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: Two Who Mattered

These two men were "first wavers" who emigrated to Chicago from Lithuania before the fall of Tsarist Russia. After World War II, first wavers often were the ones who made it possible for Displaced Persons to relocate to the United States. Under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, a World War II refugee could not settle in the U.S. unless someone "sponsored" him.

"First wavers" often stepped up to serve as sponsors.

South Side Chicago, about 1955. The man on the left is an uncle who served as the sponsor for the immigration of Mr. Irene's Dad. On the right stands the brother of Mr. Irene's Great-Grandfather.

The Arrival of the First Wavers

Or, "How Chicago became Lithuania's second capital."

Chicago's Public Television station, WTTW, also addressed the subject in "Lithuanians in Chicago," an episode in its "Chicago Stories" series.

Read more here about the first wavers on Mr. Irene's maternal side of the family.

Related by Marriage: Picnic Culture

Lithuanian churches, like the Roman Catholic Parish of St. George, organized picnics at Vytautas Grove, on Chicago's South Side.

These were key occasions for "first wave" Lithuanian-Americans, who saw the elaborate picnics as a chance to escape their working-class routine.

Picnics, like most other Lithuanian entertaining, usually occurred on Sundays. By the early 1950s, the picnics became meeting grounds at which the offspring of "first wavers" could meet newly arrived—and eligible—Displaced Persons.

Vytautas Grove, Chicago, Illinois, Summer 1949. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents slip into their finery for a Sunday picnic. Mr. Irene's Grandfather, Stanley, has his mouth full, and Mr. Irene's Grandmother, Anna, wears a hat and a butterfly-print dress.

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: A Missing Piece

Mr. Irene's Great-Grandfather, Frank, was the father of Stanley, Mr. Irene's maternal Grandfather. Frank emigrated to Chicago from Lithuania in 1906. We don't know whether he was unhappy in this country or whether he was unable to find good work. He returned to Lithuania in 1910, and no one knows what became of him.

Click on the "Stanley" label to read more about the first wavers.

Bridgeport, Chicago, about 1908. I understand the photographer's use of the hat and flowers as props. But check out the toy cat and terrier at the base of the pedestal.

A Conversation about "First Wavers"

Chicago's WBEZ interviews Lithuanian Americans about Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

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!