How to find where a person is buried in Riga

"I know my grandparents are buried somewhere in Riga, but nobody remembers where." People come to us with this both after returning to Latvia years later and while piecing together a family history. The search almost always ends in an answer — the question is only where to start.

Riga City Funeral Service works with cemetery keepers daily and helps find a plot even when the family is not in Latvia. Call: +371 2208 4540

Who in Riga actually knows where someone is buried

Burials at each cemetery are recorded by the cemetery keeper. That is the first and principal point of contact: it is the keeper who allocates plots, registers burials and knows the particular section and row. Keepers receive from Tuesday to Saturday, 8.30 to 16.00, closed on Mondays.

The second level is the administration of the Cemeteries Board, open Monday 8.30 to 17.00, Tuesday to Thursday 8.00 to 17.00 and Friday 8.00 to 15.00. They are approached when the cemetery is unknown and the search has to be broader.

The third and newest level is the electronic burial register, introduced by the Cemeteries Law that came into force on 29 April 2026: each municipality maintains one. The law provides a transitional period during which records are entered gradually, so for older burials it is still quicker to ask the keeper.

Where to start: what you know about the person

How long the search takes depends on how much you have to go on. In practice it looks like this:

One more thing helps: Riga has cemeteries that do not appear on the municipal list — Pokrova Cemetery, the Great Cemetery and the Riga Brethren Cemetery. If the municipal cemeteries yield nothing, these are checked separately. The list of all 22 municipal cemeteries with addresses is on the cemeteries page.

Steps if you are starting from nothing

1. Gather what is known: the full name, years of birth and death, the last address in Riga, the denomination. Old photographs taken at the cemetery help too — from the rows of memorials and the setting a keeper can sometimes recognise the place.
2. Narrow the field by district. Most families buried at the nearest cemetery. If you know the neighbourhood where the person lived, the list shortens to a few.
3. Call or visit the keeper of that cemetery during reception hours — Tuesday to Saturday, 8.30 to 16.00.
4. If the cemetery is unknown, approach the administration of the Cemeteries Board, or ask us to draw up a search list.
5. Check the parish cemeteries if the municipal ones hold no record.
6. Once the plot is found, establish in whose name it is registered — on that depends whether the family may tend it and whether a further burial is possible.

What to do once the plot is found

Finding the plot is half the way. The second step, which families often do not think of, is to take over the rights of the plot holder. If the plot is registered to a relative who died long ago, formally no one can act on it — neither consent to a burial nor approve the installation of a memorial. The rights are taken over by application to the cemetery keeper.

The second consideration is tending. In Riga plots are inspected once a year from 1 April to 1 November, and rights may be terminated if a plot has not been put in order for three years. If a plot has stood unattended for a long time, the first clean-up is usually a larger job; how that works is described in the article on grave care in Riga.

One practical note for a visit: for visitors the cemeteries are open from 1 April to 31 October from 7.00 to 21.00 and from 1 November to 31 March from 8.00 to 18.00, in both periods with a break from 12.00 to 12.30.

If the family faces not only a search but a funeral arrangement, we take that on in full.

See the list of Riga's cemeteries

Frequently asked questions