Lavīze Rozenbergs/Rozentals was the only sibling of Kristaps Rozentals/Rozenvalds, my husband’s great-great grandfather. Their mother, Anna Rudzis, was unmarried when she gave birth to Kristaps in 1858. In 1859 or 1860 Anna was married to a man named Geddert Rozentals/Rozenbergs (he was using the name ‘Rozenbergs’ at this time). Geddert had been married twice before and had three adult children of his own when he married Anna Rudzis. Geddert and Anna had their own child, Lavize, in January 1861. Sadly, Geddert died several months later. We do not know his cause of death. Geddert’s eldest son, Davis Rozenvalds/Rozenbergs, would become the father of famous Latvian poet and playwright, Elza Rozenberga – better known by her pen-name, Aspazija. This made Lavize Aspazjia’s aunt, even though they were almost the same age.
After her husband’s death, Anna never married again. She had to find a way to raise her two young children during hard times. She must have had plenty of help from extended family, but we really have no evidence at all for what kind of childhood Lavize had. There do exist a pair of photos of Lavize taken in the city of Jelgava (known as Mitau in the 19th century). These two photos were probably taken in the late 1870s and may represent photos taken to commemorate her Lutheran confirmation.
In the mid 1890s Lavize was still living in the countryside of her birth, the village of Zaļenieki, but by 1899 she had fully transitioned to the city of Riga and was married in St. Martin’s Lutheran Church to a Lithuanian widower named Karl Vimba. This would be the earliest family connection to St. Martin’s church, which would remain an important part of the lives of both the Rozenvalds and the Zekants family for many years to come.
Karl Vimba had several children of his own that Lavize was now step-mother to. And in 1902 the couple had what would be their only child together, Elza Anna. In 1905, there was a series of Communist revolutions that spread like wildfire through the Russian Empire, including Latvia. Tsar Nicholas II used Cossacks and other troops to quell these rebellions and they often used rough and violent tactics. This went on for a few years before things fully settled down. The family story is that Karl somehow was caught up in these crackdowns and sustained injuries that eventually led to his death sometime before 1913.
Sometime during the first few years of the 20th century, Lavize moved from the Iļģuciems neighbourhood on the left bank of the Daugava River to the less industrial side. She and her family lived at 27 Karlines Street, probably until Karl’s death. This would be the street that her brother, Kristaps, and his family would move to by 1917 to escape the Germans as they got closer to Riga. After the death of Kristaps’s daughter, Emilija Zekants, both families fled north to the town of Rujiena. They would all wait out the war there until returning to an independant Riga in the middle of 1920. Lavize and her daughter, Elza, would live in various place in Riga as well as the town of Valmiera over the next several years. Lavize kept in touch with at least one of her step-daughters, Elizabeth, who had emigrated to San Francisco in 1918.
By 1928, Lavize’s daughter, Elza, was married. By the early 1940s, while WWII was in full swing, Elza and her husband adopted two sons. This was not uncommon at this time. There were many war orphans and I suspect Elza had not been able to have children of her own. By mid-1944, Elza and her family, including her mother Lavize, along with thousands of other desperate families, managed to flee for Germany just before Latvia fell to the Soviets. By 1946, they were in Munich in southern Germany. It was here, in January 1946 that Lavize passed away at the age of 85. Elza and her family ended up settled at a DP (Displaced Persons) camp in Ansbach, Germany. Elza was very close to her cousins, Olga and Žanis Zekants Jr. They would all be able to spend time together in Germany after the war as they had all made it out of Latvia and were living there between 1944 and 1949. It would take several years but by 1950, with the help of Lavize’s step-daughter, they emigrated to the United States. Lavize’s ashes were taken along and eventually interred in a cemetery in Seattle, Washington.
Learn more about these family members at my other website here: Lavize Vimba – Elza Kalnins