I am from the United States. I moved to Scotland in 2010 to study for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. At the time I had no idea that my Lithuanian ancestors had ever been in Scotland. Before leaving the US, I visited my elderly Lithuanian grandmother (now 92!) to tell her that I wouldn't see her for a while and that I was moving to Scotland. She replied, simply, "oh, look for the family when you're there". I thought she hadn't heard properly or had misunderstood (her English still isn't perfect). Did she think I was moving to Lithuania? Or (even more humorously) fitting with her inflated sense of Lithuanian greatness, did she think everything east of the Atlantic was Lithuania?! Just by chance, though, my uncle had overheard and mentioned that my great-grandmother had spoken with a Scottish accent until the day she died. How close I came to never knowing about this significant piece of family history is pretty astonishing.
It took some time after I got here, but I eventually was able to reconstruct the family tree from the records at the National Archive. To my surprise, I was able to identify three branches of the tree were still here, with dozens of living descendants! I have since been in contact with many of them, all of whom were just as surprised as I to learn that they had long lost cousins. It's been a really warming experience to be welcomed into their homes as they have done over the past year.
My next step has been to set upon trying to figure out why their (or more accurately, my) branch of the tree had gone missing. My great-grandmother was the eldest of 4 children, and by a significant margin, 10 years. She had married in 1917 to another member of the Lithuanian emigrant community in Glasgow. He was of the correct age to have been subject to the Anglo-Russian Military Convention, which was enacted in 1917 and was responsible for the deportation of approximately 1100 Lithuanian-Scottish men to Russia (Lithuania then being part of the Russian Empire). My great-grandmother's brother was too young to have been affected by the treaty and her father was too old, so that is why they were able to remain, and that is why I have relatives still living here. After World War One ended, the British government only allowed a fraction of those deported to Russia - only those who were able to "prove loyalty" - to return. My great-grandfather was not among them. By 1920, the British government made a decision to cut off support to dependents of the men that had been sent to Russia and denied return. This meant that hundreds of Lithuanian women and children were made destitute. The ultimate solution to that issue found by the government was repatriation - they arranged for hundreds of people (including Scottish-born Lithuanian children!!!) to be sent to Lithuania.
I don't yet have confirmation that my great-grandfather was sent away under the treaty, and I don't yet have confirmation that my great-grandmother and Scottish-born great-uncle were repatriated years later, because I haven't yet located the documents concerned. I do, however, know that my great-uncle was born in Glasgow exactly 9 months after the first Lithuanian men were sent to Russia, and I know that my grandmother was born in Lithuania exactly 10 months after assistance was cut off to the dependents living in Scotland. Needless to say, I'm confident that they will be on whatever records I do eventually locate.
The family lived quite happily in Lithuania for the better part of 20 years, until the lead up to World War Two. At that point, Lithuania got caught between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Both countries used Lithuania (and Lithuanians) as fodder in their hostilities. If it is even possible to believe, the brutality of the Soviets (at least for non-Jewish Lithuanians) far outstripped that of the Nazis. My Scottish-born great-uncle, by then part of the Lithuanian military, was deported by the Soviets to Siberia where he, no doubt, perished (my grandmother still gets emotional talking about it). Anybody who has read "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys (highly recommended!) will have some idea of the horrors experienced by Lithuanians during that period. The rest of my direct ancestors eventually escaped (of course, or else I wouldn't be here), and made their way to the United States after the War. Why they didn't return to Scotland at that time, I'm not sure.
My grandmother talking about her brother
What I (and a small group of others online) are looking for is those documents that would confirm what happened to our ancestors, that is: i) a list of Lithuanian men deported to Russia in 1917 and ii) a list of Lithuanian women and children repatriated to Lithuania in 1920 and 1921. If anybody in the Family History Society knows about these documents, or is otherwise interested joining our search, please do have them contact me.
One member of the Lanarkshire FHS didn't know about these documents specifically, but he was able to provide some useful input on researching Lithuanians in Scotland more generally. I paste his message below in case it will be of use to others researching their ancestors:
Hi BobYou must have a good memory to be able to recall that I had Lithuanian ancestors from all the people you know.I don't really have much information, Brett probably has more than me, but I do have the name of someone who is very knowledgeable of the Lithuanians in Scotland.I attended a talk by a John Miller titled "The Lithuanians in Scotland".This was in 2002 and John would have been in his seventies therefore I recon he would be in his late eighties by now.He is the author of a book "The Lithuanians in Scotland - A Personal View" by John Millar. He is Scots born of parents who left Lithuania before the Great War to escape persecution and find employment in Scotland. The book is written through a selection of reminiscences from members of the Lithuanian community in Scotland and his own detailed research.It is published by House of Lochar, Isle of Colonsay, Argyll. PA61 7YR.The book is available on Amazon but if you type in John Millar Lithuania using Google a number of other sites come up. This is a fascinating read and had a lot of information.I contacted John myself in 2002, enquiring as to the steps to take in finding more information regarding my Lithuanian roots. His advice was as follows........1. Alien Landing Certificates:- If Brett's ancestors landed in Scotland at Leith then these certificates are supposedly held in The National Records Offices, Edinburgh. The P.R.O. at Kew also supposedly hold all these records. However, they did not have these records for Leith in Scotland 1900.He also said that if you know the port of landing for any of your relatives and it is not Leith then you might have more luck therefore write to the Scottish Archives in Edinburgh and the Public Record Offices, Kew. Both John and I drew a blank trying to obtain these certificates, Brett might have better luck.2. Registration of an Alien, 1914:- Registration was done at the particular local Police Station. The local Station will no longer have the register but it will be lodged with Strathclyde Police Archives at Pitt Street, Glasgow. When I contacted the Archives myself I was told that these records were destroyed.3. Mining and Miners:- If Brett's ancestors were down the pits then he could contact The Scottish Mining Museum, The Lady Victoria, Newtongrange, giving them as much information as he has.4. Roots in Lithuania:- If he has documentary evidence showing where his ancestors lived or were born, I have an institution that Brett can contact, writing in English.As it was in Scotland prior to statutory registration, Lithuanian B.M & Ds were recorded in the church records therefore, it is essential to know where.Lithuanian State Historical Archives
Gerosios Vilties g. 10,
LT-03134 Vilnius,
LithuaniaLike everywhere they make a charge and when writing enclose 2 International Reply Coupons.When I wrote to them, 2006, they did some research for me for free but found nothing regarding my ancestors as the information I gave them did not have enough detail.Bob as I said earlier, Brett may have already explored these avenues I've mentioned above therefore my apologies if not, I hope he is more successful in his quest than I was.Kind Regards
DavidPS. I am looking to see if my ancestors ever applied for British Naturalisation or Citizenship and do not have an address, therefore I wonder if you could ask Brett if he could help me out.
