Lithuanian Immigration, Vidunas

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Permalink Reply by Richie C. on September 8, 2009 at 4:14pm

J'Anette,
You didn't give the first names of your Vidunases, but here are the first things that I would do/consider:
1. Check the Lithuanian online phone directories to find out what the proper spellings of Lithuanian surnames would be:
www.zebra.lt (only in Lithuanian--go to the tab that says Suzinok, and select the second to the last from the drop down. Type in the first few letters of the name and see what comes up. This is only for landline phones)

www.118.lt has a choice for English language at the top right of the main page, and it includes cellular phones. However, you have to know, or guess, what city you're searching in from the drop down menu

2. A lot of Lithuanians arrived via German passenger ships. Whereas Lithuanian doesn't have the letter 'w', anything starting with the 'v' sound would be changed to a 'w' by the Germans. So, also search on Widunas, Wydunas, Widunis, Widunes, etc., etc., etc.. Further, last names were often Polonized with Polish spellings, just to make matters worse.

3. Change all the vowels. On the 1930 census in Kinston, PA, Vedinas and Vidunas are in the same household, so check every possible spelling.

4. Search on stevemorse.com, ancestry.com, castleisland.org, ellisisland.org.....try them all. There are a lot of records not on each of these sites. Search with wildcards, such as Vidu*, Widu*, etc.

5. Try to figure out what an English forename might have been in Lithuanian. I don't know off hand what Louis might have come from, maybe Liudvikas.

http://www.names-meanings.net/names/male-lithuanian
http://www.20000-names.com/male_lithuanian_names.htm

I'm sorry if I've told you things you already know.

Lastly, I just started a Lithuanian group here on GWise if you'd like to join: http://www.genealogywise.com/group/genealogyoflithuania

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