Well, today I was sifting through websites, reading about the history of Embute parish, when I came across the tale of Indulis and Arija, set in ancient Embute. The tale is considered Latvia’s Romeo and Juliet, with Indulis being a Curonian cheiftain and Arija the daughter of a German military commander.
It was interesting enough that the tale’s setting is the small area in which my ancestors lived, but what genealogy related tidbit I plucked from this was that the name Indulis is probably a diminutive of Indriks, and Indriks is the Latvian form of the German name Heinrich!
…So I am possibly looking for a “Heinrich Sihwert” rather than an “Indriks Ziverts”.
Interesting again, because a generation before my Indriks would have been born (so, Indriks’ father’s generation) there is a Heinrich Sihwert, married to Betty Ozolins. This Heinrich and Betty baptised their children in the German congregation of Embute church. Most Latvian Lutheran churches would have had a Latvian congregation and a German congregation, the German one being more aristocratic families. Some Latvians attempting to curry favour or who were already favoured by the German aristocracy may have attended the German congregation.
Indulis un Arija: http://www.letonika.lv/literatura/read.aspx?f=1&r=197
