Though I've not added anything to this blog in quite a long time, it's proven useful, on more than one occasion, for reconnecting with distant family links. Just recently, I was contacted by a couple third-cousins from the Sviatek family line who had come across something I'd written. Until now, I hadn't had any contact with the Sviatek (Sviatikis) group. Now hopefully I can fill in some details about that branch. Sara, one of the two who found me, was able to help fill in a mystery almost right away -- who's pictured in this photo:
The photo came from the album of my great-uncle Juozas Matulis in Pasvalys, Lithuania. He knew it was from the US, but he couldn't recall who was pictured. Phyllis Ouellet suspected it was "Annie" Sviatek, and she was correct. According to Sara, standing next to the car is her grandmother's mother, Anna. Anna is the blood relation between us. Our common ancestor was Anna's father, Mykolas Matulis. Anna's maiden name was Matulyte. She was the aunt of my grandfather (and possibly the person who sponsored my grandparents' emigration to the US!). Driving the car is Josephine Sviatek / Stillings. And an aunt (must be the daughter of Josephine) is in the back. Sara even knew where the photo was taken - Barrington, Rhode Island.
Sara sent me some photos of her branch of the tree.
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| Victoria and Ann (daughters of Anna Matulyte / Sviatekiene) |
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| Ann, Anna, and Albert (daughter on the left, son on the right) |
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| Anna, Josephine (holding son, Robert Stillings), and Joseph Sviatek |
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| The Sviatikis Branch Anna is the sister of my great-grandfather Silvestras. |
I decided to send some back and dug up some scans. And I discovered some of the Sviateks among them!
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| Sviatikis and Matulis |
After seeing Sara's photos, I recognised Joseph and Anna in this photo right away. They're with my grandparents (Vacys and Marija), my uncle Charlie / Gediminas, and my dad (John), but I didn't know who the other two were until now. Judging by my dad's age, it should be around 1950, just after they arrived (unless it's actually my dad and younger uncle Mike, in which case it's a few years later). The Sviateks have a funny habit of posing for photos in cars, but I guess owning a car was a big deal in those days.
Since making contact, I've become really curious about Anna Matulyte/Sviatikiene. When did she arrive in the US, why, and with whom? Anna and Joseph were part of the "first wave" of Lithuanian immigrants -- that is, immigrants who came during the tail end of Tsarist Empire primarily (I think) for economic opportunity as serfdom was ending in Russian territory (which included Lithuania). But as I posted before Anna married Joseph in the US in 1912, not in Lithuania before leaving. Does that mean she met Joseph in the US? It would have been unusual for an unmarried women to emigrate on her own in those days. Was that actually the case? If not, who did she emigrate with? So far as I know, her mother and father (Mykolas and Katrina) remained in Lithuania. What were the circumstances of her arrival?
I looked back at copies of the 1920 and 1930 census that I downloaded previously, and discovered something I hadn't noticed before. Both censuses say that Anna arrived in 1909 and Joseph arrived in 1910! She did, indeed, arrive first.
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| 1920 Census showing dates of immigration |
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| 1930 Census showing dates of immigration |
This is significant because it could mean there were other Matulis relatives in the US that I don't know about. Or possibly even more interesting for the period, she emigrated alone as an unmarried woman of 18 years age. Since she arrived in 1909, she should appear on the 1910 census.
I went to the library earlier this evening to use their Ancestry subscription and did my damnedest to find her using all the variations of her maiden name I could think of. No luck! New immigrants often don't respond to the census, so there's a chance she's just not there, which would be unfortunate.
Thinking back on what my grandfather once told me, his other aunt (Povilauskiene) might have emigrated too. Perhaps she was older, perhaps she was married, perhaps Anna emigrated with them. The key to tracking down Anna might be tracking down her sister.
I conveyed all this to Sara, and she got some really helpful information from her aunt. She had attended Anna's sister's funeral (probably in the late 1960s) in New Jersey. Anna's sister had been living with her daughter Helen (would have been Helen Povilauskaite) and Helen's husband George Hebenstreit (they might have had a daughter named Debbie). The combination of "Hebenstreit" and "Povilauskas" is a genealogist's dream -- you can be pretty sure you've got the right people when you find records that match.
A bit of searching and, bingo!
I can't access the record until I go back to the library, but I'm hoping this will help lead me not just to Anna, but also Anna's sister -- two more of the Matulis group, right here in the US. All this has revived some of the momentum to pick up this genealogy stuff again.
There's been several other things I've wanted to add to this blog over the last couple years too, but have really just neglected it. Maybe I'll try to post some other updates too.
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