Where'd they go? My people left Lithuania and went to NY/NJ

All records for my grandmother and her family list their name as MOLUSE except her baptismal certificate which lists her name as Mary Caroline Moliusis (father George, mother Caroline Milvoda). I have been searching for some time to find out what the real name is and I do believe they changed it from Moliusis to Moluse. My Moluse family is listed in 1920 and 1930 census, with Caroline's immigration date as 1900, and George as 1897. Mary Caroline was baptized 1908 at St. Vilna in NYC which is now closed. All of the children were born in NJ except for the oldest, Stephen, who was born in NY. So, it seems most likely the parents arrived in NY, had the oldest child, then moved to NJ.

Any other NY or NJ Moliusis or Moluse families?

JoAnn

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Peters on October 16, 2010 at 12:15am

JoAnn,

The surname would indeed have been Molius^us in Lithuanian. The "s^" is one of the two letters "s" in Lithuanian and it is pronounced "sh" as in the English word "shout." So the name is pronounced something like moh-LEW-shoos. The letter combination "-iu-" is very common in Lithuanian and deserves a comment. In English, the sound difference is like that between "news" which can sound like "nooz" or "n'ee-ooz". Or consider the difference in sound between Lewis and Louis. Many English speakers do not make much distinction between these sounds and in daily speech it would be difficult for a non-native speaker to tell the difference between Molus^s and Molius^us, because that "i" souind tends to get buried easily. The English word "muse" (to think about something or a word for one who inspires) clearly shows that "i" sound even though it isn't part of the word's spelling.

It seems to me that their "real" name is the name they chose to use, so it may or may not resemble the Lithuanian spelling on which it was based.

John Peters

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