Who is John Raulinatis?

No, not John Galt.  John Raulinatis.

Way back, on my first visit to the Register House, I came across a death record for a two month old baby by the name John Raulinatis.  Since the spelling was slightly different ("-atis" instead of "-itis"), and since I didn't recognize the other person listed on the document, Jessie Raulinatis, I put it aside.  I figured it was possible there was a family connection, but I was busy uncovering others where the connection was clear.

Recently, I was going back over some of the documents I collected, and I noticed this one again.  One thing stood out this time:  the location of his death is 178 Rose St, in Glasgow.  That's the address where the Raulinitis family, my relatives, lived; it's on the birth records of Annie, Peter, and Margaret, and the marriage record for Zose and Kazimiras.  I've also confirmed that Rose St was renamed Florence St, which shows up on several more of the records.  So we're probably related, but who were John and Jessie?

The various records were a little more clear in my mind this time around, and I recalled that the name "Jessie" had come up previously on the 1911 census.  The census shows a family of 4 at 178 Rose St. in 1911:  Matthew Rolwich, Eva Rolwich, Jessie Rolwich, and Annie Rolwich.  Since I already confirmed that "Raulinitis" became "Rolwich" (evident on the death records of Eva, Matthew, and Peter Sr.), the address is correct, and three of the names match, this had to be them.  The record also indicates that Jessie was 10 years old in 1911, exactly the right age to be Zose, my great-grandmother!  I'm now convinced that "Jessie" was actually an alternate name for her.  It may also explain why I haven't yet been able to find a birth record for Zose - she may have been born as Jessie.

If I'm right about this, it means John Raulinatis was my great-uncle!  Chute's eldest brother.  A brother that she apparently never knew about!  It's possible she never knew about him simply because he died in infancy before she was born, but there's a somewhat more sensitive explanation for it as well.  A closer look at his death record shows that no father is listed - he appears to have been illegitimate!  The birth of a child out of wedlock in that era (not to mention, in a Catholic family!) would have been a really big deal.  Given this, his brief existence was perhaps something that was never talked about later on.  Especially because Zose would have only been 16 at the time!  Maybe it's even part of the reason she stopped going by the name Jessie.

Nevertheless, it's something that I want to get to the bottom of.  On my next visit to the Register House, I'll be looking John's birth record (maybe it will list a father), Jessie's birth record (maybe I can confirm my "alternate name" theory), and a 1901 census record (which could also support my alternate name theory).

First Contact

I've made contact with my distant Lithuanian-Scottish relatives, the Rolwich's.  A couple weeks back I sent a letter explaining our relation with a couple documents from the archive and the family tree.  Just the next night I got a call from Brian, my second-cousin-once-removed.  They were all blown away by what I had uncovered, "gobsmacked" they told me.  I was really pleased to find out that they were as intrigued and as keen as to meet as I was.  There was no way to be sure how they would react.

Paul, Martin, Brian, me, and Therese

We invited them over for a visit to meet.  By chance, the first opportunity we got was today, Easter.  So while I missed out on the Matulis gathering on the other side of the Pond, we had our own over here.  And I did my best to reconnect them to their Lithuanian roots - complete with an egg cracking competition, kugelis, cold beet soup, and a flag for each of them.  It was a really great time.  So much more to say, but no time to say it in!

Saltibarsciai

In honor of Machute

Kugelis!

A flag egg is always essential.

   

Which means we also needed a Saltire.

And one from our side of the Atlantic.

In honor of their favorite football/soccer club.

And something more traditional.

And they really made Jessee's day with these!

A Visit to the Library

I paid a brief visit to the library at the National Military Museum this morning.  They didn't have any printed resources in reference to the 1917 Anglo-Russian Military Convention and the librarian didn't know very much of this obscure piece of military history.  She was able to suggest where records listing the deported immigrants would be kept, however.  Since it was likely the British government, not the Scottish government, that would have signed the Convention, she recommended checking at the National Archives in Kew, England (outside of London).  I plan to investigate a little.  If they have records that look promising, I'll eventually make a trip down there.

In the meantime, I found another forum with some interesting information.  It appears I'm not the only one seeking out a list of immigrants that were conscripted into the Russian military.  Others have also suggested that the documents may be held at Kew.  I made a post under the username "silvestris" asking if anybody has had luck there.

What is also interesting is that somebody in that forum mentioned records held in the Lithuanian Archives in Vilnius.  I have been assuming records in Lithuania would be almost non-existent given their tumultuous history, but maybe I should be more optimistic.  One person was apparently able to find a KGB file on his great-uncle, who was executed in 1941 when the Russians re-invaded!  This is something that would be just incredible to find about my great-uncle, Chute's brother, Kazimiras Jr.  He too was abducted by the Russians for being part of the Lithuanian military and, most likely, was also executed.  Chute told me that her mother (Zose) believed, until the day she died, that her son was just lost and would one day turn up.  Maybe finding records of his execution could give Chute some closure.  Then again, maybe the truth would be worse than hope.

On another note, I had a second look at the History Today article.  There's a section explaining that most of the conscripts sent to "Russia" were refused permission to return to Scotland after the downfall of the Empire, particularly if they weren't able to prove Allied allegiance.  This meant that those left behind in Scotland (eg. my great-grandmother and great-uncle, Zose and Kazimiras Jr) would become a "permanent financial liability" to Great Britain.  Instead of supporting those left without a "breadwinner", the government took action "to discontinue the Treasury allowances ...  The consequence was that a total of about 600 Lithuanian women and children returned to Russian soil by the end of March 1920".  Unbelievable!  The government deported legal immigrants, leaving dependent family members without income, and then withdrew financial assistance, so that they too were unable to remain.  There are few policies (except perhaps the recent ones in Arizona and Alabama) more hostile to immigrants than this!

This all fits with the family history though:  Kazimiras Jr was born on 26 May 1918, approximately 10 months after the Convention was signed and my great-grandfather would have found out he would have to go back to "Russia", and Chute was born in Lithuania in January 1921, just 10 months after financial support for dependents was terminated in Britain.  I'm starting to be convinced that my second theory is correct:  Kazimiras Sr was conscripted into the Russian military and Zose followed with Kazimiras Jr after Kazimiras Sr was refused re-entry.

Filling in Some History

In preparation to returning home to Edinburgh (I've been away since the last post), I started thinking again about my Scottish-Lithuanian background.  Short of being able to get back into the archive, I started searching for various secondary sources that might be able to tell me more about the general history of Lithuanians in Scotland.  I found a handful of online and journal articles, some online forums (here and here), a BBC radio show, and even a book.

An article in History Today explained a little bit about what life was like for the tiny community of Lithuanians living in Scotland, particularly concerning their work in the mines (Rodgers, vol 35.7).  It gave context to why Lithuanian immigrants were initially viewed quite negatively by the Scots; when they first arrived they were not well informed about labor issues and undermined a nascent labor movement by working for low wages and breaking strikes.  Many Lithuanians were probably unaware of the movement due to language barriers and an unfamiliarity with local labor organizations.  Others viewed Scotland as a temporary stop-over simply to earn enough for the voyage to their final destination in the United States (the article notes that a few were even so poorly informed that they thought they'd already arrived in the US!).  Considering the harsh conditions and minuscule wages that most miners (Scottish and Lithuanian) earned, it's no surprise that Scottish laborers looked at these new immigrants unfavorably.

It seems that this didn't last, however.  As the Lithuanians learned more of the conditions and of the movement to demand change, they joined it and evidently became one of the more radical elements.  They held strong socialist values and probably sympathized with the Bolsheviks that were agitating against Tsarist rule back home in Lithuania (many were, after all, refugees from Tsarist oppression).  This improved relations between the Lithuanian immigrants and their Scottish counterparts, but simultaneously drew concern from British authorities that feared not only the rise of communism in Russia but a popular movement towards the same within their own borders.  As quoted in the History Today article, a Scottish labor organizer rained praise on the Lithuanian awaking to movement:

"Comrade Turgeloonis has been a great force among his countrymen since he came here [February 1907], he is holding meetings up and down the country wherever the Lithuanians are employed, preaching to them the class struggle, pointing out to them the benefits of trade unionism ... Social Democrats in the various districts should give this young Lithuanian champion all the assistance they can in his noble work."

However, Lithuanian participation in these aspects of the labor movement brought suspicion upon them by the authorities, particularly due to their association with revolutionary elements.  A man by the name of John Maclean was one such figure:

"Maclean was a committed revolutionary and a highly successful teacher of Marxism to Clydeside workers. Not surprisingly, he was regarded by the authorities with considerable suspicion as were most of his associates. When he came to the aid of the Lithuanian community after the implementation of the Anglo-Russian Military Convention in July 1917 it was to have serious repercussions for the immigrant community."

As a result, the Lithuanian immigrants found they had a new adversary, a government that suspected them of associating with and promoting the rise of revolutionary thinking.  In many ways, it was probably easier for the government to blame the immigrants from "Russia" for bringing radical ideas to Britain than it was to accept that it was, very likely, homegrown from unjust labor conditions.  And it certainly would have been easier for them to take targeted action against them since understanding and awareness of their rights would have been far less secure.  It's a perfect example of immigrant scapegoating that can be identified anywhere minorities communities settle.

Anyhow, the quote above was the first reference I came across for the 1917, "Anglo-Russian Military Convention".  It's a fairly obscure bit of military history (as it probably wouldn't have affected more than 10000 people), and I'm still not that well informed about it.  My rough understanding of the Convention, thus far, is that it was an agreement between Tsarist Russia and Great Britain that would conscribe "Russian" immigrants into either the British or Russian militaries (that would be the Tsarist "White Army").  I suspect (this is informed speculation) that Britain's motivation would have been twofold:  i- to support the Russian Empire against the Bolshevik uprising; and ii- disrupt the radical organization of labor within the immigrant community.  The agreement was signed on 16 July 1917.

Up to this point, I had believed that my great-grandparents, Kazimiras and Zose Kisielius, had returned from Scotland to Lithuania together with their newborn son shortly after Lithuanian independence from Russia in 1918.  I suspected that Kazimiras had longed to return home and saw independence as an opportunity to do so, leaving behind a discriminatory land where his only prospect was hard labor in the mines.  Now, however, I have an alternative theory.

Apparently, hundreds of Lithuanian men between 18 and 40 were shipped off to fight for Russia.  When hostilities ended, however, many were unable to return to their adopted home and their families.  The only recourse, then, might have been to move the family back to Lithuania.  One forum states:  "Many of those who had left for Russia were not allowed to return to Britain after the war and their families were forced to leave for Lithuania after the British government suspended dependents' allowances."

This is where I plan to focus my efforts now.  I want to understand the 1917 Convention better (What were the politics between Russian and Britain that led to the Convention?  What politics were underlying Britain's desire to deport the Lithuanian immigrants?  How did the immigrants respond to the Convention?  And what effect did it have on the Lithuanian immigrant community internally?).  Hopefully I'll be able to track down records of Kazimiras' conscription.  If I can confirm that he was conscribed into the Russian army, traveling back on his own, I may be able to confirm my second theory of how my family ended up back in Lithuania.  I've already approached representatives at the National Military Museum (based at Edinburgh Castle) and I'm going back on Tuesday to meet with the librarian (that is, if I can justify doing this "recreational" research instead of my own PhD research!).

An add-on to this new information is that something I was told by my "Uncle Jimmy" (actually my great-uncle-in law) suddenly makes a little more sense.  Uncle Jimmy is married to Chute's sister, Kitty.  He relayed a story about from her about how several of the Kisielius brothers ended up in the US around the time that Kazimiras and Zose returned to Lithuania.  (Actually, I wasn't even aware that Kazimiras had brothers.  Though I did initially locate several Kisielius's in the Scottish records, I wasn't yet able to connect them to Kazimiras.  Now I know they probably can be!).  Jimmy told me that several of the Kisielius brothers fled to the United States from Scotland because, as Kitty told him, they "didn't want to fight against their 'brothers'" (I understood "brothers" to mean countrymen, not siblings).  Before learning of the 1917 Convention, this didn't make any sense to me.  It would have been the tail-end of WWI and Britain and the Russian Empire were aligned.  Why would they have to join an army and why would they have to fight their "brothers"?  Now, however, in light of the knowledge that many of the immigrants were involved in the radical labor movement and that they might have been conscripted into the White Army, it possible that the word "brother" that Kitty remembers, is actually "comrade"!  Perhaps they fled to the US from Scotland so that they didn't have to fight against a revolution with which they sympathized!

What's even more intriguing is the the question of why Kazimiras did return to Lithuania while his brothers fled (assuming my speculation is all correct).  Did they hold opposing positions on the question of communism in the East?  Or was it merely a matter of circumstance?  The History Today article does mention internal divisions to the immigrant community over these politics because of the Catholic Church's opposition to socialism:  efforts by one priest "marked the final stage in the breakdown of the Lithuanian community into two rival factions: those who adhered to some form of socialist doctrine and those who remained committed to the Catholic faith."  It's really fascinating to be uncovering what may be a century-old family schism!  And to potentially be contributing filling in some historical gaps:  the History Today article states that "little is known of the fate of most of the Lithuanian Conventionists" (i.e. those sent back under the Convention).  If Kazimiras is one those "Conventionists", I am descended from that lost group and my family history fills in some of that unknown history (i.e. the family lived for about 20 years in independent Lithuania before being displaced by WWII and eventually settling in the US).

The other matter is that, according to this new information from Uncle Jimmy, there is another branch of the family, from the Kisielius line, living in the United States who I've never met either!  I haven't even had the chance to contact the Raulinitis line here in Scotland (I've only been back for a couple days and I'm jet-lagged!), and now I might be uncovering so much more.  Lots of really exciting work to be done!

Raulinitis and Kisielius

While I've had an interest in all branches of my family, my research begins in earnest with the ancestors of my last living grandparent, Marija Matulis.  I know her as Chute, which is short for "machute", Lithuanian for grandma.  Chute emigrated to the United States from Lithuania after World War II.  I grew up with great affection for her.  To me she is one of the sweetest old ladies you could ever meet.  She still speaks with broken English and a heavy accent, a defining aspect of her character and identity (I'm a strong supporter of immigration and unconcerned with "assimilation" as a result).  The "old world" is very much still alive in her.  She comes from a time when gender roles were firm and (for better or for worse) has always been a highly dependent person (quite understandable now at nearly 91!).  She makes the most amazing Lithuanian foods, will rarely sit during meals, insists on cleaning up afterward, and loves basketball.  She's an avid watcher of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy (although, it's not entirely clear she's ever solved a puzzle or answered a question), and she does not approve of Drew Carey as the new host on The Price is Right.  Her stories of the old country, particularly about displacement by the Nazis, are incredible to say the least (to be documented in a later post), but it's only recently (since my grandfather passed) that she's found the space to share them.

Chute

Me and Chute

Most recently, when I was accepted to study for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, I learned that her side of the family had lived for a time in Scotland.  I knew I had a "wee bit" of Scottish ancestry (McPherson) from the other side of my family, but I had no idea that the Lithuanian branch had been there too!  In fact, Chute's mother was born there!  That's just one example of major details that can be lost only a couple generations down the line.  As it turned out, when my grandparents came to the United States post-WWII, it wasn't the first time the family had fled turmoil in Lithuania.  Around the turn of the century, they had escaped persecution by the Russian Czar and sought refuge in Glasgow, Scotland.  My great-grandmother, who we've always referred to as chute-chute, was born there.  She grew up in Glasgow, married a Lithuanian immigrant, had their first child there, and eventually moved back to Lithuania, where Chute was born!  When Lithuania regained independence in 1918, they must have seen it as an opportunity to go home.  It amazes me that I may have never known about this, especially since, as I will explain below, some of that Lithuanian lineage still lives in Scotland today!  Others in the family knew that we had been there because chute-chute, I'm told, even into her late years, spoke with a Scottish accent.  Unfortunately, she died before my memories.  None of us has ever had contact with the family that is still there, and they almost certainly don't know we exist.

...photo of chute-chute and me as infant coming...

When I arrived in Edinburgh (September 2010), it was high on my list to find some record of the family that had been there.  Of course spare time for such pursuits is not abundant when starting a PhD, so it's been slow moving.  Last December I paid a visit to the Family History Centre at the Scottish Genealogy Society on Victoria Terrace and did the "taster session" at the General Register House on Princes Street where all Scottish birth, marriage, death, and census records are kept.  The people at the Genealogy Society were friendly and got me acquainted with how to search the record systems and provided some useful tips.  Their mostly oriented towards records pre-dating 1855, but they have public computers with access to ancestry.co.uk, findmypast.com, and a good library.  The taster session at the Register House is free for two hours and then is bloody robbery (£15/day!) after that.  That's actually part of the reason it took me so long to go back there.  When things fall into place and you start finding what you want, though, it's totally worth the money.

General Register House

King George III
This statue is in the Register House.  George III was the reigning monarch during the American Revolution.  History remembers him differently over here.

On my first visit I spent most of my time just trying to locate the first record I could confirm was actually our family.  Fortunately, this was made somewhat easier by the unusual names I was searching for.  Chute's maiden name was Kisielius.  While matters are simplified by the rarity of the name, they are complicated by spelling variations and other miscommunications that certainly arose due to language and accent difficulties (I can't even understand the Glaswegian accent and I'm a native English speaker!).  Chute also told me that her mother, Sophie, had been a Raulinitis before marriage, although she didn't seem entirely certain.  Both her father and her brother had been called Kazimiras, and at least the younger had been born in Scotland just a few years before she was born in Lithuania – the family must have re-emigrated between 1918 and 1921.

The only record that I found on this first visit that I was certain was my family has turned out to be the most useful one of all.  It was the marriage record between chute-chute and Kazimiras, on 1 September 1917.  First it shows that she was actually called Zose, not "Sophie" as Chute remembers and as she was probably known as a girl in Glasgow (Sophie is a very common Scottish name).  She was just 17 when they married, and Kazimiras was significantly older, 26.  Next, it lists all of the parents of the couple (my great-great-grandparents), including the maiden names of the mothers (my great-great-great-grandmothers' surnames!).  Zose (chute-chute) was the daughter of Matthew and Eva Raulinitis, and Eva's maiden name was Grivaciute (giving us Grivacius in the Lithuanian naming system).  She's listed as Gurevicjute elsewhere.  Kazimiras was the son of Michael and Catherine Kisielius.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to make out the maiden name because of hand writing – something like Arm???cute.  Despite the Anglophone names, "Michael" and "Catherine", I think they were never in Scotland and that the record taker just took them down that way.  "Matthew" Raulinitis gets listed as "Motiejus" and sometimes "Matas" elsewhere, so clearly some liberty was being taken here.

Kisielius / Raulinitis marriage record (1917)

Last name of my great-great-great-grandparents.  Can you read what it says?

The other information listed isn't all that useful for tracing lineage, but it humanizes them a little.  Witnesses listed are Anthony Shraeistris, Antanas Sidarankas, and Bladas Sidarauskas, probably family friends and part of what was almost certainly a tight knit community of immigrants in a foreign land.  It shows that Kazimiras was a coal miner (common among the Eastern European immigrants), which was a harsh and extremely dangerous job back then.  Zose was a "munitions shell filler" – she was making bullets and bombs for World Was I!  Motiejus Raulinitis was also a coal miner, but Michael Kisielius is listed as a farmer.  I take this as further evidence that Kazimiras's parents never came to Scotland – access to land was uncommon for immigrants and he almost certainly would have ended up as a coal miner too if he were there.  They were married at St Luke's Church in Glasgow, a Catholic church.  It also indicates that the government record I was consulting was produced “after publication” of records from the church (I'd intend to visit the church and see if I can find the original).  The last piece of information that is given is the address of their "usual residences", one of which came in handy in confirming an earlier census record.  Zose lived at 178 Rose Street, and Kazimiras lived at 69 Adelphi Street, both in Glasgow, neither of which appear to exist today (apparently we lived in the slums that were demolished during urban redevelopment).  I visited Rose Street last Spring and found that the M8 now passes over where the Raulinitis's home would have been.*

Later I found a census record for the Raulinitis family, and it shows that they had been living at 178 Rose Street at least since 1911.  And the 1918 birth record for Kazimiras Jr. (Chute's older brother) shows that they were living there after the marriage.  It's not clear if Motiejus and Eva moved elsewhere or if they all lived together (the 1921 census won't be available until 2021).  Before 1921, though, Kazimiras, Zose, and Kazimiras Jr. had left for Lithuania because Chute was born there in that year (I did double check, though, and made sure there was no birth record for Chute in Scotland!).

Kazimiras Jr's birth record.

Lithuania regained independence from Russia (and from Germany) in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.  Despite having never been there herself, Zose packed up and went with Kazimiras back to Lithuania at about the age of 20 (Kazimiras was about 30).  This is another reason I suspect that Kazimiras himself had immigrated, without his parents – he must have known Lithuania and wanted to go back.  Zose was born in Scotland, though, and Lithuania would have seemed as foreign to her as it does to me (familiar in a sense, but unknown and distant).  If only there were a way to know the mixed emotions she would have been experiencing during that time.

Chute and her younger sister "Kitty", then, were born in Lithuania and grew up there with their brother Kazimiras Jr.  Chute has told me that because Kazimiras Jr. was born in Scotland, he had the option to join the British military in the lead up to World War II, but that he chose instead to join the newly re-formed Lithuanian military – a bad decision in hindsight.  Shortly after joining (late 1930s?), the soldiers were abducted by the Russians and shipped off to Siberia.  Russia feared Nazi aggression and pre-emptively re-took control of the Baltic countries so they could (and did) serve as a buffer from Nazi attack.  Chute got one letter and picture from her brother while at the labor camps, and then they never heard from him again.  He's almost certainly in a mass grave somewhere.

Kazimiras Jr. in his Lithuanian military uniform.

The marriage record of my great-grandparents confirmed that two branches of the family, Raulinitis and Kisielius, were indeed in Scotland around the turn of the century.  But they were the ones that I knew had left.  It didn't help to locate any family that may have remained and may still be living there.  It took me nearly a year to make time to get back to the Register House and resume the search.

My second visit, just last Wednesday, began slow but ended in great success.  I started with the Kisielius side because that was the name carried by Chute before marriage.  Several Kisielius records showed up, but I haven't been able (yet) to connect them to Kazimiras (my great-grandfather).  There's a possibility they were his siblings or cousins that carried the same name, but I didn't find anything to connect them through Michael and Catherine (the parents of Kazimiras, my great-great-grandparents).  Kazimiras himself shows up in the record for the first time in 1917 when he married chute-chute.  But I suspect he had been here quite a bit longer.  He's not on the 1901 or 1911 census, but spelling was a problem and immigrants often get missed.  There's no birth record for him either, so he was probably an immigrant himself.  I suspect he came alone as a young man, without his parents.

The Raulinitis's were equally as hard to track until I worked out the butchered spelling.  The marriage record identified my great-great-grandparents, Motiejus ("Matthew") and Eva Raulinitis.  Using that I was able to identify the siblings of chute-chute (Chute's aunts and uncle, my great-great-aunts and uncle).  They had 4 children that survived (a fifth is listed as deceased on the 1911 census):  Zose, Annie, Peter, and Margaret.  Birth records also showed that Motiejus and Eva had immigrated together – they're listed as married on 26 February 1900 in "Wilna, Russia" (that's the German name for Vilnius, and Russia was the occupying power at the time).  I suspect they arrived just after being married.  They don't appear on the 1901 census (or I couldn't find them because of mis-spelling), but they turn up on the 1911 census as "Rolwich"!  I'm sure language and accent was a problem on the census and Motiejus, at least, was illiterate (he signs with an "X"!).  I was only able to determine they had become Rolwich (also sometimes listed as "Rowland") from an address match (178 Rose St) and age matches.  On the same census chute-chute gets listed as "Jessie", so they obviously had communication problems with the census taker.  There's a large age gap between Zose and her younger siblings, 8 years from her to the second born, Annie.  When she made the move back to Lithuania, the others would have still been a little young to go along.

Annie Raulinitis (Chute's aunt, born 8 Feb 1910) doesn't appear much in the record.  I couldn't find marriage or death records, so the trail basically stopped with her.  I suspect she ended up with a different name, possibly "Rowland", and then married and got another name.  It is possible, though, that she emigrated as well.  Eventually, I'll look into her more.

Peter Raulinitis (Chute's uncle, born 2 Feb 1912, died 1979) becomes Peter Rolwich and keeps that name his whole life.  "Rolwich" appeared to be a census taker's mistake in 1911, but it stuck.  It stuck with him, and not Motiejus, Eva, Annie, or Margaret.  I'm not sure why.  Eastern European sounding names were (maybe still are) a real disadvantage in Britain.  I read that Lithuanian immigrants to Britain were treated very poorly and were often cheated out of wages.  They also tended to refer to all Eastern Europeans uniformly as "Poles", as if our cultural identities were indistinct and unimportant.  That could be part of the reason why the "Anglacized" names stuck.  All the Raulinitis siblings would have spoken with Scottish accents, so having an inconspicuous name would have spared them a great deal of discrimination.  Fortunately, Rolwich is also a really uncommon name (the mis-spelling of an already uncommon name), so we're possibly the only family in Scotland that has it.  And since Peter is male, it gets passed on.  That makes finding them really easy.  I was actually able to trace all the way through to living Scottish relatives!!  Peter married Jessie Doyle on 6 Sept 1935, and they had two kids Peter Rolwich Jr. (1936) and Eric Hugh Rolwich (1942).  Peter Jr. married Ellen Trainer MacDonald, and they had 4 kids:  Brian Rolwich (1962), Peter Francis Rolwich (1964), Catherine Rolwich (1960), and Martin Joseph Rolwich (1969).  Eric Hugh Rolwich married Anne Dwyer, and they had two kids:  Annette Rolwich (1966) and Colin Ian Rolwich (1971).  I was able to trace them right up to the present (the most recent was born in 2002!), but I'll leave them off of here for now.  It's really quite exciting to have tracked down living relatives!  They all appear to still live in the Glasgow area.  I plan to contact them when I get back (unfortunately that's not until March).

Margaret Raulinitis (Chute's youngest aunt, 1913-1969) is easy to track through one generation, but things get tricky after that.  She married Anthony Flanagan on 15 July 1931.  A good Irish name like that is everywhere over here, so quite a bit of filtering is required to figure out who is who.  The records for matrilineal grandaughters will lose any trace of "Raulinitis" if they can't be connected through male siblings.  I imagine the Rolwich's know them, though, so even if I can't track the records, I should be able to fill in the holes.  Margaret and Anthony had five kids:  Annie Flanagan (1932), Joseph Flanagan (1937), Mary Flanagan (1940), Margaret Flanagan (1942), and Rose Flanagan (1949).  There are no death records for Annie, Joseph, or Mary.  But I ran out of time to check the others or to attempt searching for marriages or children.

There are a handful of other Raulinitis and Kisielius listings (with various spellings), but I haven't been able to connect them to us yet.  If, for example, siblings or cousins came over with Kazimiras Sr, Motiejus, or Eva that could connect us to the others that are here.  But finding something that lists foreign parents will be tough.

-----
* UPDATE:  further digging has shown that the Rose St that the Raulinitis's lived on was renamed Florence St and wasn't the Rose St I visited.  Nonetheless, it appears their building no longer stands.

Introduction

This blog was started when I began to research my genealogical history. On numerous occasions, I found myself wishing that my ancestors had recorded even just the basic information about their relatives. Small pieces of information can unfold into quite a lot when you're able to locate a record match. It's incredible what little knowledge we have of people any older than our own grandparents. The simplest family trees would make genealogical research a mere matter of connecting them all up. This blog comes from that idea. I will document here my family tree (and stories) to the greatest extent possible, on the off chance that 100 years from now somebody has a curiosity about who we were and where we came from. I don't expect this blog to be of interest to the vast majority of those who may stumble across it (I come from modest stock), but I'm not creating it because I think many others will be interested in reading. Mostly, it's something I've created for myself.