Kisielius Connection

Things are really starting to come together with the Kisielius branch. Helen Peat, who I spoke to Wednesday, passed my letter along to her cousin Veronica (or "Ronnie"), who then emailed me. She is another second-cousin, twice-removed to me. And she also seems very interested to hear about the connection between us - a real delight. I didn't have her on the tree that I sent along to Helen because, it seems, her mother Ona (another child of Jonas and Magda) was born outside of Scotland. So I wouldn't have found a birth record.

Tree I sent to Helen. Ona was a sibling of John, Margaret, and Stanley.
Ronnie is the daughter of Ona.

According to Ronnie, her mother Ona was born in St. Petersburg. I know that Jonas and Magda were married in "Russia" in 1901, but I had been assuming that it was really Lithuania since Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire at the time. These are important pieces of information to get in order to track down where everybody has been. Ronnie also says she has Jonas's army passbook. I'm assuming that's why they were in Russia. It doesn't seem that it would have been from 1917 when Kazimiras would have been sent to Russia from Scotland, but I don't know yet. I'll be really interested to see more about that.

Ronnie mentioned that she only recently (7 or 8 years ago) moved back to Scotland from California, so she was asking about where we were based in the US. I explained the whole story that the family fled from Lithuania in 1944 (or 1945?) and stayed in a displaced persons camp in Germany until 1948, then went to New Hampshire, then Connecticut, and finally to the farm in East Schodack. And that's when it all started to come together.

Ronnie recalls that when she was about 8-12 years old they had visitors that came from "Belsen", who they called aunt and uncle. Presumably "Belsen" is the Bergen-Belson displaced persons camp. I don't really know much about it, but I'm going to look into it. Ronnie says, though, that they were called Sophie and Charlie. That's Zose and Kazimiras!! My great-grandparents! I knew already that they had passed through the UK on the way to the US because I found a transit record.

Transit record of my great-grandparents to USA.

I always wondered why they didn't go back to Glasgow at that time, but it appears that they did, at least briefly. Perhaps they continued to the US because there seemed to be greater opportunity. The postwar era in most of Europe was really challenging. It's interesting to hear that they might be been in Belsen because I thought, from Chute, they had been in a camp near Munich. Maybe they were in different places. I will need to get more information from Chute next month.

Ronnie also explained that her mother kept up correspondence, and she even still had the addresses, leaving little doubt about the connection! They were:

Mrs Jessie Kisielius
105 South Willow St
Manchester NH

and

Mrs M Musulis  (Jessie's daughter)
101 Pleasant St
New Britain - Conn.

"Jessie", I know, is another name that was used by Sophie/Zose (see also here). And I know that there were other family connections South Willow Street in Manchester. "Mrs M Musulis" is, no doubt, Marija Matulis, Chute, my grandmother! The connection from me to Ronnie, Helen, and the other Cassells is closer than I thought. A "second-cousin, twice removed" is pretty distant, but to learn that my grandmother's address was in their address book somehow makes it feel much closer.

Encouraged by this, I asked Ronnie if she knew Helen Tracy, who is a descendant of Marijona Kisielius (Kisieliute/Valaitiene), the sister of Kazimiras. I've tried several times to make contact, but have been unsuccessful. Sure enough, Ronnie knew her!! She even referred to her as "cousin" (technically they were second cousins). Everything is finally coming full circle. "Helen Tracy [and] Louis" were the first people that Chute told me to look for when I was leaving for Scotland.

This is all that Chute gave me to go on.

It's taken three years, and I've already uncovered more than I ever expected that I would, but it seems that I'm finally getting close to having the full story.

A Phone Call

On Monday I sent a letter to one of the descendants of Jonas and Magda, Helen, a "second-cousin, twice-removed", explaining the connection between us. She called me back this morning. I was really pleased to find that she seemed quite interested in the family history! And it sounds as though she knows a good bit more information. She remembers Magda, and she said her father even spoke Lithuanian. She also said she has Jonas's identity card from his time in the White Army. I'll be really interested to know more about that, since it could be relevant to why his branch of family was able to remain in Scotland. I believe my great-grandfather Kazimiras was denied re-entry to Scotland after being sent away to the north of Russia during WWI (those that couldn't "prove loyalty" using such documents weren't allowed back in). It is, I believe, the reason my branch of the family left Scotland and re-settled in Lithuania.

Helen is getting in contact with some of her relatives that, she thinks, know more. Hopefully I'll fill in even more of the story.