to be able to find the right set of records to look through.

There is certainly a lot of work involved in tracking down an individual’s 1897 Census entry but well worth the time if you want to research your ancestors. As I flip through page after page after page of these records, I always think to myself that each and every person listed here was a life. A life that was rich with stories of happiness and tragedy of their own that may one day get discovered.