Related by Marriage: The Bridesmaid

This is Petra, the spinster sister of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Petra served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of Anna and Stanley.

Petra worked throughout her life. When she first emigrated to the United States, Petra sewed in clothing factories. Later she crafted hats in millinery plants. Perhaps that's how Petra had a path to buying some first-rate, fashionable toppers. She was nimble with a needle.

St. George's Parish, Bridgeport, Chicago, June 1917. Petra lived out her entire life in Anna and Stanley's homes.

Related by Marriage: Greetings from the Old Country

Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, was one of four daughters born to a modest couple who lived in southwestern Lithuania. We don't know the precise location of the homestead, but we believe it was an area on the Lithuanian-Prussian border because the family surname dervied from a German word.

In 1910, Anna and one of her sisters, Petra, emigrated to the United States. We are not sure why they left Lithuania. Anna settled in Philadelphia, where she lived with an upper middle-class family. We assume she worked for the family as a domestic. In 1915, Anna and Petra moved to Chicago, where they settled in Bridgeport, on the South Side. The young women assimilated fluidly into American culture.

Anna married Stanley in 1917, but her sister Petra remained single.

Anna and Petra remained in close touch with their parents and the two sisters, Emily and Marta, who had stayed behind in Lithuania:

Southwestern Lithuania, around 1912. The Parents of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, sit with the two daughters who did not emigrate to the United States. Left to right: Anna's Sister Emily, Anna's Mother Agnes, Anna's Father Jacob, and Anna's Sister Marta.

Related by Marriage: The Extended Family

Mr. Irene's Maternal Grandmother, Anna, and her Sister, Petra, emigrated to the United States as young women. They left behind Parents Agnes and Jacob, and Sisters Emily and Marta.

Contact with the family back in Lithuania was sporadic because of the expense of sending letters and the slow delivery of mail. A holiday greeting, like an Easter card, occasionally arrived. Anna and Petra, for example, also got word when Emily became engaged to Adam J.

The family back home also sent wedding photos and snapshots of the extended family, when they got together. Here is one such image:

 
Near Tauragė, Lithuania, about 1915. This may be the wedding celebration of Anna's sister, Emily. She stands, in the light dress, on the far left, next to Adam J., who, like the other men, wears a boutonniere. Emily's sister Marta is next to Adam J. Agnes, the mother of the young women—and the mother of immigrants Anna and Petra—sits in the center of the babushka group, smiling gently.
 
The other folks are Adam J.'s relatives. Agnes's husband, Jacob, does not appear in this photo.

Related by Marriage: A Sunday Ritual

Mr. Irene spent nearly every Sunday afternoon of his grade school years at the Marquette Park home of his Grandparents, Anna and Stanley. Anna and Stanley hosted him and his Parents for dinners of hearty Lithuanian fare: homemade sausages and sauerkraut, potato kugel ("Kugelis"), roasts, and dumplings (" Koldūnai " or "Pelmeni"). Mr. Irene's maternal Aunt Martha, her husband Wally, and Anna's spinster sister, Petra, all shared the small Marquette Park bungalow with Anna and Stanley. They, too, joined in the weekly ritual.

Everyone stayed together through the end of the meal. Afterward, the family divided itself into different quarters. Stanley and Anna retired to the living room (the "front room" in Chicago parlance), usually with Mr. Irene's Mother. Martha and Petra stayed in the kitchen to wash dishes. Mr. Irene's Dad went upstairs to join Wally for Winston cigarettes and political talk. Mr. Irene migrated across the different areas, ending up with his Mom, Anna and Stanley, and Martha.

In good weather, Mr. Irene's Dad and Wally might invite Mr. Irene to join them for a walk to Marquette Park. The Sunday soccer league usually was in play near the main intersection of 69th Street and California Avenue. Young and old men strolled up 69th Street towards the Park, and Mr. Irene's Dad and Wally frequently stopped on the sidewalk to greet friends and co-workers.

During one Sunday walk, Mr. Irene, his Dad, and Wally even saw President Reagan campaigning in Marquette Park.

Although Mr. Irene now craves the Lithuanian Sunday menu of his youth, as a child, he picked his way gingerly through most of those dinners. Occasionally (ha ha), he convinced his Parents to stop for decent Sunday fare—namely, a hamburger and fries—on the way home. White Castle was one good alternative. A special treat was stopping at an A&W Root Beer restaurant in McCook, an industrial area between Marquette Park and Mr. Irene's suburban home.

McCook was home to some huge factories, which were silent and empty on Sundays. An A&W graced the edge of some undeveloped prairie at the edge of the town. There was absolutely nothing around it, except a swing set on a patch of grass. Best of all, A&W had car-hop service.

Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois, Spring 1960. There's a plate of Kugelis at the front of the table. From left to right are Anna (with Mr. Irene in front of her), Stanley, Mr. Irene's Dad, Mr. Irene's Mom, and Wally (in profile).

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Marquette Park, Chicago, Spring 1961. From left to right stand "Uncle D" (the brother of Mr. Irene's paternal Grandmother Veronica), Stanley, Anna (holding Mr. Irene), Mr. Irene's Mom, and Mr. Irene's Dad.

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Marquette Park, Chicago, Spring 1961. "White Castle, here I come."

Related by Marriage: Relaxed Bridesmaid

Here's another view of Petra, the sister of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, as a bridesmaid at the wedding of Mr. Irene's maternal Granparents.

I find the photos of the bridal party almost more intimate than Anna and Stanley's wedding portrait.

St. George's Parish, Bridgeport, Chicago, June 1917. Petra rests her hand on the usher's shoulder.

A Closer Look (Part 23)

St. George's Parish, Bridgeport, Chicago, June 1917. This is Mr. Irene's Great Aunt Petra. Petra was the older sister of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna.

Here's the original post.

Related by Marriage: Supporting the newcomers.

In the aftermath of World War II, the "first wave" of Lithuanians already living in the United States played important roles in the resettlement of the emigrating Displaced Persons. The first wavers did so despite some of the chaffing socio-economic tensions that existed between them and the DPs.

Many first wavers served as sponsors to the DPs. Others supported the new arrivals financially. In many cases, first wavers privately financed home mortgages for the DPs. In other instances, first wavers quietly made the twenty-percent down payments then necessary to purchase a house.

A good way to collect money for the DPs was to sponsor a picnic. The benefit picnics often took place at Vytautas Grove, on Chicago's South Side, behind the stockyards. Organizers would collect money for the DPs at the picnics, and the picnics usually featured a raffle, or fundraising "loterija."

Vytautas Grove, Chicago, Illinois, 1949. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, sits on the far left at a fundraising picnic. Her spinster sister, Petra, stands behind the group.
 

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Vytautas Grove, Chicago, Illinois, 1949. Here, Petra sits on the left side of the picnic table with Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather, Stanley. Grandmother Anna is on the other side of the table, at the far left end.

Related by Marriage: Necessity

Lithuania, like other European countries at the turn of the twentieth century, had a class structure that made it difficult for persons to move beyond the station in life into which they had been born. If an unmarried domestic, for example, had a child, that child grew up with a "bastard servant stigma," and that stigma clung to the child even if he studied abroad and returned home with advanced degrees.

Less severe, but nonetheless rigid, lines separated other groups. Many of the Displaced Persons who traveled to the United States in 1948 and 1949 as part of the second wave of immigration were educated members of the middle class—that is, exactly the "bourgeois" that the Soviets targeted for deportations to Siberia. These were not people who lived in the hinterland and wore babushkas.

Some Displaced Persons who emigrated to the West in the late 1940s looked down upon those who had left Lithuania as "first wavers," namely before the World War I. There was even a saying: "men move to America for one of two reasons: (1) they got a girl pregnant; or (2) they're dodging the [Russian Imperial Army] draft."

The DPs had been compelled to leave their homeland, and they could not digest what circumstances would prompt a person to emigrate—willfully—from Lithuania.

This assessment overlooks the reality that befell many people living in an agrarian country. The Russian Empire exported the best Lithuanian produce (bacon, dairy, and geese) to Russia, and it paid the farmers little for the goods. Many first wavers, like Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Anna and Stanley, emigrated to America to improve their families' financial futures. Anna and her sister, Petra, for example, worked to send money home to their Parents and two Sisters. Early photos of Anna show her uniformed as a domestic.

Occasionally, first wavers went back to Lithuania. Stanley's own Father, Frank, at some point must have decided he had made enough money in America, and he returned home. Other first wavers returned to Lithuania after February 16, 1918, when Russia lost control of the small country. I have a relative, for example, who was born in Chicago right around 1918. His Parents took him back to Lithuania so that he could grow up in the independent country. On July 31, 1944, he joined the other refugees fleeing the Soviet Occupation, and he, too, landed in a Displaced Persons camp.

Bridgeport, Chicago, about 1914. The shortest woman, on the far right, is Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Her sister, Petra, stands in the middle, and a cousin is on the far left. The two sisters wear crosses; the cousin has a locket.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1910. Mr. Irene's Mom simply described this photo as follows: "This is the family with whom Grandma lived for five years."

Related by Marriage: A Family Plot

Near Goodman, Wisconsin, about 1938. The families of Mr. Irene's Mom and Cousin O again visit a family plot. From left to right: Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather, Stanley; Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna; Anna's sister, Petra; Cousin O's daughter; Mr. Irene's Mom; Cousin O, and; an unidentified man.

Related by Marriage: More Apple Picking

Near Goodman, Wisconsin, autumn 1938 or 1939. The family of Mr. Irene's Mom finishes up another afternoon of apple picking. (The family often went apple picking.)

From left to right are Cousin O, Mr. Irene's Mom, Aunt Petra, Cousin O's daughter, Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother Anna, Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather Stanley, and two of Cousin O's farm dogs.

Related by Marriage: Prayers for the Newlyweds

Nativity BVM Church, Marquette Park, Chicago, January 1958. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Stanley and Anna, on the left, pray at the wedding of Mr. Irene's Parents. Aunts Petra and Agnes sit with Anna and Stanley.

Related by Marriage: Church Ladies

St. George's Parish, Bridgeport, Chicago, 1922. A group of first-wavers stands outside the Lithuanian church. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, is tucked as fifth person from the left—she's the one with the white feathers in her hat! Anna's spinster sister, Petra, is the second person on the right—she has her left hand tucked into her coat.

Although this is a working-class group of women—most of their husbands labored in the stockyards—a couple of the ladies appear to be wearing fur coats (likely karakul).

Related by Marriage: Waiting for the wedding.

Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois, June 27, 1959. Here's Mr. Irene's maternal Aunt Martha, waiting to depart for her marriage ceremony. She's sitting in the living room of her Parents' home. Aunt Petra appears in the mirror.

I love this photo because it captures the "look" of DP-era Marquette Park. The image also preserves Martha's most common expression.

Related by Marriage: Wake

threatened children's lives. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Anna and Stanley, lost three offspring during that decade. Here, the family mourns the loss of Baby Jean, who died at three-and-one-half months of age. The family wakes Baby Jean at home. A portrait of family members who stayed behind in Lithuania hangs on the wall. Baby Jean's siblings, Benny and Martha, fold their hands in prayer. Petra, Stanley, and Anna stand on the left.

Bouquets

St. George's Parish, Bridgeport, Chicago, June 1917. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, poses on her wedding day with her sister, Petra (on the right), and another attendant.

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.

Related by Marriage: A (Really) New Cousin

Bridgeport, Chicago, Illinois, 1925. The engaged baby is a cousin of Mr. Irene's Mom. The baby's Mom, I think, looks a lot like Aunt Petra.

Related by Marriage: A Drive to the Suburbs

Suburban Chicago, Spring 1963. Mr. Irene's Mom wrote on the back of this photo, "A visit from Grandma and Aunt Petra with the Chevy Bel Aire."

Related by Marriage: A Twist on the Sunday Ritual

Suburban Chicago, Summer 1964. The family changes the routine and spends a Sunday together at Mr. Irene's home. The furnishings identify the house: there's that coffee table, and Skippy's cage is in the corner.

Left to right are Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Stanley and Anna; Mr. Irene on his Dad's lap; Aunt Martha and her husband Wally; and Anna's sister, Petra.

Related by Marriage: "You look just like yourself in that photo!"

Whenever someone says that to me, I am miffed. I don't think that I look *anything* like the girl that appears in my childhood snapshots. I know I'm wrong, of course, because I still turn to the same reliable bag of facial tricks that I used back then.

This formal portrait of Mr. Irene's maternal Aunt, Martha, illustrates how facial expressions emerge early in life. Martha was three years old when she posed for this photo. Martha died earlier this year. For all the years that I knew her, this is the expression that I best remember.

Bridgeport, Chicago, 1921. Martha stood for this portrait on the same day that she posed with her maternal Aunt, Petra.