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<\/p>\nBy Tom Gregg (Grigonis)<\/p>\n
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Not all professional foot – ball players are motivated outside of athletics. But as the 2001 National Football League season wound down, Joe Jurevicius had not just one big offseason plan but two. First, he would return to college to complete studies for his Fiuman Development degree, as he had long intended. Then\u2014 and you have to love this, coming from a 26 year-old kid\u2014 he would arrange for a Lithuania trip accompanied by his mother. \u201cI want to see where I come from,\u201d he told an intrigued reporter, who had probably heard every vacation story before except this one.<\/p>\n
The star wide receiver shares an interest in his roots with an ever-growing number of people, Lithuanian and not: genealogy\u2019s popularity advanced greatly in the 1990s. One can cite numerous reasons. The rise of the Internet, which offers helpful albeit scattered family research info; the 1991 Soviet Union collapse, which opened previously unavailable social records for many of Eastern European descent; the aging of Baby Boom generation Americans, who in 1996 began to expand the 50-up age bracket to which genealogy strongly appeals. And maybe too, given the nature o f modern urban American life, folks just like trying to connect with unknown relations, some from a simpler, friendlier place like Lithuania.<\/p>\n
In any case, the typical LithuanianAmerican family search can be challenging. The family\u2019s U.S. roots may span a century or more, and these roots have to be uncovered to pick up the trail in Lithuania. There\u2019s no shortage of potential sources for the necessary names, places, and dates; the data can come from any mix of federal, state, county, city, church, military, or family-based records. But even after one understands some of the options and taps them, one often finds\u2014 as every historian does\u2014 that sources conflict or confuse. Maybe you can figure out that grandfather\u2019s birthplace is \u0160iauliai misspelled. But would you recognize Lithuanian city names by a Polish or Russian equivalent? Cities commonly go by any of three names in records because of Poland and Russia\u2019s historic influences. Cities also frequently stand for provincial areas in old paperwork. Thus \u201cborn: Kaunas\u201d may in fact mean \u201cborn: Kaunas area\u201d. Worrying for researchers too, if immigrant names haven\u2019t been Anglicized intentionally (say, Gregg for Grigonis), they can have been variously rendered due to phonetics and the 31 character Lithuanian alphabet. A Shilakis may end up hunting for the derivative \u0160ileikis and U.S. relations with five other variations of the original.<\/p>\n
Sandra Savickas McDonald understood that all this can be daunting to those not versed in Lithuanian language and history, not to mention genealogy. And she didn\u2019t see any single book, group, or web site addressing the diverse problems particularly well. So in 1999 the Utah entrepreneur and amateur genealogist started the Lithuanian Global Genealogical Society, fronted by an Internet-based mailing list, web site, and a semi-annual club newsletter called Proteviai (Forefathers). Several of the organization key players she came to the dance with, like resident genealogy pro\/new sletter editor William Hoffman and current president Arleen Klimkiewicz Gould. Most of the others arrived soon after via the electronic list. None of them is getting rich off the LGGS production; subscription to the e-list service is free, access to the society web page at www.lithuaniangenealogy.org substantially free. Only the hardcopy newsletter unequivocally requires a recipient to join the society and pay its modest $15 dues.<\/p>\n
The numbers on its e-list seem equally modest: 600 plus subscribers, posting about 100 messages a week. Listers are encouraged to stick to genealogical business, and although nobody crashes your computer when you ask for\u2014 and get\u2014 a kugelis recipe or travel advice for a Jurevicius-type Lithuanian trip, people generally respect the genealogy only rule. Llence the relatively low and manageable traffic rate. Probably half of the subscribers are inactive, and viewed across the list\u2019s three year existence there\u2019s a transient quality about the cast. It\u2019s like a college town, and for the same reason: people make contacts, learn, and leave. And like with a college town, it works because the educators tend to stay. Ask the veterans anything (see accompanying story); even make it exotic. Lithuanian settlement in Scotland or South America, Lithuanian social groups in Arizona or Australia, an address in Michigan or central Illinois to contact for church records. Almost always, somebody out there helps.<\/p>\n
All 15,000 e-list messages appearing to date are available online to proficient Internet navigators, and a complete run of 3,000 bulletin board messages at www.lithuaniangenealogy .org offers a similar function. They\u2019re nice occasionally, but it\u2019s doubtful many think of this paperless paperwork in long range terms. In contrast, there are hopes for much of the web site material to serve as a permanent reference source. Volunteers methodically add to the site\u2019s transcriptions of U.S. cemetery records and Draugas and Naujienos (Lithuanian language newspapers) obits. The 1936 Chicago Lithuanian phone book, also online, seems like the height of insane trivia to the untrained eye. But Depression era addresses can greatly simplify the search of 1930 U.S. census data, whose 2002 release is probably the genealogical event of the year. The one members-only service here is the ability to enter names in the surname database; anyone can read the surname data and contact whatever club member made the original entry.<\/p>\n
Circulating essentially to a subset of the e-listers on a shoestring budget, Proteviai is better than one would expect: editor Hoffman and layout man Bill Succolosky do such work for a living elsewhere. The features that they flatter generally fall into discrete types: how to research on both sides of the Atlantic, \u201cmy search for my ancestors\u201d pieces, immigrant and Lithuanian history, and drier academic-produced material on such things as name origins. Thus there have been multi-part stories on Lithuanian settlement in Chicago and Cleveland to date, a piece on Lithuania\u2019s guerrilla wars of the 1940s-c50s, and Succolosky\u2019s own polished account of his search for and ultim ate m eeting with relations in Lithuania. The latter type, in addition to its value from a travel and human interest perspective, is instructive for students of researching technique. In the how-to category, a piece by a professional genealogical researcher in Lithuania was the best overview we\u2019ve read on research particulars over there.<\/p>\n
Hoffman eventually hopes to take his publication quarterly, which is partly dependent on the success of the current membership drive primarily in the hands of president Gould. It doesn\u2019t require a business consultant to see her two biggest problems. One, the organization obviously favors the Internetconnected. Acknowledging the ten dency, Gould intends to beef up the member mailing list she recently introduced to include \u201cwho\u2019s looking for\/ found what\u201d information to facilitate member communication for non-Internet and Internet users alike. Com \u00ad munication, after all, is what the organization is all about. Simultaneously she addresses the other problem, which is exposure. This isn\u2019t necessarily a complex dilemma, either; rather, it only obliges one to think of all the various places Lithuanians congregate\u2014 and globally there are a lot\u2014 to spread the word about LGGS.<\/p>\n
Given her high energy level, there\u2019s no reason to think that she won\u2019t succeed in finding them. And given the essential value of the LGGS, the unusually strong ethnic awareness of her fellow Lithuanians, and the continued popularity of genealogy, there\u2019s no reason to think people won\u2019t be receptive when she does.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s the grand new tradition of the Internet: spread across the world, the twelve people closest to the core of the LGGS operation\u2014 ten past or present officers\u2014 have never convened in the flesh. It\u2019s no easier to get them all to submit to interviews, but half of the twelve made themselves available for comment during this article\u2019s preparation. The respondents:<\/p>\n
Like the majority of the twelve, Sandra McDonald<\/strong> has Chicago connections, having been raised in the area. The initiator and quiet force behind the society, the one-time skip tracer has begun to distance herself from the management picture of late because of work commitments. Arleen Gould<\/strong> was installed as president #3 in late 2001, succeeding Mary Guler. The Chicago Marquette Park native has traced her roots back to the 1780s, and hopes to have similar success increasing the society\u2019s membership and helping them do the same. Australian Vytas Levickis<\/strong> has been the club\u2019s vice president since day one. He\u2019s visited Lithuania five times, speaks the language fluently, and applied for and was granted Lithuanian citizenship last year. As for Lithuanian pride, we\u2019re guessing he\u2019s into it. Native Texan William Hoffman<\/strong> is an anomaly: non-Lithuanian, not especially interested in his own roots but in helping others uncover theirs, a surpassingly good writer for a man with postgraduate college background. As McDonald knew he would when she brought him aboard in 1999, the author of several standard genealogy volumes provided LGGS with instant credibility. Jay Zane<\/strong> served as first LGGS president 1999-2001. A Pennsylvania lawyer, he drew up the club bylaws viewable on the web site. The Pennsylvania immigrant history articles thereon are his too, and the Pennsylvania cemetery data his again. Family and job considerations have forced him to cut back on society involvement. Rick Go\u0161tautas<\/strong>, a civil engineering graduate student at Kansas, is former secretary and assistant web designer to McDonald. H e\u2019s traced his lineage all the way back to 1342. One-three-four-two, yes.<\/p>\n Combined, they have over a century\u2019s experience in genealogical research, working on problems of their own or those of LGGS contacts. We asked them a few questions they hear constantly, and one or two they don\u2019t get as much.<\/p>\n Recent developments, like the Internet, have undoubtedly boosted genealogy\u2019s popularity. But what constitutes the hobby\u2019s intrinsic appeal?<\/strong> The element of challenge was nominated a lot. \u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate jigsaw puzzle,\u201d Go\u0161\u00ad tautas says. \u201cSometimes you lose a piece which can make getting anywhere very difficult, but when you find it you move further along in creating a picture of your family\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n How far backward in time can one reasonably expect to trace their roots?<\/strong> Go\u0161tautas is nobly descended and had considerable aid within his family on the research besides, so his case can be judged atypical. But both Zane (1829) and Levickis (1817) have done nearly as well as Gould. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put a number on it,\u201d Hoffman states, \u201cbut I\u2019d say at least half of those who stick with it can expect to get back as far as the 1700s.\u201d \u201cI really think everyone can do this,\u201d Gould maintains. \u201cBut people might need to use alternate methods in locating information.\u201d Of which, as we\u2019ve noted, there are ample.<\/p>\n How much is genealogy likely to cost the hobbyist?<\/strong> It can get expensive very quickly if you\u2019re hiring out the work, it was observed. But commissioning a professional genealogist to help on your hobby is like jogging with somebody else\u2019s legs; LGGS is predicated on one\u2019s being a do-it-yourselfer. Record copies typically cost $5-$ 10, and even a query off to the Lithuanian State Archives\u2014 for all that potentially buys you\u2014 may run only $75. In the age of the $50 entertainment event ticket, this all doesn\u2019t sound too bad.<\/p>\n Any advice for the complete novice?<\/strong> Talk to known relatives, the panelists said practically in unison. \u201cThey are the BIGGEST source of information and can be quickly lost during a time of passing,\u201d Go\u0161tautas says. \u201cMy grandmother, born in 1909, has seen and told me more than any history book. Same goes with learning about your family.\u201d Rick and several panelists also cautioned against becoming discouraged when the detective work bogs down. \u201cOn the whole, everyone will run into a brick wall,\u201d Go\u0161tautas observes. \u201cTime will help resolve all or at least most of the questions.\u201d Levickis alone among the group exhibited an awareness that even today many are not Internet-sawy. Learn how to use it, he urges; the benefits are huge.<\/p>\n Bearing in mind that a sizeable portion of LGGS services are free and Lithuanians are notoriously thrifty what are the prime benefits of a $15 Society membership?<\/strong> Bill Hoffman\u2019s Proteviai, obviously. Several respondents also encouraged Lithuanians to think of a membership in terms of an investment, insofar as the society is the only one building up a (hopefully) permanent database on the \u2018Net. Gould makes a vital point. \u201cA person can get the basic \u2018how to\u2019 from joining any genealogy group, but when you need detailed information it\u2019s time to find a forum that deals with that nationality.\u201d The reader\u2019s support helps insure that the LGGS forum will be there for that time.<\/p>\n For further information about the Lithuanian Global Genealogical Society, write to LGGS, P. O. Box 109, Redondo Beach, CA 90277.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Tom Gregg (Grigonis) Not all professional foot – ball players are motivated outside of athletics. But as the 2001 National Football League season wound down, Joe Jurevicius had not just one big offseason plan but two. 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