Jonas Simanavičius - Sources to Jonas Simonavičius and Lucija Simonavičiūtė

7/21/2022 at 7:42 AM

Since two trees were merged recently and this family tree has very few sources attached, it would be a good idea to attach some sources to Jonas' daughter Liucija Simonavičiūtė Zubrienė (Lucy Simonawicz Zubris) profile so we can solve discussion whether the connection is right.

Curator Eglė

Christopher Zubris

7/21/2022 at 7:03 PM

Hello Egle!

The descendants of Liucija's brother are my husbands genetic relatives at the correct genetic distance and centimorgans for the link being at that generation of family. I had a researcher in lithuania research her for me, and they were able to find a daughter born just a year before, but the year that Liucija was born was a year that the church records had been destroyed and they had no information on her birth. Philomena Denk who is the related party to my husband genetically speaking said the following when i spoke to her recently " id I mention before that there is s connection to Gudeliai village (my grandmother's sister was born there in 1912) so maybe get those records checked"

So I am unsure how to move forward here as we have the genetic link and no other matching surnames in my husband's family tree.

Thank you so much for your help I am still very new to doing this all the "RIGHT" way so any advice is always humbly appreciated.

Christopher Zubris

7/21/2022 at 7:04 PM

We also are going to try and get his father to test to see if the link is even stronger but we doubt he will be willing as he is very into conspiracy theories.

Eglė Jarašiūnaitė C

7/22/2022 at 7:17 AM

Hello,

Simanavičius is a fairly popular surname according to the Lithuanian surnames dictionary (300 households in 1940s, source: http://pavardes.lki.lt/?pg=c): 8 households had this surname in Alytus, 4 in Miroslavas and 2 in Šilavotas (Plutiškės), so it is a hard surname to research if you do not have a place of birth for Lucy Simonavicius Zubris.

Genealogy and DNA testing is not as popular in Lithuania thus not many people are tested as in e.g. US thus the DNA pool is not as big for your local matches. DNA testing is useful tool but I don't think it's enough to base your tree on distant DNA matches.

Do you have any records from the US where was Lucy born? Are there any newspaper articles where she would be mentioned as a family member? I checked her death certificate but it had no parents or birth place mentioned. Her immigration record points out to Likiškėliai as the last place of residence. I could not find anything on the family on the Lithuanian diaspora newspapers (www.spauda.org).

I can see that Lucy's first child was born in Likiškėliai, Alytus parish which is 47 km away (45 min drive) from Plutiškės. It's quite far away for a peasant bride to move this far away. There were rules of settlement in Russian Empire, people were divided into social classes (peasants, town-dwellers and nobles) and their ability to move depended on their social class. Generally speaking it was not legal or usual for peasants to move to another county.

Egle

Philomena Denk

7/25/2022 at 4:32 AM

Hi Erica, noticed in your reply to Eglė that you say your researcher found a daughter born the year before Liucija. If you can get the record it will have the full details of parents, village, godparents etc & therefore be a way to confirm or otherwise Liucija's connection to my great grandfather. Is it possible to see that record?
Philomena

Eglė Jarašiūnaitė C

8/4/2022 at 10:11 AM

Unfortunately, I took a decision to unmerge these two trees for now until more written sources and data appear and we can confirm that Lucy was indeed a sibling of other Simonavicius. She could have been a cousin, niece, etc.

Peasants did not move wherever they wanted to in 19th century in this part of Lithuania even though serfdom was abolished earlier in Suwalki governorate than in the rest of Lithuania. The distance is significant from Miroslavas/Alytus to Plutiskes. Simonavicius is also quite a popular name (as are other surnames derived from Biblical names).

I am well aware that records prior to 1922 in this part of Lithuania are sporadic and sometimes DNA is a good tool to help to confirm matches. One has to take into account that different companies count cMs slightly differently and total cM could be different depending on a company you have tested at.

Good luck researching!

Jonas Simanavičius - Sources to Jonas Simonavičius and Lucija Simonavičiūtė

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