Archives of Dukes of Courland (Kurzeme)

The fund consists of documents from the Duchy of Courland. Among these documents are unique 16th and 17th-century travel documents issued to women, both of local origin and issued by other countries. However, their representation is rather random. The travel documents represented are mostly valid only for a specific trip and consist mainly of information about the traveler (such as social class and description of their lifestyle) rather than providing specific details about the journey. Some women whose passports can be found in this collection traveled for short-term trips, while others emigrated for arranged marriages or similar reasons. Similar documents from this time period can also be found in the Latvian State Historical Archives Fund LNA_LVVA_F5759 (Kurzeme, Association of Literature and Arts and Kurzeme) and LNA_LVVA_F7349 (Vidzeme-Swedish Governor General Chancery).