First name: Lavize

Last name: Rozenbergs/Rozentals

Father: Geddert Rozentals/Rozenbergs

Mother: Anna Rudzis/Radzin

Birth: 20-Jan-1861, Stuļģi Polu Kristapa farm, Jekabnieku

Baptism: 22-Jan-1861, Zalenieku Lutheran Church

Confirmation: unknown

Marriage: Karl Vimba, 1899, St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Riga

Children: Anna Elza Vimba (1902-1969)

Step-children:

• Michael Tomins (1884-after 1904)
• Elizabeth (Churkste) (1890-1978)
• Anna (1890-after 1907)
• Natali Matilde (1894-after 1907)
• Karl Robert (1897-1917/1918)

These step-children were from Karl Vimba’s previous marriage to Lise Kaschus Tomins

Death: January-1946, Eichstad US Zone, Germany

Burial: Seattle, USA

More Information

Lavize Rozentals/Rozenbergs and her mother Anna are the link between my husband’s family and Aspazija’s family. Lavize was born to Geddert Rozentals/Rozenbergs and his 3rd wife, Anna Rudzis/Radzin, in January 1861 at Stuļģi Polu Kristapa farm in Jekabnieku. Only months after her birth, her father, Geddert, died. Lavize’s mother, Anna, already had a son from before she was married, Kristaps Rozenvalds. So this was Lavize’s half-brother on her mother’s side. She also had two half-brothers and a half-sister from her father’s side: Dāvis Rozenbergs/Rozenvalds, Kristaps Rozentals/Rozenvalds and Greete.

I don’t know how or exactly where Lavize spent her childhood or what her relationship was with her half-siblings on her father’s side of the family. There must have been some contact because in the mid-1890s she is living with her half-brother, Kristaps Rozentals/Rozenvalds, her father’s son. Here is the Civil register from the 1890s showing Lavize living with her brother and his wife, Grieta:

Entry #455 above is for Kristaps Rozenvalds, born in Feb-1838, son of Geddert. This is Kristaps who was baptized with the name ‘Rozentals’ in 1838 so a name change has happened here. On the right side are the names of the two women living with him. The bottom one is his wife, Grieta, who is listed has having passed away sometime after this document was made. The top one is Lawize, age 34, listed as being Kristaps’s sister. Kristaps at this point, in 1894 would have been 56 years old.

This shows that there was a close relationship between Geddert’s 2 children, Kristaps and Lawize. Lawize was also the half-sister to my husband’s great-great grandfather, Kristaps Rozentals/Rozenvalds (born 1858) who was the illegitimate son of Anna Rudzis/Radzin.

The second entry in this document, #456, is for my husband’s great-great grandfather, Kristaps Rozentals/Rozenvalds (also a half-brother to Lawize through their mother). He was born in 1858. I know that this Kristaps and his sister Lawize were very close during their adult lives. There is a note that his father is not known and that he was born out of wedlock to his mother Anna. The women listed on the right as living with him are as follows:

• his wife Anna, born 1864
• daughter Lizette (Alice) born Jul-1887 NOTE: the name ‘Alice’ here is a mistake
• daughter Lawize born 1895 NOTE: Lawize went by her middle name ‘Olga’ for her adult life
• daughter Anna Zelma, born 5-Aug-1898

Lizette is my husband’s great grandmother.

Here are two photos that Lavize had taken at a studio in Jelgava probably in the early 1890s.

In 1899, Lavize has made the transition from country life to city life and is living in Riga. She gets married in St. Martin’s Lutheran Church to a man originally from Lithuania, Karl Vimba. Karl came to the marriage with 4 biological children and one step-son from his previous wife.

This marriage record says that Karl is a Roman Catholic from Kaunas, Lithuania. He is a ‘worker’ and his father’s name is Martin. He is a widower and is 36 years old. Lavize is a member of St. Martin’s Lutheran Church. She is getting married using the name ‘Rosenthal’ even though she was baptized with ‘Rozenbergs’. She is the daughter of Gedus (Geddert) and was born in Zalenieku (Grunhof in German). She is single and is 34 years old. There are some notes on the right-hand side that I have not had translated probably dealing with witnesses or notes about children.

At the time of their marriage the couple was living on the industrial side of the River Daugava in the Iļģuciems area of Riga. This is also where her maternal half-brother, Kristaps Rozenvalds, would soon be living with his family. This brother and sister and their families would remain very close for the rest of their lives.

In 1902, the couple Lavize and Karl have a child of their own, Anna Elza. This would be Lavize’s only biological child.

At some points between the years 1901 and 1904 Lavize and the family are living with her father-in-law, Martin Vimba on Valguma Street. Sometime between the years 1904 and 1910 they family moves to the other side of the Daugava River to a residence on Karlines Street (currently Miera iela). During this time the whole family had a portrait taken which included Lavize, Karl, all of their combined children and Lavize’s mother, Anna Rozenvalds.

Front row from left to right: Robert Vimba, Lawize Rozentals/Rozenbergs, Anna Elza Vimba, Anna Rozenbergs/Rozenvalds, Karl Vimba.

Back row from left to right: Elizabeth Vimba, Anna Vimba, Natali Matilde Vimba.

Around the year 1913, Lavize’s husband, Karl Vimba, died. He may have died from complications from a previous injury sustained when Tsar Nicholas II used violent Cossack troops to quell socialist rebellions in 1905 to 1907.

Then in July 1914, Lavize’s mother, Anna Rozenvalds, died.

During WWI, Lavize and her daughter, Anna Elza, along with Kristaps Rozenvalds and his wife, Anna, all evacuated to the northern town of Rujiena. They lived here until it was safe to return to Riga at the war of independence in the early 1920s. Here is a government document listing her status in Rujiena:

Here is a photo of Lavize and her daughter, Anna Elza, taken in Rujiena in 1922.

In the 1920s Lavize and her daughter are again living in the Iļģuciems area of Riga. Anna Elza gets married in 1928 at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Riga and then by the 1940s they are living in Valmiera where Anna Elza has two sons. Elza and her family and her mother flee on a ship out of Latvia, bound for Germany in 1944 to escape Communist takeover of Latvia. Unfortunately, not long after they arrived as refugees in Germany Lavize passed away at the age of 85. She was cremated in Munich and Elza took her ashes with them when they emigrated to the USA. Lavize’s ashes are buried in a cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

In the past several years I have had some of the diaries of my husband’s grandfather translated into English. I found the entry from 1946 where he first hears from family members about the death of his great-aunt Lavize. He was living in Germany at this time since he ended the war in the Latvian Legion as a solider and spent time in POW camps until being released. He writes this:

• “Aunt Olga herself still looks well, she has to be already at least 45. Old Aunt, my grandfather’s sister and poet Aspazija’s cousin died on January 1st of this year at the age of 84. She was cremated in Munich.”