Many visitors to Riga are descendants of Jewish families with roots in Latvia. They come hoping to learn more about their ancestors: where they lived, what they did, and what happened to them. Latvia’s archives and databases hold extensive records of Jewish community life going back several centuries, and many of them are available online.
Available resources
Where to start: resources recommended by the Jewish Museum in Latvia
The Jewish Museum in Latvia (Muzejs “Ebreji Latvijā”) has put together a list of the main resources for family history research, including databases, archives and institutions to contact.
Online resources include:
- names.lu.lv is a database of Jews who lived in Latvia before the Second World War, run by the Centre for Judaic Studies at the University of Latvia.
- raduraksti.arhivi.lv holds digitised records from the Latvian State Historical Archives, including rabbinate vital records up to 1905, the 1897 census and revision lists.
- JewishGen.org is an international Jewish genealogy portal with dedicated research groups for Latvia and Courland.
Latvian archives for Jewish family records
Records up to 1944 are held by the Latvian State Historical Archives, and records from after 1944 by the Latvian State Archives. Birth, marriage and death certificates from 1915 to the present are issued by the archive of the Civil Registry Department of the Ministry of Justice.
Database of Jews deported to Riga
Between November 1941 and the winter of 1942, around 25,000 Jews were deported to Riga from the German Reich. Most of them were murdered in Rumbula, Biķernieki, Jungfernhof (Jumpravmuiža) and other sites. The Jewish Museum in Latvia offers a database that helps trace what happened to them.
International Holocaust databases
You can also search for Holocaust victims and survivors in the Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names (yvng.yadvashem.org) and the Arolsen Archives (collections.arolsen-archives.org).
Contact
For questions about researching your Jewish family history in Latvia, contact the Jewish Museum in Latvia:
Skolas iela 6, Riga
Tel. +371 67 283 484
