Family tree help

3 comments

1. You have to know that lithuaniam family names sound different for man and woman, and not only that, it sounds different depending if she married or not. So Rudaitė is maiden name. Male name is Rudaitis and for married woman it would by Rudaitienė. Same with Visgirda(male), Visgirdaitė, Visgirdienė. I dont know why that woman was given male family name. Šokaitis, Šokaitė, Šokaitienė.

   All these family names are still widely used in Lithuania.

   I cant help with the name next to Russia. I cant recall any places in Lithuania with similar names.

2. I am no historian, nor any expert in anything, so don’t take my words for truth. These are just ideas, what might have impacted why there are different names all over the place.

   Example of hypothetical boy’s full name:
   “Jonas Kazimieras Dominykas Petraitis”.

   “Jonas” – is an actual name that parents gave to a boy one he was born.

   “Kazimieras” – is a holy name that was given by catholic church priest when accepting communion or whatever that event is called.

   “Dominykas” – is the father’s name. Lithuanians themselves traditionally would not use them, but since it’s during Russian occupation and Russian officials would be writing based on Russian rules, they might add their father’s name in official paperwork.

   “Petraitis” – a last name inherited most likely from a father, in rarer occasions from mother or might be other source.

   1. Depending on who has written paperwork that might have affected which names would be included or omitted from official documentation.
   Church documentation might have something like “Jonas Kazimieras Petraitis”.
   Czar’s russian documents might have something like “Jonas Dominykas Petraitis”.
   Letter in unofficial language might have something like “Jonas iš Petraičių šeimos”.

   2. Some people would start using the equivalent name of the environment that are present in:
   Lt “Jonas” – En “John”.
   Lt “Kazimieras” – En “Casimier”/”Kazimir”.
   Lt “Dominykas” – En “Dominique”.
   Lt “Petraitis” – En “Peter”/”Petrite”.

   3. Some people have pretty common name, that most people who know might use a nickname, often a variation of their original name. Example: “Jonelis”, “Jonce”, “Jonutis”, “Jonaitis” and so on. If this person has been called for so many years by that nickname, they might identify themselves more with that nickname rather than the original name, which might cause that when immigrating to another country for convenience they might say their nickname as if it’s their actual name.

   4. Plenty of people get their names and last name gutted, because people who write their names write them as they hear it and it’s based on sounds they are used, and since the person who says it is from different language and culture says with different sounds and dialect/accent, certain sounds might be interpreted differently and therefore written differently than it was originally.

   5. Many people would have written names in cursive, what is written by one person in cursive in one culture/environment, could be read and rewriten by another person in another culture differently.

   6. It can be really difficult to look for documents of the past for the one specific person when the only identifier is the name and last name and when depending on situation different names could have been written in documents. You might looking at the same person record, or it could be a record of another person altogether who might not have been related at all. Therefore there are always a certain level of uncertainty when looking through historic documents.

   7. In some cases some people would due to various reasons identify themselves as different people for all kind of reasons. That might have been due to persecutions or due to war or because some other situation.

   8. People sometimes change their names.

   I mean good luck. But you have to accept a high level of uncertainty when looking at those documents. Also that whenever you find an answer to one question, you will have nine more questions in its place.

   Also my example is with a man’s full name, women have more variations related to marriage and taking husbands name.

3. A bit of a long shot, but ,,Sumalku” could be a butchered version of Suvalkai or Suvalkai governate. The other place name could be Kyviškės?? Im basing this on how it sounds to me and vibes.

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