Catherine I (Russian: Екатерина I Алексеевна; Yekaterina I Alekseyevna (born Marta Helena Skowrońska, Latvian: Marta Elena Skavronska, later Marfa Samuilovna Skavronskaya)

Links

• The Peerage
• Geneall
• Empress of Russia Reign 1725-1727 Predecessor: Peter I Successor: Peter II
• Wikipedia
• The real history of Rõngu Marta (in Estonian) - as she was born in Governorate of Livonia, in parrish Rõngu kihelkond (Kirchspiel Ringen) as serf's daughter, later czar's court rewrote her genealogy to fit into blue-blooded

-------------------- The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm the ascent of Catherine. The commonly accepted version is that Catherine was born in Ringen (Rõngu), in present-day Estonia. At the time this area was the Swedish province of Livonia. Originally named 'Marta Skowrońska', she was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński, later Samuil Skavronsky, a Latvian peasant of Polish origin, most likely a Catholic, and who was already a widower of one Dorothea Hann. Her mother has been listed on at least one site as Elisabeth Moritz, whom her father married at Jakobstadt in 1680. There is some speculation that her parents were runaway serfs. Some sources state her father was a gravedigger. Samuil and her mother died of plague around 1684 or 1685, leaving five children. She was taken by an aunt who sent her to be raised by Ernst Glück, the Lutheran pastor and educator who first translated the Bible into Latvian, in Marienburg. She was essentially a house servant. No effort was made to teach her to read and she remained illiterate throughout her life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_I_of_Russia

Johann Ernst Glück (Latvian: Ernsts Gliks; 10 November 1654 – 5 May 1705) was a German translator and Lutheran theologian active in Livonia, which is now in Latvia.

Glück was born in Wettin as the son of a pastor. After attending the Latin school of Altenburg, he studied theology, rhetoric, philosophy, geometry, history, geography, and Latin at Wittenberg and Jena.

Glück is renowned for translating the Holy Bible into the Latvian language, which he carried out in its entirety in Marienburg (Alūksne) in Livonia, in the building now the Alūksne Museum, established to honour his work. He also founded the first Latvian language schools in Livonia in 1683. He died in Moscow.

He had four daughters, a son, and a foster-daughter Marta Skavronska who married Peter I and is mainly known as Catherine I. From 1725 until 1727 she was empress of Russian Empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Gl%C3%BCck