Draudzes Locekļu Saraksti: Brugis Family

Progress!

Today I made a new family genealogical discovery thanks to my mother’s DNA results.  I was looking in records from the Gulbene area, trying to explore the family of a newly contacted cousin match, when I noticed the surname Brugis pop up.

Lina Brugis is my 3x great grandmother, mother of Emilija Veisbergs who is the mother of Karlis Vinakmens. She married Mikelis Veisbergs at Rezekne Lutheran parish in 1882, but I ran into a dead end looking for her family, because the Lutheran church in Rezekne was only built in the early 1870’s. Before that, there was only a Catholic parish. So the church records were no good, and Struzani pagast does not have any revision lists of any use. I had suspected the family had come from elsewhere, further northwest in Latvia closer to one of the other Lutheran parishes located there. And I was right!

Gulbene’s church records include a type of record I’ve previously not been able to use for my own family tree – a complete listing of parish members (draudzes locekļu aaraksti) Alphabetically! You need only look up a surname and people are recorded in family groups. These are a truly fantastic document to locate, they typically give you 3 generations of people – parents, children, and the parent’s parents. They also typically list birthdays and parishes baptized at, which is incredibly helpful for families on the move like the Brugises.

This record tells me that:

Lina Brugis was born December 18, 1859 at Dreini estate and baptized Christmas day, the third child of Ermanis Brugis and Lize Vacietis.

Ermanis was the son of Janis Brugis and Lina, born January 1, 1831 at Vīpuži farm.

Lize was the daughter of Janis Vacietis and Baiba, born January 15 1835 at Dreini farm. Ermanis and Lize married February 1, 1853, although Ermanis is listed as only coming to Gulbene parish in 1854, so it’s possible they were married at a different parish.

 How do I know this is my Lina? Because this family is listed as having moved to Struzani pagast on the following page. And Lina had several siblings born there, baptized at Rezekne draudze, who’s baptisms I’ve found before. Notably, the Brugis family had a tendency to have twins (dvini)!