I'd been looking for this one for ages, but couldn't remember where it was that I'd seen it. It is us as kids with Chute's mother, probably from 1983.
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| Jesse, Nick, Sofija, me, Lacy |
This is a photo of Chute's brother, Kazimiras (on far left), after they'd won a soccer championship in Latvia. Chute believes it was the Lithuanian army soccer team, and she explained that they won a trophy, or "trowpy" as she calls it. It was probably in the late 1930s, in the days before basketball really took hold as the national sport.
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| Kazimiras Kisielius Jr (left) |
This is a note from Kazimiras after he was abducted by the Soviets in the early 1940s. It was written on the back of this photo. Chute has translated some of it for me before, but I know it wasn't that precise. As I understand it, it is the last that was ever heard from him. I'm going to need to get Raimundas or Elena to translate it fully for me.
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| From Kazimiras |
When I showed my photos from Vilkaviškis to Chute, I tried to show her ones of things she might recognize. The cathedral was damaged in the War and repaired after independence, so I wasn't sure she'd recognize it. She didn't really, but she pulled out this photo of her in front of it when she was in her 20s. It looks so different, I can't really even be sure it's the same building. She's on the right, and the one in the middle might be her sister Kitty, but I'm not sure who the person on the left is.
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| Cathedral in Vilkaviškis |
This is the Kisielius family, probably in the 1930s. Standing in the back are Kazimiras Jr and Chute. Seated in the front are Sofija/Zose and Kazimiras Sr. On the right is Kitty/Katherine. And on the left is Elle (or Ily?) who, according to Chute, was a cousin.
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| Kisielius Family |
This is from the early 1950s, shortly after they arrived in the US. My dad (in middle) was the first born in the US. My uncle "Mike" (actually Mečys) is on the left, and my uncle "Charlie" (actually Gediminas) is on the right. Charlie was born in Germany in the camps.
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| Chute and her "three stooges", as she sometimes calls them. |
This is later (1960s already?) after they had gotten the farm in East Schodack. I'm not old enough to remember when they had cows, but they were still raising hay when I was a kid.
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| Chute milking the cows. |
I also went through Chute's address book and asked her about all the people listed in the hope that it would spark some memories and possibly give me some more leads. I recorded the conversation, but we didn't get all the way through both books. I took photos of all the pages though. Here is the entry that started my whole genealogy pursuit. The address is almost certainly long outdated.
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| Mrs "Helen Tracy Louis" or, as I know now, Helen Valaitis and her husband Louis Tracy |
Mike also pulled out some old documents. This is Chute's certificate of naturalization.
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| Chute's Naturalization |
This is an "extract of the marriage record" for Chute and Tevuk, apparently produced in the Wolterdingen displaced persons camp in 1948. It shows that they were married in St. Ludwig's in Munich on 2 September 1945. Note that it shows both her maiden name, Kisieliute, and her first married name, Apanaviciene.
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| Marriage 1945 |
I'm not sure yet what this is. I'm going to need to get a German friend to help me understand it. It appears to be a church document regarding Chute's marriage to Tevuk. It shows their marriage date, but it was created in February 1946, 5 and half months after they were married.
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| Munich 1946 |
This is another record from the camps. It appears to certify Chute's christening from 1921, and it shows her birthday (15 January). It must have been made from her original copy, but I'm not sure why she doesn't have that. The official copy, I know from going to the archive in Lithuania, has been lost. That makes this really important.
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| Christening 1921 |
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