Baltic-German Genealogy
The Baltic Germans (Deutsch-Balten) were ethnic Germans resident from the twelfth century onward at the eastern end of the Baltic Sea (now Estonia and Latvia). Historically they were urban (except for noble families living on rural manors), largely middle- or upper-class, and well-educated, serving as soldiers, administrators, and ministers first for Sweden and later for Russia. Baltic Germans only ever accounted for a small minority of the populations of Estonia and Latvia -- perhaps only 5% of the total -- and numbered about 200,000 at the turn of the twentieth century. Since the independence of the Baltic states in 1918-1919, many have emigrated and their descendants are scattered widely across Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere.
Study of Baltic-German genealogy once again became possible in the last few years as the National Archives of Estonia (Rahvusarhiiv) and the Latvian State Historical Archives (Latvijas Arhivi) embarked on massive digitisation projects, making millions of images of archival documents accessible for the first time. These records offer a wealth of potential information, but are for the most part unindexed, often disorganised, and written in a variety of German and Russian scripts which can prove daunting to the newcomer. After several years making sense of these resources I've started irregularly publishing a tutorial on their use which I hope will make using them a little easier for others. Published so far are:
Copyright © 2013-14 Kelsey Jackson Williams
Study of Baltic-German genealogy once again became possible in the last few years as the National Archives of Estonia (Rahvusarhiiv) and the Latvian State Historical Archives (Latvijas Arhivi) embarked on massive digitisation projects, making millions of images of archival documents accessible for the first time. These records offer a wealth of potential information, but are for the most part unindexed, often disorganised, and written in a variety of German and Russian scripts which can prove daunting to the newcomer. After several years making sense of these resources I've started irregularly publishing a tutorial on their use which I hope will make using them a little easier for others. Published so far are:
Copyright © 2013-14 Kelsey Jackson Williams