Admire the New Arrival

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1934 or 1934. Suzanne introduces her daughter, Kaunas Nina, to a neighbor.

Thanks to Kaunas Nina's daughter—my Kaunas Cousin—for making this photo available to us.

An Arrival

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1934 or 1935. Suzanne—the wife of my Dad's older cousin, Henry—introduces her daughter, Kaunas Nina, to a friend.

Thanks to Suzanne's Granddaughter—my Kaunas Cousin—for making this photo available to us.

Photo-Session Styling

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935. I wondered recently whether my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, wore a hat as a prop. Now I see that the photographer also snapped her while she wore a matching coat. It was once common to stage a shoot in which the subject wore outdoor attire. (See also here, here, and here.)

A Serious Child

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935 or 1936. My paternal Grandfather, Vytautas, probably took this photo of my Dad.

Prop?

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, wears a wool hat and what might pass as a cocktail dress. Did she arrive at the photo studio in that dress, and did the photographer suggest she wear the hat as a dandy prop?

Related by Marriage: Father's Day, Way-Back-When

Bridgeport, Chicago, Illinois, 1935. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather, Stanley, celebrates the day with his daughters, Martha and Mr. Irene's Mom. The trio poses on the family home's back porch.

Relax with your dog.

Kaunas, Lithuania about 1934 or 1935. This is Suzanne—the wife of my Dad's older cousin, Henry—shortly after the birth of her daughter, Kaunas Nina.

Thanks to Suzanne's Granddaughter—my Kaunas Cousin—for making this photo available to us.

The House in Winter

Kaunas, Lithuania, December 1935. Here's another view—from the opposite angle—of my Mom's childhood home. There's Mom, with her braids, looking at the house.

Henry, at Age Twenty-Six

Kaunas, Lithuania, November 9, 1935. This my Dad's older cousin, Henry. Henry and his younger brother, Vytas, did not flee Lithuania on the eve of the second Soviet occupation in 1944. My Dad corresponded with both men throughout his life.

Thanks to my Kaunas Cousin for making this photo available to us.

Suzanne with Dahlias

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935. Suzanne, the wife of my Dad's cousin Henry, poses with dahlias. The photo is similar to one of Natasha. Dahlias were popular flowers in pre-war Lithuania.

Thanks to my Kaunas Cousin for making this photo available to us.

Related by Marriage: A Gentle Face

Panevėžys, Lithuania, about 1935. This is Mr. Irene's Great-Grandfather, Michael. You saw him earlier here. Michael—born in 1895—was the father of Mr. Irene's paternal Grandmother, Veronica.

Michael's brother had emigrated to Chicago as a "first waver."

Related by Marriage: Another Swing

Vytautas Grove, Chicago, Illinois, 1935. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather, Stanley, takes Mr. Irene's Mom to the swingset.

Childhood Garden

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935. This is the backyard of my Mom's childhood home. Her Mother, Silvestras, liked to train trees to produce different types of fruit. My Mom remembers, for example, that the apple trees often bore pears.

Easter Manners, Related by Marriage: Find the right hat.

Bridgeport, Chicago, Illinois, Easter Sunday, 1935. Mr. Irene's Mom, on the left, stands on the back porch of her childhood home with her maternal Aunt, the spinster Petra, and her Sister, Mr. Irene's maternal Aunt Martha.

When things were still calm.

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, sits for one of the last portraits taken of her before World War II erupted.

The Culture of Recording Convalescence

In the first half of the twentieth century, children often died. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Anna and Stanley, lost one child, Baby Jean, when she was an infant, and another child, Benny, when Benny was a young boy.

Death came into people's lives with little warning. A dog bite—like the one Benny suffered—could lead to a fatal infection. Pneumonia was life threatening. My Mom's maternal uncle, Edvardas, died of a ruptured appendix, and so did her paternal Grandfather, Cody Sr.

The expectation of likely death probably prompted people to photograph ill family members. Our albums have many snapshots of relatives in different stages of convalescence—from people resting with the flu to those enduring the last gasps through cancer. It's a genre of snapshots, and it resembles the series of funeral photos that I wrote about earlier.

My Mom fell gravely ill as a young girl. Initially, the doctors were unable to diagnose the ailment. They recommended that she drink large quantities of heavy cream and the nectar squeezed from an aloe vera plant. Later, the same physicians realized that they had misdiagnosed Mom's condition, and they put her on a restricted, no-fat diet.

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1935. Mom rests. The medications stand on the bedside chair. You've seen a photo of my Mom's childhood bedroom earlier.

What's different here? Not only do Raphael's adorable angels still hang on the screen; now, someone has clipped holy cards featuring the Madonna and Jesus Christ to the screen so that they can watch over the sick child.

Related by Marriage: Great-Grandparents

Panevėžys, Lithuania, about 1935. These are the parents of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Veronica. The woman on the right is their other daughter, Ann.

Undated

Kaunas, Lithuania. We're not sure of the date of this photo of my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana. Based on the snapshot's similarity to this image, it likely dates from between 1933 and 1935. The original print of this photo is the size of a first-class postage stamp.

Related by Marriage: We'll be fine, too.

Many "first wavers"—Lithuanian immigrants who arrived in Chicago in the early part of the twentieth century—settled in Bridgeport. Moving to a more upscale neighborhood, like Marquette Park, was a dream for many of them.

Mr. Irene's Mom and her family achieved that dream sixteen years after this photo was taken:


Marquette Park, Chicago, 1935. Mr. Irene's Mom stands in front of the Ford with her maternal Aunt, the spinster Petra. We assume that Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Stanley and Anna, sit inside the car. That's a lot of open space there in Marquette Park!

This is the home that she remembers.

My maternal Grandparents, Jake and Jadzė, built this house in Kaunas, Lithuania. This was my Mom's childhood home.

During the Soviet invasion, the Russians passed laws restricting how many square meters one person could occupy in a living space: "to each according to his needs."  The government repossessed anything over that alloted fair share and doled it out to other people—strangers ("square-meter redistribution"). The Soviets decided that this house was too bourgeois for one family. So they moved multiple groups of Russian soldiers into the first floor rooms, and they allowed my Mom, Jadzė, and Jake to dwell in part of the second floor.

After the war, my Mom's maternal aunt, Dora, lived in an apartment in the house.

Kaunas, Lithuania, December 1935. The house was a European-style log home.