Unknown Wife of Mildred's Son

Scrolling back through some of my earlier posts, I discovered a couple of comments on a post about Konstancija Matulyte. They were posted months ago, back in the beginning of January, but for some reason, the system never notified me!

It's a shame that I wasn't notified, because I'd very much like to share information. The person commenting identifies herself as the wife of Mildred's son. Sadly, she only appears as "Unknown" in the comment box, so I have no way to get back in contact (without some serious genealogical sleuthing!).

The Mildred she refers to was Konstancija's younger daughter, which means her husband is my "second cousin, once removed". The other information in her comment is interesting in itself:

Lidmilla Auelija Pavilauskas was born 14 April 1921 in Manchester NH.
Mother Kostance Matutiuke Pavilauskas, age 28
Father Leonas Pavilauskas, age 31.

I'm not sure where that information comes from, but it matches the information I know (bar a few spelling peculiarities). I suspect that the real spelling is Liudmila Aurelija Povilauskas, based on my knowledge of Lithuanian names. But it is helpful to know the "Mildred" was actually "Liudmila". The other main thing is Konstancija's maiden name, "Matutiuke", is a corruption of Matulyte (the female version of my own name, Matulis). I've seen mispellings like this all over the place, including Mildred's sister's marriage record, where it appears as "Matulinkie". On that same record, the unmarried "Mildred Palas" appears as a witness, and signs in her own hand (and the address she includes, 109-48 118th Street, Queens, NY, still exists today!).

Mildred's married name was apparently Crabtree, according to her sister's obituary. So with some effort, I might be able to track down the person who posted these comments.

There's a lot I'd like to know about this distant branch of the family, particularly how Konstancija and her older sister Anna arrived in the United States. What brought them here? Was there other family? These are questions I'll continue to explore through genealogical records myself, but sometimes there can be clues buried in living memory, family photos, or old letters.

So please contact me, Unknown Wife of Mildred's Son! I can offer quite a lot of information about your family's Lithuanian ancestry. I'm fairly easy to find if you google me.

Squiggles on a Page

The exciting find of the birth record for Anna, my great-grandfather's older sister, was frustrated by my inability to read handwritten Russian script -- "squiggles on a page", I called it. A Russian speaking friend helped a little, but also struggled. So I sent the document off to an online Russian transcription service (and crossed my fingers that I hadn't just volunteered my credit card for fraud). The result came back, and I'm happy to say, so far so good.

Here's what I found out:

	№	Р о ж д е н и я	К р е щ е н и я	Когда, где, кто и кемъ, одною - ли водою или со всеми обрядами таинства окрещенъ?	Какихъ родителей и къ какому сословию или обществу они принадлежатъ, когда и где, т.е. въ какомъ приходе родился крещаемьй?	Кто были по имени прозванию восприемниками при св. крещении и кто присутствовалъ?
T r a n s c r i p t i o n	17	18	19	Тысяча восемьсотъ девяносто первого года января девятнадцатого дня. Въ Посцунель???ъ Р.К. филіяльномъ костёле [??]: И. Мартыи[усол??]ъ окрещено дитя именемъ: Анна, съ всъими обрядами таинства.	Крестьянъ Кракиновской волости Михаила и Катержины изъ Милашевичевъ Матолисовъ, законныхъ супруговъ дочъ, родившаяся 1901 года 18 января въ Жиборт[???]ъ Кракиновского прихода.	Воспріемниками были: Константинъ Матолисъ Елеонорою Милашевичевою.

And this is my attempt at translating (with heavy reliance on Google and input from friends):

	№	B i r t h d a y	B a p t i s m d a y	When, where, who and by whom, whether with water or with all rites of the sacrament christened?	To which parents and which estate or society [class?] do they belong, when and where, i.e. in which parish, was the baptized person born?	Who were the godparents at holy baptism, and who was present?
T r a n s l a t i o n	17	18	19	One thousand eight hundred and ninety-first year January, nineteenth day. In Pociuneliai R.C. church of [??]: I. Marti[usol??] baptised the child: Anna, with all the rites of the sacrament.	Peasants of Krekenava district Mikhail and Katerina of Milashevichev Matolisov [i.e. Mykolas Matolis and Katerina Milaševičiute], lawful spouses, born 1901 year, 18 January in Žibartoniai of the Krekenava district.	Witnesses were: Konstantin Matolis, Yeleonora [Elenora] Milashevicheva.

Most of the information is what I already knew, but the right hand column is significant. It says who the godparents were. It's not something I've seen on a birth record before -- actually this is a record of baptism, so it makes sense -- but it could really help me to build the family tree. Since it is common for aunts and uncles to be godparents, it could provide me with some hints beyond the direct lineage of parents. Of course people who are completely unrelated can also be godparents, so I'll need to verify everything with other records.

The document also says Anna was born in Žibartoniai, which is the first I have seen that the family was there. It's very close to Kurgulai, where the family later lived and where my grandfather was born.

Анна Матолисовa

When I came across Lithuania's "eHeritage" website in 2014, I described it as a potential goldmine of family history information. I did discover some information about Antonina Kemešienė, but I initially under-estimated just how hard it was going to be to read the handwritten Russian script that many of the documents are written in. The minuscule bits I was able to decipher gave me hope that there's some really useful information there, but even the native Russian speakers I showed had a hard time reading these documents. Not only is the handwritten Cyrillic script hard to read, it's apparently a form of "Old Russian" that isn't spoken these days. Needless to say, I didn't get far digging into these records.

Recently, though, it occurred to me that the birth of Anna Sviatikiene would likely appear in these records. Her death record (from 1972 in New Hampshire, USA) listed her birth date as 18 January 1891, so I pulled up the ePaveldas site and found this in the 1891 index of the Births book:

I wasn't all that confident I was deciphering it correctly, but I suspected the first two words might say Маmолuсовa Анна, or "Matolusova Anna". I flipped to the page where record #17 was listed ...and quickly gave up any hope of being able to read it myself!

May as well be squiggles on a page for all I was able to get from it.

I asked a Russian friend if she was able read it though. With some difficulty, she was able to tell me a few key things that confirm this is, in fact, Anna's birth record. First, it lists the names Милашевичев and Матолисов -- in Latin characters, that's Milashevichev and Matolisov. These are the surnames of Anna's mother and father (it says she's "the legitimate daughter of the peasants Mikhail and Katarina").

"Matolisov" is a Russified version of Matulis, and "Milashevichev" is a close approximation of the (likely corrupted) version I have seen elsewhere, "Milasziawicziuke". The correct Lithuanian is possibly Milaševičiute / Milaševičius.

From Anna's marriage to Joseph Sviatikis in 1912, New Hampshire
(NB: "Russia" is actually Tsarist occupied Lithuania!!)

The other piece of information confirming its the right document is the location. The document is in the Catholic register from Pociuneliai parish church. That's the family church (I learned during my first visit to Lithuania) where many of our ancestors are buried. The record indicates that Anna was born in the "Krakenovsk" region - that's Krekenava - in the county just next to Pociuneliai. The family lived in the village of Kurgulai in the Krekenava district, but they were closer to Pociuneliai than the town of Krekenava itself, so that's why they appear in the Pociuneliai books. (That's not to say, of course, that some of the documents won't be found in the Krekenava books, though, so I'll need to search there in the future too!!).

Like I said before, these books are likely a massive source of family history information. They really need to be dug into, the Russian script notwithstanding.

Just one final note to conclude. The reason these documents are written in Russian is because, until 1918, Lithuania was under Russian Imperial rule and the Lithuanian language was forbidden in an attempt to "Russify" the population.

It didn't work.

Konstancija Matulyte?

The goal of digging into records of Helen Palas was to see if I could identify Helen’s mother, the third sibiling of Silvestras and Anna. Helen's death record gave me that information - at least the first bit of it. The parents were "Leon" and "Constance". My guess is that Constance's name was probably actually Konstancija. I have no idea what name would Anglicize to "Leon". (On a related note "Anna" Matulyte / Sviatikiene should actually be "Ona").

Knowing that the family used the name "Palas" rather than the actual Povilauskas, made it easier to find them in the census. So far I've found them in the 1930 and 1940 censuses.

Povilauskas / "Palis" family on 1930 census.

Povilauskas / "Palas" family on 1940 census.

In the 1930 census, they're using the name Palis, with an 'i'. But it's clearly them because both Helen and Mildred are with them. Further to that "Leon" appears as "Louis" (name variation chaos!). The 1930 census also tells me some very interesting things. First, it tells me that Constance was born around 1894. That means she's younger than her sister Anna. Secondly, it gives Constance's immigration date as 1915 - a full 6 years after Anna. Those two bits of information counter the theory that the unmarried Anna might have come to the US with her older married sister. In fact it might have been the opposite! Anna's younger unmarried sister might have come to the US to live with her! This, of course, still leaves the mystery about Anna's arrival. Does it mean that there was other Matulis family in the US before her? Or might it mean that Anna was just ahead of her time and emigrated on her own?

The last two bits of information that the 1930 census tells me is that Constance married at the age of 23 (around 1917) and her first two children were born in New Hampshire (around 1918 and 1922). I should be able to use that information to find their birth certificates. And it should also help me find them on the 1920 census, which should have them in New Hampshire (not NYC, where they are on the 1930 and 1940 censuses).

The 1940 census doesn't tell me much that the 1930 didn't already, except that they had bought a house in Queens.

Anna Matulyte / Sviatekiene

** If you're confused about why I change up the endings of surnames, read this. **

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.

Victoria and Ann
(daughters of Anna Matulyte / Sviatekiene)

Ann, Anna, and Albert
(daughter on the left, son on the right)

Anna, Josephine (holding son, Robert Stillings), and Joseph Sviatek

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!

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.

1920 Census showing dates of immigration

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.

Anna Sviatek / Matuolis

I got confirmation today that Anna Sviatek is my grandfather's aunt. I found her marriage certificate from 1912 in New Hampshire. Her maiden name is listed as "Matuolis" (which I know, from relatives in Lithuania, is a misspelling of our name that even one of my grandfather's brothers had). She, of course, wouldn't have been Matuolis or Matulis (the male version of the name), but rather Matuolyte or Matulyte (the female version).

Marriage of Jozef Sviatek and Anna Matuolis, 1912

Also listed on the marriage certificate are her parents, my 2x-great-grandparents. I already knew from Juozas that my 2x-great-grandfather was Mykolas (or "Mikulas" as it is misspelled on the certificate), but I didn't know my 2x-great-grandmother was Katrina "Milasziawicziuke". I can't image that's spelled correctly. The certificate, of course, says that they are from "Russia", as Lithuania was, at that time, under the rule of the Tsar.

I was actually quite surprised to find their marriage certificate in the US. I would have thought they'd have married in Lithuania and then come over together. It would have been unusual in those days for a woman to travel over by herself. The certificate gives her address as 339 Chestnut Street in 1912, and I know from the 1920 census that she arrived in the US in 1909. I'll need to check the 1910 census to see who she was living with when she arrived.


UPDATE:  I checked the 1910 census for 339 Chestnut, and Anna wasn't there. It appears to have been some kind of boarding house for Lithuanian immigrants though. Anna must have moved in later. Joseph lived just around the corner, at 143 Manchester Street, according to their marriage record. I'll need to search the census records by name to figure out where she actually was in 1910, but for that I'll have to go back the Genealogy Centre because I don't have subscription to ancestry.com so I can't do index searches.

339 Chestnut Street, Manchester, NH

Sviatikis

As I already mentioned, when I was in Lithuania I got some help from Raimundas translating the inscriptions on the photos I received from Phyllis. I sent those translations back to Phyllis, along with copies of some photos that were in Juozas's album. Those photos were clearly from the United States because of the cars pictured in them (no such cars were available in the Soviet Union), but Juozas wasn't certain who they were of. My hope was that Phyllis would be able to identify them. I suspected that they had come from her grandmother (Peturnelia Žukauskiene/Kemešite), since her grandmother had received copies of some of the photos that were also in Juozas's album. It must have been the case because she was able to identify most of them as the Žukauskas family.

left to right: Albert Rock (husband of Aniceta Žukauskaite),
Sylvester Žukauskas, and Andrew Žukauskas

left to right:  Andrew Žukauskas, Peturnelia
Žukauskiene/Kemešite, and Sylvester Žukauskas

left to right:  Eva Rock, Aniceta Rock/Žukauskaite,
and Peturnelia Žukauskiene/Kemešite

left to right:  Andrew Žukauskas, Peturnelia
Žukauskiene/Kemešite, and Sylvester Žukauskas

But one of the photos, Phyllis thought, was of Annie "Sviatek". I immediately thought of what Tevuk told me, way back:  his father had two sisters, one of which married somebody by the name of Sviatikis. Annie "Sviatek" may well be his aunt! I had no idea that they gone to the US.

Annie "Sviatek" (Sviatikiene/Matulyte?)
(sister of Silvestras Matulis?)

Phyllis also mentioned that the "Sviatek" family had lived on South Willow Street in Manchester, NH. I had a look in the census records, and sure enough they were there. It shows that Joseph and Anna "Sviatek" were born in Lithuania! He must actually be Joseph (or more likely, Juozas) Sviatikis, and she must be Anna Sviatikiene/Matulyte. That's the first I've seen the problem of having different endings on names solved by dropping them all.

US Census, 1940

Now I'll just need to trace backwards in the US records to see approximately when they arrived, and then have a look in the Lithuanian records to confirm the connection. Hopefully they'll turn up in the Pociuneliai book.