Recent Developments

I've had a couple of pretty incredible breakthroughs on the genealogy and family history fronts, but absolutely no time to write about them. The first is that I was contacted by a professional genealogist who was hired by a distant relative to reconstruct the Leitner family tree. And she put me in contact with members of the family! There's been a flurry of emails introducing ourselves, and I even met a distant third-cousin, Eddy, who lives in London, while I was passing through a few weeks back!! It's been quite the discovery, especially since the Leitner branch is the one I've not yet started working on myself. Now, it seems, most of that's been done for me. I've even been sent a document written by Moritz Leitner (1881-1961) and translated by Herb Leitner that covers the family history going WAY back. It's long, and I've been so busy that I've not been able to look at it in detail, but that should be taken as no indication of my enthusiasm to get to it eventually.

The other thing is that I met a relative of Vytautas Apanavičius while I was in Lithuania in June. She showed my around Panemunė (a neighborhood in Kaunas), where the Apanavičius family lived -- including the exact location where one of močiute's photos was taken.

1930s / 2015
(I believe, now, the photo was actually taken from the other end)

Apanavičius House in Panemunė

In addition to this, I will be going this weekend to the Apanavičius family reunion in Ohio! The way we initially made contact is actually pretty incredible. I didn't realize it at the time that I was writing before, but the two of us decided to make contact with each other *independently* within the span of a couple days. Way back in February, I sent a letter to Raymond/Raimundas "Romas" Apanavičius (the youngest brother of Vytautas) using an address that I found in močiute's address book. I explained who I was and that my grandmother remembered his brother with great affection, even decades after he'd passed away. I believe it was a Tuesday when I sent the letter. The very next day, or perhaps two, I got a Facebook message from Raymond's daughter, Rima, and I thought: wow, that was quick. As it turned out, the letter didn't arrive until a couple days later. We both independently reached out to the other within the span of a couple days, some 70 years after Vytautas had passed away! What are the chances of that?! Anyhow, I look forward to meeting them all this weekend, and especially hearing stories from Romas about their time in the German DP camps.

One other thing that I should record in this hodge-podge post (even if I do so inadequately) is that, while in London, I paid a visit to the British Library and finally listened to the archived BBC Radio Scotland program on Lithuanians in Larnarkshire. It was expertly produced (of course) and quite moving at parts. For example, what one elderly first-generation-Scottish woman speaking about being raised in a Lithuanian-Scottish family had to say. I transcribed her words because they resonated so strongly with my own experience:

These stories mum and dad used to tell us about Lithuania -- I always felt that if I ever got to Lithuania, I'd recognize it and know it. We're very proud of our Scottish nationality, but also our Lithuanian and you can't forget that. You always feel that little bit different.

My grandparents stories were the same for me. We always felt "that little bit different", and I know from my first visit to Lithuania, especially, there was something familiar about it. It *did* feel like home, and it did feel like I belonged.

In addition, there were a couple of interesting points that could help in further research -- notably, the deportees under the Anglo-Russian Military Convention were apparently sent to Archangel from Liverpool. I'd tried to find records of this previously, so that I could verify that my great-grandfather Kazimiras was among them, but couldn't find anything. Knowing that they left from Liverpool may help. I really wish they would have allowed me to make a digital copy of the recording and post it here, but they have strict copyright protections.

Anyway, no time for more just now.