Related by Marriage: Cousins

Southwestern Lithuania, about 1934. The nephews send a photo.

Related by Marriage: Postcard from the Old Country

Photographers sometimes printed photos on postcard stock rather than on photographic paper. The subjects of the photo then had a covenient way to send the image to family.

Here is a such a postcard photo:

Southwestern Lithuania, about 1910. Members of the family of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna, sent this snapshot to their immigrant daughters. The older woman wear babushkas, and there is a priest standing on the far right.

Related by Marriage: Farm Dog

Southwestern Lithuania, 1934. These cute boys are the young nephews of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. They are the children of Anna's sister, Emily and her husband, Adam J.

Related by Marriage: The Young Women, Back Home

Southwestern Lithuania, around 1912. These are the sisters and cousins of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Anna's sister Emily, sits on the right, and sister Marta stands on the far right.  The staging of this snapshot—and especially the positioning of woven tableclothes as backdrops—suggest it was taken the same day as this photo of the immediate family.

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: Meet the New Officer

Southwestern Lithuania, about 1914. We don't know much about Adam J., except that he married Emily, one of the non-emigrating sisters of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Adam J. and Emily lived out their lives in Lithuania.

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.