Time for Week 26 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.

Today we return to my Celmiņš line, with Dāvis Celmiņš, the son of the first Celmiņš I talked about, PÄ“teris Celmiņš. Dāvis is my great-great-great-great-grandfather, by way of my paternal grandfather’s paternal grandfather PÄ“teris Celmiņš (as mentioned in the earlier post, this is a popular name).

Other than the fact that he was born c. 1790 (too early for birth records) and died c. 1839 (according to the 1850 revision list, though I have not found a death record), and the fact that he was married to a woman named Baiba, Dāvis’ story is much the same as his father’s – quite probably born on PaukulÄ«tes farm, but moved to StampvÄ“veri at an early age, where his descendants would remain for decades (and even centuries) to come. Dāvis and Baiba had at least six (possibly seven) children. Five sons: PÄ“teris (c. 1814 – in this generation, NOT my ancestor), JÄ“kabs (c. 1821), Kārlis (c. 1823, my great-great-great-grandfather), Dāvis (c. 1827) and Jānis (c. 1831), and one or two daughters – there is a Marija mentioned in the 1826 revision list born c. 1825, but then the 1834 revision list mentions a daughter born c. 1825 or 1826 named Anna. So either someone got one of the names wrong, or there were two daughters, born relatively close together, but then the first (Marija) died in infancy.

To add a bit more to this post, I’ve been doing a bit of looking around at the PaukulÄ«tes farm, the farm of origin for my Celmiņš line. Predictably, it is full of Celmiņš residents as well, though at times they are referred to as “CelmÄ«tis” instead – same meaning, “-Ä«tis” and “-iņš” are both diminutive endings, though the “-iņš” version is more common. Both the StampvÄ“veri and PaukulÄ«tes Celmiņš families are descended from the same progenitors. This also means that when surnames were assigned in the 1820s, the families on the two farms were still considered close enough relatives to be able to use the same surname – otherwise they would have had to use different ones.

If you are interested in the work I’m doing on my Celmiņš family – or in any Celmiņš family in general – or alternately, in Vijciems parish, watch this space, because I am in the process of developing both a One-Name Study for the name Celmiņš, as well as a One-Place Study for Vijciems parish. Stay tuned!