A Closer Look (Part 71)

Tauragė, Lithuania, about 1905. This is my Mom's paternal Grandmother, Wanda. Mom remembers Wanda always wore gold-hoop earrings.

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A Closer Look (Part 60)

Tambov, Russia, 1905. This is Pavel, the father of my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana.

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A Closer Look (Part 52)

Tambov, Russia, about 1905. This is Nina K., the mother of my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana.

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Bridal Wreath

Vilnius, Lithuania, about 1905. This is the wedding portrait of Suzanne's mother.

 

Thanks to my Kaunas Cousin for making this photo of her Great-Grandmother available to us.

Russian Roots, Revisited

Tambov, Russia, about 1905. I posted a photo of Pavel and Nina K.—the parents of my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana—when I first started the blog. The image was one my Dad had rephotographed. Dad had zoomed in on the subjects' faces, cropping out a good part of the photo.

I recently found the original print stored in the envelope called "Babos šeima Rusijoi"—Grandma's family in Russia. I post the image here: the original gives a better view of my Great-Grandparents, sitting in front of their house. Pavel has a newspaper on his lap, and Nina K. holds some work; I wonder if it's mending.

Staging the Salon Shot

Šiauliai, Lithuania, about 1905 to 1910. A photographer must have caught this relaxed image before taking the more formal snapshot on the same day. My paternal Grandfather, Vytautas, again appears in the front, staring at the ceiling; this time, he's reclined against a family friend. The family friend chats with Vytautas's sister, Victoria. In the back, on the left, the dashing physician Charles leans into the shot's frame next to his wife, Stanislava.

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

Wanda



Tauragė, Lithuania, 1905. This is my Mom's paternal Grandmother, Wanda. Wanda had four children: Cody Jr., my maternal Grandfather Jake, Zigmas, and Mary.

Thanks to my "New" Cousin for making this photo available to me in digital format.

UPDATE: I omitted one son from Wanda's offspring. She had a fifth child who, as a young boy, died in a shooting accident.

I fill in a missing link.

I  don't have many images of my Great-Grandparents, and I've posted most of them here. Early on, I talked about photos of my Mom's maternal Grandparents and her paternal Grandparents.

I also introduced my Dad's maternal Grandparents.

Here is my Dad's paternal Grandfather, Ambrose. He was born in 1838, and I think this photo dates from the late 1870s: 

 

Ambrose, like his son, Vytautas , served in the Russian Imperial Army during the years when Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire. I have two modern-day relatives who are dead ringers for Ambrose.

Here is Ambrose's wife, my Dad's paternal Grandmother, Salomea. She was much younger than Ambrose; she was born in 1859. I believe she sat for this photo in about 1905:

 

When I first saw Salomea's photo, I said, "Check out that fur vest." Next, I thought, "Wow! What an exotic name." I then looked up its meaning. It's a Polish name that means "peace." My name, "Irene," means "peace" in Greek. That's a connection that never came to mind.

I wish my name were "Salomea" instead of "Irene."

Sometimes a winning hand is a losing proposition.

My Mom's maternal Grandmother, Zigmunta, was Polish. When she was about sixteen years old, her father challenged a young buck visiting from Lithuania to a card game. Her father, his confidence likely fueled by vodka, declared that if the Lithuanian won the game, then he would surrender his daughter's hand in marriage to the foreigner.

Later that night, Zigmunta learned that she would be the wife of Silvestras. She packed her dolls and moved to Lithuania. And so began a lifetime of bitterness and disappointment.

Mariampolis, Lithuania, 1905. Zigmunta sat for this formal portrait perhaps six or seven years into her marriage with Silvestras. My Mom recalls that Zigmunta, her maternal Grandmother, always called my Mom "Paršiva Litewka." That's a combination of (rather coarse) Lithuanian and Polish that means "nasty Lithuanian girl."

Russian Roots

Tambov, Russia, around 1905. These are two of my Great-Grandparents, Pavel and Nina, the parents of my paternal Grandmother. Pavel served as one of Tsar Nicholas II's fourteen governors.

The Bolsheviks executed Pavel during the 1917 Russian Revolution. They shot him in front of his wife and his six children.