Latvia Emigration and Immigration

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Emigration and Immigration

Online Records

• 1850-1934 Auswandererlisten, 1850-1934 (Hamburg passenger lists) at FamilySearch, images.
• 1850-1934 Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 at Ancestry ($) index and images.
• 1855-1924 Hamburg Passenger Lists, Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934 at Ancestry ($) images.
• Hamburg, Germany Emigrants at Findmypast ($) index.
• 1878-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at Findmypast - index & images ($)
• 1892-1924 New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Search results for New Zealand
• 1919-1920 Latvia Migration Records(*) at FamilySearch Explore Historical Images
• 1919-1920 Latvia Foreigner Files(*) at FamilySearch Explore Historical Images
• 1919-1940 Latvia Immigration Records(*) at FamilySearch Explore Historical Images
• 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 at Ancestry - index & images.
  • Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
• United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records

Passports

• 1898-1920 Latvia Passports(*) at FamilySearch Explore Historical Images
• 1900 Latvia, Passport and Police Registration Lists, 1900 at Ancestry - index ($)
• Latvijas iedzīvotāju pases (Passports of Latvian Residents) database During the inter-war period, Latvian citizens were required to register for a passport which served as identification papers.

British Overseas Subjects

• British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, index & images ($)
• British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages,, index & images ($)
• British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, index & images ($)

Cultural Groups

• 1869-1938 Registration of German Nationals at the German Consulate in Riga (Matrikel, 1869-1938), images
• 1942-1943 Riga, Latvia, Austrian, Czech, and German Jews, 1942-1943 ($). Index. Incomplete. 800 Jewish forced laborers and was compiled from a notebook found in the Riga ghetto after the war. Many of these people were from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany. Some of the records contain the name and others have the place of birth or deportation.
• History of families from Westfalia, Germany, especially those who moved to Prussia, Courland and Livonia. (Geschichte der westphälischen Geschlechter : unter besonderer Berücksichtigung iherer Uebersiedelung nach Preußen, Curland und Liefland), e-book
• Materials on Baltic German personal and family history from Baltic East, Livonia and Curland archives (Materialen zur baltischen deutschen Personen- und Familienkunde aus baltischen est- liv- und kurlaendischen Archiven) Genealogical records. Alphabetically arranged file cards.
• Family tables of German-Baltic families (Stammtafeln Deutsch-baltischer Geschlechter)

Offices and Archives to Contact

National Archives of Latvia
Šķūņu street 11
Riga, LV-1050

Telephone:+371 20043706
E-mail: lna@arhivi.gov.lv
Website
Databases
Raduraksti: Databases for Genealogical Research

Finding the Town of Origin in Latvia

If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Latvia, see Latvia Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Latvia Emigration and Immigration

"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Historical Background

At the beginning of the 13th century, Germans ruled large parts of what is currently Latvia. Together with southern Estonia, these conquered areas formed the crusader state that became known as Terra Mariana or Livonia. The first German settlers were knights from northern Germany and citizens of northern German towns.

After the Livonian War (1558–1583), Livonia (Northern Latvia & Southern Estonia) fell under Polish and Lithuanian rule. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and Russia struggled for supremacy in the eastern Baltic. After the Polish–Swedish War, northern Livonia came under Swedish rule. Riga became the capital of Swedish Livonia and the largest city in the entire Swedish Empire. In Latvia, the Swedish period is generally remembered as positive; serfdom was eased, a network of schools was established for the peasantry, and the power of the regional barons was diminished. Under Swedish and largely German rule, western Latvia adopted Lutheranism as its main religion. Meanwhile, largely isolated from the rest of Latvia, southern Latgallians adopted Catholicism under Polish/Jesuit influence. In 1795, all of what is now Latvia was brought into the Russian Empire.

Most of the Baltic Germans left Latvia by agreement with Nazi Germany. In total 50,000 Baltic Germans left by the deadline of December 1939, with 1,600 remaining to conclude business and 13,000 choosing to remain in Latvia. Most of those who remained left for Germany in summer 1940, when a second resettlement scheme was agreed. The racially approved being resettled mainly in Poland, being given land and businesses in exchange for the money they had received from the sale of their previous assets. The Soviet Union incorporated Latvia on 5 August 1940, as The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Soviets dealt harshly with their opponents – prior to Operation Barbarossa, in less than a year, at least 34,250 Latvians were deported or killed. Most were deported to Siberia where deaths were estimated at 40 percent. During World War II, Latvia was invaded and left under the control of German forces by early July of 1941. More than 200,000 Latvian citizens died during World War II, including approximately 75,000 Latvian Jews murdered during the Nazi occupation. In 1944, when Soviet military advances reached Latvia, heavy fighting took place in Latvia between German and Soviet troops, which ended in another German defeat. Anywhere from 120,000 to as many as 300,000 Latvians took refuge from the Soviet army by fleeing to Germany and Sweden. Most sources count 200,000 to 250,000 refugees leaving Latvia, with perhaps as many as 80,000 to 100,000 of them recaptured by the Soviets or, during few months immediately after the end of war, returned by the West.

Between 136,000 and 190,000 Latvians, depending on the sources, were imprisoned or deported to Soviet concentration camps (the Gulag) in the post war years, from 1945 to 1952. An influx of new colonists, including laborers, administrators, military personnel and their dependents from Russia and other Soviet republics started. By 1959 about 400,000 Russian settlers arrived. As of March 2011, Latvians form about 62.1% of the population, while 26.9% are Russians, Belarusians 3.3%, Ukrainians 2.2%, Poles 2.2%, Lithuanians 1.2%, Jews 0.3%, Romani people 0.3%, Germans 0.1%, Estonians 0.1% and others 1.3%. 250 people identify as Livonians (Baltic Finnic people native to Latvia). There were 290,660 "non-citizens" living in Latvia or 14.1% of Latvian residents, mainly Russian settlers who arrived after the occupation of 1940 and their descendants.

Emigration From Latvia

The majority of Latvians whom left Latvia in WWII reside in North America (the US and Canada), across Europe mainly in Eastern countries and the former USSR with just as many in Western Europe and Scandinavian nations, and the rest in former Latvian lands in the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Belarus). The most Russified of the three Baltic states, Latvia struggles with the issue of national identity after one million ethnic Russians and other Russian speaking people settled there since 1940.

According to Knomad Statistics there were 342,300 emigrants. Top destination countries were the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States, Ukraine, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania, Belarus, Norway, Canada. Other significant population centers for Latvians were:
Populations over 10 Thousand

• United Kingdom: 124,000
• United States: 96,070–102,000
• Germany: 40,480
• Canada: 30,725
• Brazil: 25,000
• Ireland: 19,933
• Australia: 20,509
• Russia: 18,979
• Norway: 11,723

Populations from 1 to 10 Thousand

• Sweden: 8,798
• Ukraine: 5,079
• Denmark: 3,799
• Spain: 3,711
• Estonia: 3,329
• Finland: 3,232
• Italy: 2,689
• France: 2,602
• Lithuania: 2,300
• Netherlands: 1,400
• Kazakhstan 1,123

Records In the Destination Nations

See links to Wiki articles about immigration records for major destination countries below. Additional Wiki articles for other destinations can be found in the Category:Emigration and Immigration Records.

• United States Emigration and Immigration
• Canada Emigration and Immigration
• England Emigration and Immigration
• Germany Emigration and Immigration
• Brazil Emigration and Immigration
• Ireland Emigration and Immigration
• Australia Emigration and Immigration
• Russia Emigration and Immigration
• Norway Emigration and Immigration
• Sweden Emigration and Immigration
• Ukraine Emigration and Immigration
• Denmark Emigration and Immigration
• Spain Emigration and Immigration
• Estonia Emigration and Immigration
• Finland Emigration and Immigration
• Italy Emigration and Immigration
• France Emigration and Immigration
• Lithuania Emigration and Immigration
• Netherlands Emigration and Immigration
• Kazakhstan Emigration and Immigration
• Belarus Emigration and Immigration
• Poland Emigration and Immigration

For Further Reading

There are additional sources listed in the FamilySearch Catalog: Latvia - Emigration and Immigration - Indexes