First name: Grieta/Greete/Grete
Last name: no maiden name / married name Vigants
Father: Klawe
Mother: Trine
Birth: 1797, Baž Kauliņu farm, Zalenieku
Baptism: Zalenieku Lutheran Church, date unknown
Confirmation: 1810, Zalenieku Lutheran Church
Marriage: Dave Vigants, around 1819/1820 but record has not been identified
- Dave was born in 1794 in Wantze, Bewert-Schwethof to parents Indriks & Trine. He died in 1854 at Daukšas farm, Zalenieku
- This couple take the surname ‘Vigants’ at some point long after their marriage when peasants were receiving surnames
Children: none
Death: 1868, Daukšas farm, Zalenieku
Burial: unknown
More Information
Grieta (Vigants) was born in 1797 at the farm where her parents were the managers, Baž Kauliņu farm in Zalenieku. She was the 2nd child born to Klawe & Trine. She had 3 brothers and 4 sisters, though her youngest brother, Jannis, died as a baby. Her other brothers were Kristaps Budien and Ans Budien.
Her older sister is Lavize (Gulbis) and her two younger sisters were Trine and Anne. Both of these sisters would end up marrying Geddert Rozentals/Rozenbergs. Her sister Anne would become the grandmother of Aspazija through Anne’s only child Dāvis Rozenwalds/Rozenbergs.
The earliest written evidence for Grieta is in the 1797 Revision List. This document for Baž Kauliņu farm lists her parents, “Clawe & Triene” as the managers of the farm with their 3 children: Lavize-age 4, Liese-age 2 and little Grete-age 3 months.
The next time we see Grieta in the written record is her baptism in Zalenieku Lutheran Church in 1810.
Sometime around 1819/1820, although I haven’t been able to identify her marriage record, Grieta married a man named Dave. Dave is from Wantze farm in Bewert-Scherhof. His parents were Indriks & Trine.
Grieta and her husband, Dave, move from Baž Kauliņu farm to Daukšas farm, on the other side of the Zalenieku town center, sometime in 1829. I do not know what prompted this move. They must have become the managers of this farm when they moved there. In the 1833 Farm List for Daukšas farm they are listed as the managers. At this time Grieta’s older sister, Lavize, her husband, Indriks, and their children are also living there. Previously Lavize and Indriks had taken over managing Baž Kauliņu farm, but by 1833 they were living with Grieta and Dave at Daukšas farm.
Grieta and Dave had no children of their own. At some point, probably in the early 1850s, they become not just the managers, but the owners of Daukšas farm. They needed to have a male family member to leave to farm to and with no children of their own they had to look for a nephew. Dave Vigants passed away in 1854 of cholera.
In 1854, their nephew Dāvis would have only been 21 or 22 years old. There are 2 listings in an 1855 Farm List for Daukšas farm that have 2 different managers, the one in the earlier part of 1855 is ‘Dave Wihnschink’ and the one later in 1855 is ‘Dave Weiland’. I don’t know who these men are but maybe they were hired by Grieta to manage the farm after Dave Vigants’s death. In both records for this farm Janne Gulbis and his wife Lavize are living there. Janne was the son of Grieta’s older sister, Lavize Gulbis.
By 1857, Grieta’s nephew, Dāvis Rozenwalds/Rozenbergs, is managing Daukšas farm. Dāvis ends up taking over as the owner of the farm. This must have worked out well for Grieta to have a nephew to leave the farm to so that it stayed in the family. In this 1857 Revision List, Dave Vigants is listed as having died in 1854 and his widow, Greete, is still living there. It shows Dāvis Rozenwalds as the new manager. Also living there is Janne Gulbis & family (son of Lavize Gulbis) and Ans Budien, brother to Grieta Vigants.
Grieta passed away in 1868. In her death record from Zalenieku Lutheran Church she is listed as the ‘old manager’ of Daukšas farm. She was 80 years old and it is noted that she had no children of her own.
There has been a lot of speculation over the years as to why the Vigants gave their farm to Dāvis Rozenwalds/Rozenbergs. It is now clear that Grieta Vigants was his mother’s sister.
