Church records
There are three main church registers: baptism or birth, marriage and death registers. The birth registers for the Catholic parish of Alšvanga have been preserved with some interruptions starting from 1690, marriage registers from 1726, death registers from 1771. We are very lucky, because in many places in Latvia these register books have disappeared or have been destroyed.
Church register books are most often used for researching family histories and compiling family trees. However, we can also learn a lot more from them, for example, when certain farmsteads or cemeteries were created, information about farmsteads, manors and cemeteries that no longer exist today, what names were popular for people in the Land of Suiti in the past, how big families were, what plagues and in which years have passed and much, much more.
Reading the old church registers requires skills, as they are written in handwriting of different resolution in Latin, Polish, German, Russian and, more recently, Latvian languages. When working with these ancient texts, you have to accept that there will be unreadable parts, that mistakes will happen while reading, that mistakes have already happened while writing, that the same names and family names will be written differently in different years. But we have to put up with it, because we often will never have other, better sources of information.
Here we have tried to put a few years in perspective. Maybe one day it will all be put together on a computer, but it will require a huge amount of work, because in total, about 100 thousand registration records may have to be entered for the parish of Alšvanga alone. Someone may discover that their house is already so old and the cemetery so old. Someone will learn something more. Behind each of these records there was once a living person, with his everyday life, pains, joys and problems. This is all our history. History of the Suiti.
Register books of Alšvanga Catholic parish
Until the time when the congregations of Jūrkalne and Gudenieku start keeping their register books, the information of Jūrkalne and Gudenieku is included in the registers of the Alšvanga parish. Here are the years covered in the existing Alšvanga books and their locations. The books in the State History Archive of Latvia can also be viewed on the Internet under the address www.lvva-raduraksti.lv
Huge amount of work has been done to scan the Registers which are in possession of Alsunga Catholic parish today. They can be found on this web page. You can also access this unique collection by this link: https://suitunovads.lv/gallery-category/baznicas-gramatas/ Some books have been entered manually. You can see them in subsections to this article.
Below you can see the physical locations of various registers (their originals). Following abbreviations are used:
LVVA – State Historical Archive of Latvia
TMDA – Birth Register Archive of the Ministry of Justice
KPDN – Birth Registry Department of Kuldīga city
Birth (or baptism) register books
1690 – 1736 Alsunga parish
1745 – 1773 Alsunga parish
1773 – 1792 Alsunga parish
1793 – 1805 Alsunga parish
1806 – 1818 Alsunga parish
1819 – 1834 Alsunga parish
1832 – 1837 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1838 – 1841 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1841 – 1848 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1848 – 1851 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1852 – 1856 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1856 – 1859 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1860 – 1866 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1866 – 1871 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1871 – 1877 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1877 – 1886 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1887 – 1900 LVVA
1901 – 1904 LVVA, KPDN
1905 KPDN
1906 – 1907 TMDA, KPDN
1908 KPDN
1909 KPDN
1910 TMDA, KPDN
1911 KPDN
1912 TMDA, KPDN
1913 – 1917 KPDN
1918 – 1922 TMDA, KPDN
1923 Alsunga parish, TMDA, KPDN
1924 Alsunga parish, TMDA
1925 – 1932 Alsunga parish, TMDA
1933 TMDA, KPDN
1934 – 1935 KPDN
1936 TMDA, KPDN
1937 – 1938 KPDN
Pre-marriage examinations
1828 – 1851 Alsunga parish
1879 – 1886 Alsunga parish
1886 – 1893 Alsunga parish
1893 – 1902 Alsunga parish
1911 – 1925 LVVA
Marrige registers
1726 – 1771 Alsunga parish
1773 – 1808 Alsunga parish
1808 – 1827 Alsunga parish
1828 – 1833 Alsunga parish
1833 – 1841 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1841 – 1848 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1848 – 1862 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1863 – 1879 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1880 – 1895 LVVA
1896 – 1897 LVVA, KPDA
1898 KPDA
1899 – 1903 LVVA, KPDA
1904 – 1905 KPDA
1906 – 1907 TMDA, KPDA
1908 KPDA
1909 TMDA, KPDA
1910 – 1911 KPDA
1912 TMDA, KPDA
1913 – 1917 KPDA
1918 – 1925 TMDA, KPDA
1926 – 1932 TMDA
1933 Alsunga parish, TMDA
1934 – 1935 Alsunga parish
1936 Alsunga parish, TMDA
1937 – 1940 Alsunga parish
Death registers
1771 – 1805 Alsunga parish
1828 – 1832 Alsunga parish
1833 – 1843 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1844 – 1847 LVVA
1848 – 1851 Alsunga parish, LVVA
1852 – 1869 LVVA
1871 – 1903 LVVA
1904 – 1905 KPDA
1906 – 1907 TMDA, KPDA
1908 KPDA
1909 TMDA, KPDA
1910 KPDA
1911 – 1912 TMDA, KPDA
1913 – 1917 KPDA
1918 – 1924 TMDA, KPDA
1925 – 1933 Alsunga parish, TMDA
1934 – 1935 Alsunga parish
1936 Alsunga parish, TMDA
1937 – 1941 Alsunga parish
Information about the books of Jūrkalne and Gudenieki Catholic parishes and their locations is unknown. It is only known that the KPDA has the birth register book of the Gudenieki parish for the period from 1923 to 1932.