A Positive Spin on Self-Isolation

Many weeks have passed since my last post. No excuse, only a reason. With the new norm of self isolation during the COVID-19 scare, I find I'm indulging in deep research on several branches, well, because I can.  That deep dive kept me from coming up for air to post a tidbit or two during March 2020.

I wondered how my other family genealogists were spending their time, other than learning how to wash their hands and find the elusive TP in the stores. It could be they had too much time on their hands and lost the drive to get it done, or, like me, each record that solved one question begat another, a challenge I could not ignore. In Michigan, my 2nd cousin Ken's project was digitizing old family pictures.

Shortly after I sent birthday wishes via social media, he reached out to me with a catch-up email to tell me about his picture project and a new find. A black and white portrait of a woman between 50-60 years of age, no one he recognized, was tucked behind another picture in the album.  On the back was a short note written in cursive Lithuanian. The obvious first step is to translate the back.

There are a few ways to do that. Ken reached out to a Lithuanian distant cousin of ours and I posted the picture of the photo on a social media group page for Lithuanian genealogists hoping to get a speedier answer. As it turned out, my post was still warm when I got a reply and Ken's email to Lithuania came back soon after. And now unraveling the mystery of the Lithuanian woman begins. 

Unknown Lithuanian Woman

Translation below

The translation is:
"For a long remembrance. this photo (shows me) of the current age. Your sister Julia (Julija, Julė)"

A Jamitis family story about a "little redheaded girl" told to Ken in part suggests our great grandmother, Anna (Ambrazevičiūte) Jamitis, left a sister behind in Lithuania. There's also a possibility Anna left behind a daughter, perhaps conceived by mistreatment from a soldier occupying Lithuania during the regime struggles in the late 19th century. Both the story and the picture are about a female; we are assuming these items are connected. 

In my next post, I will lay out the thought process of researching the photo and story. Stay tuned...