The beginning of the Šemetas’ kin is related to the middle of the 15th century when the ancestor of this family Šemeta Nemeikaitis (the son of Nemeikis) was mentioned. He had 2 sons: Mikalojus and Jonas, who were descendants of 2 ramifications of Šemetas’ kin. It is unclear when and why the first (Jonas) offshoot was called by Šemetas’ name. But at the beginning of the 16th century Jurgis Jonaitis (Jurgis the son of Jonas) had this name as a surname.
The earliest reference of Nemeikaičiai–Šemetas’ family shows us that they were the relatives of Galiginas and his kin (Račkaičiai, Jackaičiai, Radaičiai and Butkaičiai). The above-mentioned kin’s main patrimonial domains were Voverys (nowadays Vaverka in Belarus). They were the offsprings of Galiginas who participated in the union of the Horodlo in 1413 when he got the Polish coat of arms of Swan (Łabędż). This armorial sign was saved and used by the kin of Galiginas. Šemetas’ family was closely related either by blood or marriage to noble kin like Kantautas, Chodkevičiai, Zavišos, Iljiničiai and others.
Finally, in the 16th century Šemetas’ family removed their residence to Samogitia. The activity of the family men in public life started expanding when they began to live in Samogitia. Therefore, they had duties that were often closely related to this region. Merkelis Šemeta was the vice-prefect (Slavic – podstarosta, Latin – vice-capitaneus) of Samogitia. After that he became the governor (tivun) of Palanga, Tendžiogala and Beržėnai. Finally, he occupied the place of the castellan of Samogitia. He had the son Vaclovas who was podkomory (the judge of land-ownership cases) of Samogitia. Later, he was the castellan of Polotsk and Smolensk. The second son Merkelis was the podkomory of Ukmergė and Vilnius and the ma |
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