Time for Week 21 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge! As noted in my first post of this challenge, I am starting with my most ancient known ancestors.

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be spending a few weeks dealing with challenging female ancestors – that is, female ancestors whose maiden names are unknown to me. In addition to telling their stories – what I know of them, anyways – I will also be looking into what their surnames could be, by exploring different sources with potential clues.

This week’s ancestor is TrÄ«ne, wife of Marcis Graumanis, whose grandfather was Kārlis Graumanis, who we learned about in Week 19. TrÄ«ne is my great-great-great-grandmother, by way of my maternal grandfather’s maternal grandmother LÄ«ze Graumane.

According to a list of Lāde parish inhabitants from the 1870s, TrÄ«ne was born on December 23, 1823. However, in the documentation that I have thus far, she only appears on the scene in the spring of 1849, when she and her husband Marcis, along with Marcis’ parents Jānis and Grieta, and Marcis’ sister LÄ«ze, moved from Pociems estate to Sigulda estate. TrÄ«ne was not a part of the family when they had arrived on Pociems estate from Dikļi estate in 1842, so they must have married somewhere in that time period. However, I have not found any records of this event thus far, and I worry that they might be in the abyss of the missing late 1840s Limbaži records, since no other nearby parish has the record I’m looking for.

After moving with her family from Pociems to Sigulda, from Sigulda to Stalbe, they finally came to Lāde parish, south of Limbaži, in 1857. They established themselves on the Lejas-Samši farm, and have been there ever since (this property still belongs to some of my relatives). Trīne and Marcis passed the farm on to their daughter Līze, who passed it on to her daughter Mēŗija, who owned it at the time of the Soviet invasion in 1940. The property was reclaimed by her family when independence was regained.

TrÄ«ne died on February 12, 1883, and her birth was registered in the Limbaži St. Katherine’s parish, which is a bit odd – her children and grandchildren conducted their affairs in the Limbaži Church, so why would they travel further for their mother’s funeral? I know it is her, because the record states that she was living on Lejas-SamÅ¡i farm, but it is just bizarre that they would not have recorded the event in the regular Limbaži church, which was much closer to their home.

Her death record says she was born in Dikļi, which is nice to know but not nearly as detailed as the death record from last week, where Marija’s death provided a specific farm as a place of birth. But since it is Dikļi, I do have one option to consult that doesn’t require me to know the specific farm – instead, her supposed birthdate will provide the clue that I need. Dikļi does not have birth records going back to 1823, but it does have confirmation records from the 1830s. So is there a TrÄ«ne there who was born in December of 1823? There is! With the precise birthdate listed of December 23, 1823, so it looks like a good match indeed! This TrÄ«ne’s surname is Krastiņa, and her father’s name is Jānis. She was born on Dikļi estate, Kulmači farm.

Though in the interest of completeness, there are other Trīnes as well. While Trīne Krastiņa certainly looks like the perfect match, I will not consider it 100% until I actually find a marriage record, since in this time period people were notoriously unreliable about dates. Even years! And so, the other possibles, all born within a few months or years:

• TrÄ«ne Ä€bele, father Marcis, born October 23, 1821
• TrÄ«ne MiÄ·elsone, father Jānis, born July 15, 1822
• TrÄ«ne Wende, father Tenis, born November 29, 1822
• TrÄ«ne Krastiņa (another one!), father PÄ“teris, born June 6, 1823 – she was also from Kulmači farm, so it seems as though the fathers may have been brothers?
• TrÄ«ne Krospiņa, father JÄ“kabs, born December 12, 1824
• TrÄ«ne Diecmane, father Jānis, born December 28, 1824
• TrÄ«ne Siliņa, father JÄ“kabs, born March 5, 1825
• TrÄ«ne Ulme, widowed mother Ä’de, born May 10, 1826 – this one is also important to note, since she is living on SpurÄ«tis farm, which I know to be a place where the Graumanis family lived

So I still like the younger TrÄ«ne Krastiņa for my ancestor, but I shouldn’t discount TrÄ«ne Krastiņa the elder, or TrÄ«ne Ulme. I think the rest I can probably set aside, but you never know. Stranger things have happened!

I’m not certain what possessed two brothers (? – this still needs to be confirmed) to give their daughters the same name -in the same year, no less – while they were living on the same farm. I’d like to say I haven’t seen this before, but I have. I don’t know why people did it, it is just asking for trouble and a great deal of confusion.

Come back next week, where I will tackle another female ancestor’s potential maiden names!