First name: Geddert

Last name: Rozentals/Rozenbergs

Father: Dawe

Mother: Lawize

Birth: 1808, Reņču Jahna farm, Jekabnieku

Baptism: 1808, Zalenieku Lutheran Church

 

Confirmation: 1824, Reņču Jahna farm, Zalenieku Luthern Church

 

Marriage 1: Anne (daughter of Klawe & Trine), 1830, Bleķi Samela, Zalenieku, Zalenieku Lutheran Church

Children: Dāvis Rozenvalds/Rozenbergs (1832-1901)

 Marriage 2: Trine (daughter of Klawe & Trine), 1832, Reņči Jahna, Jekabnieku, Zalenieku Lutheran Church

Children: Trine (1833-1834), Greete (1835-?), Kristaps (1838-after 1894)

Marriage 3: Anne Rudzis/Radsin, 1859/1860, Jekabnieku?, Zalenieku Lutheran Church? (no image available)

Children: Lawize (1861-1945), Kristaps (1858-1935) – Anne’s illegitimate son from before marriage with Geddert

Death: 1861, Zalenieku Lutheran Church (no image available)

Burial: unknown

More Information

Geddert was born in 1808. His parents, Dawe & Lawize, lived on Reņču Jahna farm in Jekabnieku when he was born as well as when he was confirmed in 1834. Trying to figure out Geddert’s siblings has not been straightforward. Based on my reading of available records I believe his list of siblings could be:

• Lihse, born 1802, Reņču Jahna farm
• Janis, born 1805, Reņču Jahna farm
• Ans, born 1810, Cuceni farm
• Trine, born 1815, Vitrupas farm
• Greete, born 1818, Cuceni farm

The final child on this list, Greete, is the only one that I can confirm. She is listed in the 1833 Revision List for Vitrupas Mattis farm, living with her mother, Lawize. Geddert, Trine and baby Dāvis are living nearby at Vitrupas Jahna in the 1833 Revision List.

When Geddert married Anne (daughter of Klawe & Trine) in 1830, Anne was living at Daukšas farm (this is where Aspazija was born in 1865). Anne was living there with her sister, Grieta and Grieta’s husband, Dave Vigants. Grieta and Dave Vigants had been managing Daukšas farm since 1829. Geddert was living across the road at Bleķi Samela farm. Their marriage record states their ages as Geddert being 26 and Anne being 20. This isn’t accurate. Geddert would have been 22 and Anne 25.

By 1832, Geddert and Anne were living on Reņču Jahna farm, where Geddert’s family was from. In April of 1832 the couple had their first child: Dāvis (who would become Aspazija’s father).

Sadly, 2 weeks after Dāvis’s birth and one week after his baptism at Zalenieku Lutheran Church, Anne died from childbirth complications. This left Geddert as a young widower with a new-born baby. Less than a month after Anne’s death Geddert married Anne’s older sister, Trine.

Trine was living with her family at Baž Kauliņi farm in Zalenieku. Their marriage record states that she was only 17 years old. She would actually have been 29 years old. By 1833, Geddert, Trine and little Dāvis were living at Vitrupas Jahna farm in Jekabnieku. They have their first child together in March 1833, a daughter named Trine.

You can see this family in the 1833 Revision List for Vitrupas Jahna farm in Jekabnieku.

As was all too common in those days, they lost baby Trine in July 1834.

In 1835, still living at Vitrupas Mattis farm, they have another daughter, named Greete. I do not know what happened to this child. I have found no other records after her baptism.

In 1838, Geddert and Trine have their final child, a son named Kristaps. By this time the family is living at Stuļģi Polu Dawe farm in Jekabnieku. In Kristaps’s baptism record from February 1838 from Zalenieku Lutheran church, he is listed as the son of Geddert & Trine Rosenthal. This is the first time any version of this surname is mentioned. Over the years members of the family would use “Rozentals”, “Rozenvalds”, “Rozenbergs” and hyphenated combinations of the three seemingly interchangeably. I have yet to explain this constant back and forth between names.

There is no further record of Geddert and Trine and their children until 1855 in a Civil Register List for the Zalenieku/Jekabnieku area farms. In the listing for Baž Kauliņi farm there is a couple named ‘Geddert & Trine Grossman’. I believe that this couple is actually Geddert & Trine Rozentals/Rozenbergs. There is no other evidence for a ‘Grossman’ family in the area and no where else in the Civil Register List is there a Geddert & Trine Rozentals/Rozenberg listed. Names were fairly fluid at that time and mistakes are common. Here is the list for Baž Kauliņi farm in the Register (which is not available online):

Grunhof (Zalenieku) Baž Kauliņi farm:

• manager, Ans Gulbis & his wife Lihse
• Krisjohn Seemel
• young man, Dave Gulbis
• young man, Janne Radsin
• maiden, Greete Lapsa
• maiden, Trihne Weisberg
• maiden, Greeta Radsin
• farm worker, Janne Mesengall & his wife Lihse
• farm worker, Geddert Grossman & his wife Trihne
• widow, Lihse Radsin
• widow, Lawize Gulbis, manager’s mother

The widow, Lawize, who is listed as the ‘manager’s mother’ was the eldest sister of Anne & Trine (Geddert’s wives). Ans Gulbis (the current farm manager), is Lawize’s son.

Dave Gulbis was the youngest son of Lawize, so is a brother to manager Ans.

There are 3 people listed with the family name ‘Radsin’. This is interesting because in 1859/1860 Geddert will marry his third wife, Anna Rudzis/Radsin. Anna is the connection to my husband’s family. I have not had much success at mapping out this Radsin/Rudzis family but I suspect that Janne, Greete and Lihse on this list must be connected. That would explain how young Anna and Geddert knew each other.

Only a few months after this Civil Register List was made Geddert’s wife, Trine, died. She died in April-1856. In her death record she is listed as living back on Baž Kauliņi farm with her farm-worker husband, Geddert. They are using the name ‘Rozenberg’ here which is a change from ‘Rozentals’ when their son Kristops was born in 1838.

In March 1858, an unmarried young woman named Anna Rudzis/Radzin had a son named Kristaps at Raggenhof manor in Jekabnieku. I have no information about the father of her son Kristaps. Unfortunately, the marriage records for the years 1859-1861 at Zalenieku Church no longer exist but Geddert and Anna must have been married in 1859 or 1860. Anna’s son, Kristaps, was now Geddert’s step-son. As an adult Kristaps would take the name ‘Rozentals’ and ‘Rozenvalds’. This Kristaps would become my husband’s great-great-grandfather.

Also in the years 1859/1860 Geddert’s eldest son, Dāvis Rozenvalds, was married to Grieta Freimane. Dāvis had become the owner of Daukšas farm by the 1857 Revision List. Grieta Vigant’s husband, Dave, had died back in 1854 and the couple had not had any children. I am not sure how they had financially managed to become owners of this farm but when Dave Vigants died they needed to pass it on to someone in the family. I believe Geddert & Anne’s son, Dāvis Rozenvalds/Rozenbergs, was the best candidate to take over the farm. This made young Dāvis a proper landowner

In 1860, Geddert was around 51 years old and had not fathered a child in 21 years. In January 1861, Geddert and Anna have a child together. She is baptized Lavize Rozenbergs. They are still living at Stuļģi Polu farm at this time. Although I don’t have access to a digital image, I have confirmed the death record for Geddert Rozenbergs in 1861 at Zalenieku Lutheran Church. He may have died of cholera. Having only been married a short time, this left Geddert’s 3rd wife, Anna, as a widow with 2 young children. Anna must have been helped and supported by family, whether her husband’s or her own I do not know. Anna never remarried and retained the name ‘Rozenvalds’ until her death in Riga in 1914.