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The Elusive Village in the Old Country: How can I discover it?
Probably the biggest frustration is finding out what village your people came FROM in Lithuania...assuming you know their real surname, of course. How do you go about figuring it out if there's no one left to ask? What strategies, resources, etc. do you use? Share a nightmare, or a success story!
Most important to remember are the occupations...the Germans, Russians. From 1795 to 1918, Lithuania didn't exist. Whatever town you're looking for probably had a name in: Russian, German, Lithuanian and Polish. You must keep an open mind and do the research to find your village....remember, if you even HAVE a village name, you are well ahead of most of us and subject to our envy! Looking at the old maps with the border changes, name changes, etc., might be helpful. Take a few minutes to get the gist of the Partitions from the 1700s-1900s.
One site to try is Falling Rain.
Better than that, I think, is the Excel database in the Files section of the Yahoo group for Lithuanian Genealogy: You'll have to get a yahoo ID and join, but honestly, if you haven't...what's wrong with you? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LithuanianGenealogy/files/
SGKP-Lithuania is a site dedicated to translating entries from the Polish XIXc gazetteer describing localities in modern-day Lithuania.
Working Backwards
Let's assume you know what name you're looking for. The next obstacle is the timeframe during which your ancestor immigrated. The later they came, the better your chances. Here are just a few things that I do:
1. Go to the Lithuanian Internet Phone directory Zebra (see link on main page). Type in the first few letters of the name to see how many hits you get. Is it a common name? relatively rare?
2. I group the results from #1 by location. Are there 'hotspots' in certain regions of Lithuania for the name?
3. I search the heck out of Ancestry.com and just plain ole Google searches. Think outside the box. There might not be info for your direct ancestor, but his or her cousin who came over later might have a passport application, naturalization papers, etc. that might give clues to the old home village. Later immigration records to the USA often give home villages instead of just "Russia" or "Kowno (Kaunas)" or the ever popular "Suwalki" (which could be most of southern Lithuania and parts of Poland). The locations will be horrifically mis-spelled. I use an Excel database that I downloaded from the LithGen yahoo group which has a ton of spellings for a zillion towns and villages in Lithuania. Remember that at various times, a village might have had a Lithuanian spelling, a German spelling, a Polish spelling or a Russian spelling...or all of the above. And they might not look anything alike to each other.
4. Using the results from the Zebra internet phone directory, I write letters...in English, explaining who I am and the family I'm looking for. Give basic info, name, birth, when they immigrated, who they married...but don't overdo it. ALWAYS include your email address. Your letter might get passed off to a younger relative who understands some English and who has email access. I ask them how much they know about their family history. And do they remember a so-and-so going to America, England, etc. I know many people have found this incredibly successful.
5. If you're willing to accept the headaches of social networking sites, #4 can also be attempted on Facebook, Frype, Orkut and a smattering of other sites. You may be using Google Translator constantly to figure out what the websites say if you don't speak the languages, but it may be worth it.
Most important to remember are the occupations...the Germans, Russians. From 1795 to 1918, Lithuania didn't exist. Whatever town you're looking for probably had a name in: Russian, German, Lithuanian and Polish. You must keep an open mind and do the research to find your village....remember, if you even HAVE a village name, you are well ahead of most of us and subject to our envy! Looking at the old maps with the border changes, name changes, etc., might be helpful. Take a few minutes to get the gist of the Partitions from the 1700s-1900s.
One site to try is Falling Rain.
Better than that, I think, is the Excel database in the Files section of the Yahoo group for Lithuanian Genealogy: You'll have to get a yahoo ID and join, but honestly, if you haven't...what's wrong with you? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LithuanianGenealogy/files/
SGKP-Lithuania is a site dedicated to translating entries from the Polish XIXc gazetteer describing localities in modern-day Lithuania.
Working Backwards
Let's assume you know what name you're looking for. The next obstacle is the timeframe during which your ancestor immigrated. The later they came, the better your chances. Here are just a few things that I do:
1. Go to the Lithuanian Internet Phone directory Zebra (see link on main page). Type in the first few letters of the name to see how many hits you get. Is it a common name? relatively rare?
2. I group the results from #1 by location. Are there 'hotspots' in certain regions of Lithuania for the name?
3. I search the heck out of Ancestry.com and just plain ole Google searches. Think outside the box. There might not be info for your direct ancestor, but his or her cousin who came over later might have a passport application, naturalization papers, etc. that might give clues to the old home village. Later immigration records to the USA often give home villages instead of just "Russia" or "Kowno (Kaunas)" or the ever popular "Suwalki" (which could be most of southern Lithuania and parts of Poland). The locations will be horrifically mis-spelled. I use an Excel database that I downloaded from the LithGen yahoo group which has a ton of spellings for a zillion towns and villages in Lithuania. Remember that at various times, a village might have had a Lithuanian spelling, a German spelling, a Polish spelling or a Russian spelling...or all of the above. And they might not look anything alike to each other.
4. Using the results from the Zebra internet phone directory, I write letters...in English, explaining who I am and the family I'm looking for. Give basic info, name, birth, when they immigrated, who they married...but don't overdo it. ALWAYS include your email address. Your letter might get passed off to a younger relative who understands some English and who has email access. I ask them how much they know about their family history. And do they remember a so-and-so going to America, England, etc. I know many people have found this incredibly successful.
5. If you're willing to accept the headaches of social networking sites, #4 can also be attempted on Facebook, Frype, Orkut and a smattering of other sites. You may be using Google Translator constantly to figure out what the websites say if you don't speak the languages, but it may be worth it.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Linda Johnson on
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Hi Richie,
Thanks so much for your help! I am going to write the letters tonight. Any advice?
Linda -
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I received my first response today from one of the people in Lithuania that I wrote to. Richie found the names on the Lithuanian internet phonebook and sent the information to me. This person emailed me. We don't know if we are related, but he is willing to "go to my Grandfather's birthplace and ask for more information for the native people". This is wonderful news!
I highly suggest that everyone look at the internet phone book and write letters. I wrote in English and included my email address. As it turned out the person who responded to me was the son who knows English and has email. -
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Permalink Reply by John Peters on
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The abbreviation, "sen.", means seniūnija, which is a kind of administrative division like a township or borough in the U.S., larger than a village but smaller than a town.
The English web page of the Lithuanian post office (Lietuvos Paštas) where one can search for postal codes is this: http://www.post.lt/en/?id=421.
John Peters -
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Thank you John. I am not sure where to put the postal code of 72212. The address is:
Juros g. 51A-1
Taurages m
Taurages miesto sen
Lietuvos Respublika
Lithuania
Thanks for your help. -
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Linda,
Today and since WWI, the town of Aleksandrowo in Lithuania has been called Žemaičių Naumiestis in the Šilutė. It is called Neishtat Sugind in Yiddish, Neustadt Sugind in German, Ir Chadash Sugind in Hebrew, Aleksandrovsk in Russian, and Nowe Miasto in Polish. It is sometimes called Nishtot Tavrig, Neishtat, Aleksandria, Naumiestis-Taurage. This is one of those towns where the name change is so significant from the time of the Russian Empire (1795 - 1917) that no one could guess it. It is very close to the area called Memmeland that Lithuania annexed from East Prussia after WWI. A detailed, high-resolution map of that area can be seen at this site: http://www.mapywig.org/m/wig300k/25_KLAJPEDA_1936.jpg (after the map loads just click on it to enlarge it.) On this 1936 map it is called Naumiestis and Nowe Miasto. In this 1925 map in Polish and German (http://www.mapywig.org/m/German_maps/1919-1945/300K/Uebersichtskart...), it is called Noweinmiasto (Aleksandrowskoje).
John Peters -
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Permalink Reply by Christopher J. Valin on
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Thanks for the great advice. I didn't realize how spoiled I was with the ease of finding my French-Canadian, Irish, and Scottish ancestors until I started working on the Lithuanian branch.
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Permalink Reply by Richie C. on
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I posted a new link on this page, for a new-ish website called SGKP-Lithuania. This is a project of translating old Polish gazeteers from the late 1800s, to identify the current Lithuanian spelling of villages/towns. I expect that it will continue to grow as the translations move forward, but this could be a good present & future resource in figuring out what village your relatives might be from.
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If you're like me, and you have no idea what village your ancestor came from, you might want to spend some time researching others with the same name. Using Ancestry.com at home, or at the library, try tracing others who share that surname and see if their immigration records tell you what their village was. Also look at the internet phone directories (links on the front page). Then keep a list with the home villages for the other people and plot them on a map. Maybe they're focussed on a certain area in Lithuania? If the name isn't common, it might zero you in on where your ancestor came from. Or, if you DO know your ancestor's village, you might find siblings or cousins this way.
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Permalink Reply by Sandy Abramovich on
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I was lucky enough to find my grandmother's village by obtaining her brother's citizenship papers - he listed the village as C^erbai. This May I was able to walk down the dirt road in this village - the thrill of a lifetime for me! It's a couple of hundred feet down the road from Stakiai in the Jurbarkas district. I was also fortunate enough to locate some cousins by writing to people in the phone book - I found my grandmother's nephew Antanas, who spoke no English, but has a granddaughter who is quite fluent and has served as our interpreter. Had a wonderful lunch at their apartment in Jurbarkas - we managed to converse with my limited Lithuanian, and some assistance from Laura's boyfriend, who also speaks excellent English. When Rich said to think outside the box, he's so right - I found these cousins by writing to people with my great grandmother's maiden name, because it was not as common as her husband's name. There were only 4 or 5 in the Lithuanian phone book so it was not onerous. I was also able to visit my grandfather's village - Skaciai, near Kursenai. I'm still working on my husband's family, but every little nugget of information keeps the search going!
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Sandy,
I'm thrilled it worked out so well for you (and jealous!)! Thanks for sharing; I hope it inspired others to keep plugging away. -
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Hey all. I'm researching my good friend's Lithuanian family & trying to figure out the village they came from. The name of the village is written on an immigration document that I have found, but I can't find any village with that name. Maybe someone can help out? The town is written as: Budenishky. The name of my friend's ancestor is Ivan Klebonas (Klebanas). Any advice or insight would be fantastic. Thanks!
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