Photos from the Cassells

On the left is "Auntie Mary Valaitis" (actually Veronica's mother's aunt and my great-grandfather's sister, Marijona Kisieliute). This is who my grandmother used to refer to as "Mrs. Valaitis". I don't think they'd ever met, but I believe they had contact, probably through Christmas cards. Behind her to the right is "Helen", who I think is Mary's daughter, Helen Tracy. This is the person that my grandmother first told me to look for when she found out I was moving to Scotland. Unfortunately, she has passed away. The elderly woman in the middle is "Gran Kisielius", the matriarch Magde Pausziute / Kisieliene. To her right is Juozas "Joe" Valaitis and Ona Manning (Kisieliute), Veronica's mother.

Marijona, Helen, Magde, Juozas, Ona

I also made some higher resolution scans of photos I posed before. These two are Jonas Kisielius and his wife Magde Pausziute. I think they come from their alien register passbooks that Lithuanian immigrants had to carry during World War I. It's a real shame we don't have those documents!

Jonas and Magde

This is a group of steelworkers playing cards. Veronica told me the men used to go out and gamble at one of the slag heaps. She believes one of them is her grandfather Jonas.

Steelworkers

This is a group of miners that I posted before. I still suspect that the one of the left is my great grandfather Kazimieras Kisielius, but I can't be sure. Chute didn't recognize him when I showed her the (low resolution) printout, but she couldn't see very well at the time. I'm not certain when the photo was taken, but that could probably be determined by the equipment the miners have with them. If it's from around the early 1900s, there's a good chance one of them is him.

Miners in Lanarkshire

I also made a much higher resolution (110Mb) copy of Jonas's Imperial Army passbook, a really incredible document. I hope to get some help making a second translation of it from a cousin in Lithuania when I go back there this August. Hopefully, he'll be able to get a little more detail than Veronica originally had.

I've also got a stack of other Kisielius family photos, but I'm not certain who all the people in them are yet. Once I get Veronica and Helen (Peat not Tracy) to fill in the blanks, I'll post them here.

Meeting the Cassells

As I said already, I've been quite negligent about keeping this blog up to date. At the start of March I met some "long lost" relatives from the Kisielius line and didn't even get around to posting anything about it here! We had them over for lunch and it was a really lovely time. They even lent me some old photos (many of the same ones that Veronica sent photocopies of previously, but many new ones as well), plus they let me borrow Jonas Kisielius' Tsarist Russian military passbook from over 100 years ago! I've made scans and will post them soon.

Helen, me, Veronica
(second cousins, twice removed)

We've been planning to meet up again, but it's been a while since we've all been in the same country. Veronica has a home in California and Helen has one in Spain.

NOTE: Actually, it's quite misleading to title this post "Meeting the Cassells" because neither Helen nor Veronica carries that name. "Cassells" and "Cassels" were the names that the Kisielius group adopted here in Scotland.

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.

Mykolas Kisielius

Last April I wrote about some information I received about my Kisielius family from a contact in Lithuania. He had sent me a transcription of a death record after I had located an entry for Mykolas Kisielius, my 2x-great-grandfather, in a set of photos he had posted online. The information he sent me was just a transcription of the record, not an image of the record itself. Since I always like to see the record myself before being sure about anything, I planned to have a look during my visit to the Lithuanian archive. And so I did.

Mykolas Kisielius, death 26 Feb 1938
(full page view)

All of the information he gave me checks out, including the fact that Mykolas (supposedly) had two sons named Jonas! I actually still suspect that this is a clerical error (and one of the sons was actually called Juozas) but the mistake must have been made by the person creating the original record, not my contact who passed the information along to me. Of course, there is also a chance that they are both called Jonas but only one of them is a son (the other being, perhaps, a nephew).  There is, after all, a 12 year gap between the second Jonas and the next youngest child.

Now that I have this record, I am able to confirm the names of my 3x-great-grandparents: "Petras and Ona Mikulyte Kisieliai" - that is, Petras Kisielius (note that Kisieliai is the plural form of Kisielius) and Ona Mikulyte. This means that the theory I laid out here might actually be true, "John Kiselius" who died in Bellshill Scotland might have been a relative. It all depends on whether or not you're convinced that "Piotras Kiselius" is actually Petras Kisielius and "Ona Mikoliute" is actually Ona Mikulyte (see record here). It's a fairly safe bet.

If it is true, it means that the things I wrote here and here are also true, and more descendants of my Kisielius family are here in Scotland, in fact right here in Edinburgh!

I'd like to find more evidence to support this theory (e.g. a Lithuanian record showing that Petras and Ona did, indeed, have a son called "John" born in 1867), but the trouble is only a very limited number of records for Vilkaviškis survive. Almost nothing is from before 1922.

I do know that "John" married his wife Magde Pausziute in November 1901 in "Russia" (Lithuania was under Imperial Russia at the time), and a marriage record would list his parents, but again the Vilkaviškis records are limited. There's a small chance that the 1911 Scotland census would show where they are from (though it usually isn't more specific than "Russia"). Transit records sometimes list next-of-kin, either in the destination or the origin, so I could search both for their transit or those of Kazimiras Kisielius or Marijona Kisieliute (though these records are partial, at best). My best hope might be a Lithuanian death record for either Piotras or Ona, but the odds that either died after 1922 are slim.

The search continues.


UPDATE (25 Sept 2013): I had another thought. If I could match addresses across records and show that "John" lived with people I know to be my relatives, there's a good chance that he is family. I haven't found an exact match yet, but I did find that "John" lived right nearby my great-grandfather's sister, Marijona. He lived at 3 Pitt Street in Mossend in 1913, and she lived at 8 Pitt Street in 1915 (note that "Kisieliute" is her maiden name and the -te ending is just how maiden names are signified in Lithuanian). And in 1921, "John" is still living in the same place. In fact, I've even got a record that shows he was there in 1915 as well. It's hard to imagine they didn't know each other. And it's also hard to imagine that two people with the Kisielius name ended up just a couple doors from each other just by chance. I know from my great-aunt Kitty Kisieliute that Marijona was brought to Scotland with the help of other Kisielius relatives that were already there. Might that include "John"? I'm becoming more and more convinced.

More Kisielius / Cassells

I was back at the monthly evening session at the Scotland's People archive last night.  My objective this time was to continue to fill out the tree of descendants from Jonas and Magde, as I believe I'm connected to the group through Jonas.  Last time I was able to trace the line through Stasis "Stanley" Cassels (one L) to a family currently living in Glasgow.  This time I traced the line from Jonas "John" Cassells (two Ls) to a family right here in Edinburgh!  Despite the differing spellings (one L or two), I know these families are connected because John and Stanley have the same parents:

John Cassells (two Ls), son of Jonas Kisielus and Magde Pausziute

Stanley Cassels (one L), also the son of Jonas Kisielus and Magde Pausziute

As long as the Lithuanian documents check-out, I've been living within walking distance of cousins for nearly three years now!  I could well have bumped into them walking down the street!

What I found was that John had 6 children, 5 of which survived:  Harry, Helen, Magdaline, John, and Hughina.  Their first child, also called Harry, died at just 3 days.  The second Harry, however, had two children in the 1960s, but I couldn't find any record of them after that.  They might have moved away from Scotland.  Harry died just last year, unfortunately.  Harry's sister, Helen, is the matriarch of the family currently in Edinburgh.  Once I get a hold of the Lithuanian records, I'll definitely try to make contact.  The other three children, Magdaline, John, and Hughina didn't turn up in any other searches.  Two were married, but they don't appear to have had children - at least not in Scotland.

There's still one more daughter of Jonas and Magde, Margaret (1910-1947), but I ran out of time to get anywhere with that.  Margaret married Samuel Rutherford, and they had at least one child, William John Rutherford.  Rutherford is such a common name that it will take a fair bit of searching to trace the rest of that branch.  A job for next time.

Jonas and Magde

After discovering that my great-grandfather's uncle might have been here in Scotland as well, I made a trip back to the Scotland's People archive to search the records yet again.  Turns out that Jonas "John" Kisielius had quite a few descendants.  As long as those Lithuanian records turn out to be correct and I am related to him, it means I have even more living relatives here in Scotland!  Here's what I found:

Jonas (abt 1867 - 1928) was married to Magde Pauziute (abt 1881 - 1958).  They married in November of 1901 in "Russia" (actually Russian-occupied Lithuania), according to several of their children's birth certificates.  They had a total of nine (!) children.  Sadly, most did not survive the early months of their lives.  This is what I've been able to find out about them so far (note that their name is mis-spelled as "Kisielus"):

• Margaret Kisielus, no birth record found, died June 1947 aged 37.  Her death certificate indicates that she was married to Samuel Rutherford.  Her marriage certificate indicates that she had gone by Margaret "Cassells" (two Ls).
• Albinas Kisielus, born June 1912, died Aug 1912
• Jonas Kisielus, born Aug 1913, died Nov 1960 aged 47.  His death certificate indicates that he was married to Agnes Stewart Scammell, he had been a cabinetmaker, he died of lung cancer, and he had changed his name to "John Cassells" (two Ls).
• Stasis Kisielus, born Apr 1915, died May 1978 aged 63.  His death certificate indicates that he was married to Tilly Venys (formerly "Wenis"), he had been a steel erector, he died of cancer, and he had changed his name to "Stanley Cassels" (one L).
• Edward Kisielus, born July 1919, died May 1920
• Monica Kisielus, born Oct 1920, Nov 1921
• Katre Kisielus, born Sept 1921, Nov 1921
• Bernadas Kisielus, born Jan 1923, no death record found
• Alexander Kisielus, born Feb 1925, Oct 1925

Monica and Katre died within 24 hours of each other, barely a year after Edward, all from gastroenteritis.  I can't imagine how traumatic that must have for 11 year old Margaret, 8 year old Jonas, and 6 year old Stasis.  They would have been acutely aware of their own mortality, and reminded of it just a few years later when Alexander died of pneumonia.  Not to mention that their father also died (of a stroke) just a few years after that.

My time before the archive closed was limited, so I only had time to trace the lineage from one of the children completely.  Stasis / "Stanley" had two children, one of which had a son, who himself has two young children.  They were living in Glasgow just a few years ago when the kids were born, so hopefully I will be able to make contact (just a quick search in the phonebook showed that they're not listed).  I will need to go back to the archive to fully trace the lineage from Margaret and Jonas/"John" Jr.

The trail went cold for the last child, Bernadas, so I'll need to do some further searching on him.  He didn't have a death record or a marriage record, which could mean one of a few things:  he changed his name and the records aren't cross referenced as they usually are with "Kisielus" as a former name, he emigrated before marriage, he died overseas (he was the right age to have fought in WWII), or he never married and is still living!  He'd be about 90, and as doubtful as that is, it would be incredible if it happens to be true.

Lots more searching to do.  AND I need to see the Lithuanian records for myself to be sure that I really am connected to Jonas.