Anna Zelma was the youngest daughter of Kristap Rozenvalds and Anna Smiltnieks. She was born in 1898 on Ginguli farm in the Zaļenieki area. Not long after her birth the family made the transition to the city of Riga as many other peasants were doing at the dawn of the 20th century. Her two older sisters were Emilija and Olga. We don’t know much about this youngest Rozentals/Rozenvalds sister. We know she fled with her parents to the northern Latvian town of Rujiena during WWI, after the death of her sister Emilija. They remained there until the middle of 1920 when they moved back to Riga and took up residence at 9 Karlines Street (apartment #20).
In her 1920 identification document, called an Internal Passport, she is listed as being a seamstress, like her sister Olga. She also has stamps in her passport showing that between 1920 and 1925 she lived in various places: Riga, Valmiera, Jelgava. We don’t know why she moved around so much. Was it for work?
In the building at 9 Karlines Street, in the next-door apartment, #21, there lived a man named Janis Berkmanis. In June of 1926, Anna Zelma and Janis were married. Anna Zelma moved into apartment #21 with her husband. We are not sure what happened to her after this. There is some evidence that the couple moved to central Latvia, to Dzerbenes, where Janis was from. We know that Anna Zelma must have lived at least into the 1960s, but have no idea exactly when or where. Her sister, Olga, had fled Latvia for Germany in 1940 and they never saw each other again. Were the two sisters able to keep in contact? I also have no evidence that Anna Zelma ever had any children. I hope one day we will have more information of her fate.