The Platers in Australia

Many Lithuanians and Poles will know the story of Emilia Plater (Emilija Pliaterytė in Lithuanian) a young countess of the Plater nobles who gained immense popularity and was likened to Joan of Arc because of her participation and leadership during the 1830-31 uprising against the Russian Empire (click here for an outline of her story).

Emilia Plater leading peasant scythemen, by Jan Rosen

Far fewer people are aware that some of Emilia's relations, who also took part in the attempted revolution, arrived in Australia as political refugees and settled here. 

The Platers

Historical accounts vary, but most maintain that the history of the Plater dynasty began in Westphalia (Germany) in the 12th or 13th century, in the vicinity of the castle Broel. From that time, the family were known as 'de Broel Plater'. In the 1400s the Platers emigrated to Livonia (present-day Latvia and southern Estonia) and soon became powerful members of the Livonian Order (a branch of the Teutonic Knights). Over time, the family split into several lines; with the decline of the Order they identified as patriotic military leaders in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. When the Commonwealth declined and was partitioned near the end of the eighteenth century by its more powerful neighbours (Prussia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire) the Lithuanian regions were incorporated into the Russian Empire. The Platers maintained their extensive landholdings but lost much of their political and military influence (prior to that the Platers had ranked close to the top ten wealthiest families of the Commonwealth, assisted by marriage alliances with other powerful dynasties including the Radziwills (Radvilai)). 

Emily Plater

Emilia de Broel Plater (1806-31) was a 13th generation descendant of the original emigrants to Livonia and a member of the Dusiat branch (Dusetos, in north-eastern Lithuania). One history of her involvement in the uprising states that her third cousins Lucien and Ferdinand, who were officer cadets with the Russian Imperial Army in the fortress of Dunaburg (Daugavpils, in south-eastern Latvia), admitted Emilia into the conspiracy to stage a revolution against Russian rule. They had grown up together at the Liksna manor near Dunaburg and the brothers had already helped Emilia develop skills in shooting and swordsmanship. 

The insurrection began in November 1830 in Warsaw and spread through most of the Russian-occupied areas of the former Commonwealth. Emilia joined the uprising in March 1831 at Dusetos and was part of an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Dunaburg fortress. The uprising had a number of initial military successes, taking possession of several Lithuanian towns, Emilia was appointed to the rank of Captain of the revolutionary army and distinguished herself in battle, but by the end of 1831 the uprising was eventually quashed by the regular army. She chose not to flee to the west and died while in hiding in December 1831; she was buried under an assumed name at Kapčiamiestis (in southern Lithuania).    

Lucien and Ferdinand Plater

Counts Lucien Stanislaus (1808-57) and Ferdinand (1811-91) de Broel Plater were members of the Kurkliai (in north-eastern Lithuania) branch of the family. Their father had been a Marshal of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility in the district of Vilnius and their mother Rachel Kosciuszko was the niece of the famous Tadeusz Kosciuszko (click here for his biography) after whom Mount Kosciuszko in Australia was named. The brothers joined the insurrection in April 1831 but after it collapsed made their way to western Europe. They were sentenced in absentia by a court in Minsk in November 1831 to be deported to Siberia.  

After a few years in France and then England, Lucien married Charlotte Price Duffus from an old Scottish family. Together with Ferdinand, they emigrated to Australia in 1840 and settled in Liverpool, NSW. According to family tradition, expected grants of land were not obtained because the brothers were not prepared to become naturalised British subjects.

The former Plater home at 90 George Street, Parramatta

Lucien and Charlotte lived modestly in and near Parramatta. Charlotte's brother, the Rev. John Duffus, had arrived in Australia shortly before the Platers and in later years the family was strongly associated with St John's Church of England in Parramatta, where Lucien was buried. They had ten children and their descendants in Australia are estimated to number over a hundred; the Plater descendants (named Plater or de Plater) are now more numerous in Australia than in any other country. Lucien honoured the memory of his cousin Emilia by giving her name to his eldest daughter Emily Laura (1838-1926)  and also one of his sons, Emilian Casimir (1851-1926).

Ferdinand did not marry. He was naturalised in 1860 and and eventually established a home, garden and vineyard near Bargo, NSW. 

Ferdinand Plater with his sister-in-law Charlotte (circa 1880?)

Sources: 

'The Platers' by Simon Konarski, Buenos Aires, 1967 (translated into English by M.B. de Plater, Brisbane, 1982);

'Poles in Australia and Oceania 1790-1940' by Lech Paszkowski, Australian National University Press, 1987, (extracts in www.duffus.com);

'The Platers of Parramatta' in Puls Polonii (Australian Polish online gazette of 6 February 2006 and subsequent editions). 

Pranas and Natalija ŠEŠKAS

My previous blog post about migration patterns mentioned the Šeškas family; here are a few more details to fill out an interesting story about a couple who decided to make a home and raise a family in Western Australia.

Pranas (known as Frank in Australia, and at times as Seska) was born on 1 January 1892 near Gargždai in western Lithuania, not far from the Baltic Sea. We know little about his early years before arriving in Australia; possibly economic hardship led to him leaving home, or - like so many other young men nearing 20 years of age at that time - he may have left to avoid conscription into the Russian czar's army. Also like many other single men from the Baltics who settled in Australia he may have taken employment as a seaman before arriving in Fremantle in 1912. He remained in Australia for the next decade, somehow resisting the social and economic pressures to join the AIF during the First World War and, although working at manual jobs, seems to have done reasonably well for himself.  We next find him back in newly-independent Lithuania in 1922 and applying for a Lithuanian passport (up to that point in Australia he was classified as a Russian alien, having been born in the czarist empire).

Pranas - application for a Lithuanian passport, 1922

While in Lithuania Pranas would have met his future wife Natalija. She was born near Kybartai, by the Lithuanian-Prussian border in 1906. He returned to Australia in 1925 and was working at the Port Pirie smelters as a labourer earning a good wage (over 6 pounds per week) when he applied to the Australian government a year later to allow Natalija to emigrate to Australia. At the same time he also sought permission for another Lithuanian friend, Martinas Korallus, to emigrate with Natalija. Approval was granted and the pair arrived in early 1927; Pranas and Natalija married on 1 February 1927 in Port Pirie.

Natalija - her Lithuanian passport, 1926

Pranas' and Natalija's first child was born in Port Pirie in 1928. However that year was marred by a few unpleasant experiences, with Pranas appearing before the Port Pirie courts twice within a period of a month - appearing both as a plaintiff and defendant. In one case he took his friend Korallus to court for outstanding money lent as well as unpaid board and lodgings. Perhaps because of these experiences the family moved to Western Australia where they eventually settled near Perth, first at Muchea and later Baker's Hill.

Five more children were born to Natalija and Pranas in Western Australia from 1929. A recent newspaper feature on one of the Seskas boys [click here], born in 1930, records the lives of Depression-era children on the land and notes that he was raised speaking Lithuanian.  Pranas died in 1967, and Natalija (Natalie) in 1998.
       

Family Migration Patterns

While single men probably made up the largest category of pre-WW2 Lithuanian-born immigrants to Australia, I continue to be surprised on this journey of discovery to find so many family groups making the voyage to the other side of the world. Some of these arrived as married couples, others singly with the intention of meeting their partners here, but many also arrived with already established families including children and occasionally siblings.

•  In contrast to modern-day migration patterns, grandparents and older relatives seem to have been conspicuously absent, as were independent single females.   

The following examples may help illustrate the diversity of these family migration patterns.

Couples

Stasys and Elžbieta Urniežius (Stanislaus and Elizabeth Urniarz) reached Australia in 1904 from the Russian Far East. Stasys served in the AIF during WW1 (Egypt and France) and the couple returned to Lithuania in 1920.

Antanas and Ona Bauže (Anthony and Anna Bauze) arrived in September 1930 and Ona gave birth to their first child in November 1930. The family settled in Sydney and were prominent in Lithuanian community activities.

Ksaveras (Alexander) Skierys arrived in 1911 and his fiancee Ellen Petraitis followed him from Manchester in 1913. They were married in 1916 and raised 3 children in Sydney.

Pranas Šeškas (Frank Seskas) arrived in 1912, was back in Lithuania for a while in the 1920s, and was joined in Australia in 1928 by his prospective wife Natalija. They married here and raised a large family in Western Australia.

Alexander and Ellen Skierys with two children c1920. Courtesy of Rosemary Mitchell.

Couples with children

Jonas and Morta Mickevičius (John and Martha McCowage) arrived in Sydney in 1887. They had two children who had been born in England before departure and went on to have another three in Sydney.

Mamertas and Ona Marcinkevičius (Mamert and Anna Marcin) arrived in 1928 from Lithuania with three children and also settled in Sydney.

1928 passenger list with the Marcinkevičius family.

Single parents

Josephine Ruckman (Jusefa Rukman, born in 1863 in Kaunas, widow) arrived with her two sons John and Felix and daughter-in-law Klara in 1923 and settled in northern Queensland.

Juozas Ruzgas (Joe Ross), born in 1890, arrived in from Lithuania in 1930 and was joined in 1938 by his son Balys Ruzgas (William Ross). After a few years in Victoria the father and son settled in Tasmania.


Siblings and extended families

Kazys Astrauskas (Charles Ashe) arrived in  Western Australia in 1928, followed by his wife, children and his sister-in-law in 1930.

Brothers Petras and Vincas Kairaitis (Peter and Bill Kairaitis) had arrived from Scotland around 1911 and settled at Blacktown (Sydney). They were joined in 1928 by their neice Nelly and her husband George Peters and two nephews Bronius and Antanas Petraitis (Bronius and Anthony Patrick) as well as Bronius' wife and children (all came from Scotland and settled at Blacktown).

Anthony Minkshlin: soldier, sailor, witness to historical events

Anthony Minkshlin (also written as Minkslin or Minkshtin) was born 13 October 1892 in Vilnius to 'William' (Waltrome, or Baltromy) and Agatha Minkshtin. His father appears to have previously resided in Vidzy (now in Belarus, about 3km from the present Lithuanian border), before moving to Vilnius. Anthony stated that his father was a Lithuanian citizen. His mother's maiden name was Christopher - perhaps meaning the Latvian surname Kristofers - which may explain why the family moved to the port city of Liepaja in Latvia around the turn of the 20th century. Anthony attended schools in Vilnius and Liepaja before embarking on a seaman's career and leaving home at the age of 15.

With thanks to Dr Elena Govor (Canberra) for sharing this image (British merchant marine registration card)) and other details of her research on Anthony Minkshlin at The National Archives, (Kew, UK).

Before long, however, Anthony was based in Australia and working on a farm at Branxton in the Hunter region of New South Wales in between journeys away as a seaman (Branxton is around 40km from the port city of Newcastle). This continued until the First World War; he enlisted in August 1915 and was sent to serve as a trooper with the AIF's 4th Light Horse regiment in the Middle East. By mid 1916 he was in France on the Western Front with the Second Anzac Corps. After the war ended he decided to re-enlist, this time with the British Army and the North Russia Relief Force. His military experience and language skills were presumably well regarded, as he was taken on as a scout and interpreter with the 45th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. Wikipedia notes that:

The 45th and 46th Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers were part of the North Russia Relief Force, which landed in early 1919 to support the withdrawal of international forces assisting "While" (anti-Bolshevik) Russian forces during the Russian Civil War. The understrength 45th Battalion was composed mainly of former members of the Australian Imperial Force – many of them veterans of the Western Front – who had volunteered for service in Russia.

 
The Relief Force was evacuated by September 1919, and Anthony Minkshlin was subsequently awarded a Meritorious Service Medal for his service in the Northern Dvina River region. By December 1919 he had returned to Liepaja to visit his parents, and shortly thereafter found another posting that appealed to him - that of interpreter with the British Military Mission in Kaunas, working for Colonel Henry Rowen-Robinson. However by the second half of 1920 Minkshlin was back at sea, based in England, and had applied for naturalisation as a British subject. He received good references and a police check recorded that "he appears to be a respectable man".

With thanks to Dr Al Taškūnas (Hobart) for supplying this image from 1920 (Anthony Minkshlin in Kaunas wearing an Australian Army slouch hat).

Anthony returned to Australia in 1923, married Irene Serova in 1926, and the couple settled in North Sydney. Anthony continued to maintain his links with the sea, working as a seaman for some years and naming his new home "Albatross". Irene was listed on the electoral roll as a tailoress. In older age Anthony resided at the War Veterans' Home in Narrabeen and displayed his craft skills in creating abalone shell jewellery. He died in 1983 at the age of 92 and is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Frenchs Forest cemetery. Irene had been born around 1905 and died in 1987.    


Sources and further reading:
National Archives of Australia - https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/BasicSearch.aspx
Elena Govor: personal communication and and her publications on 'Russian Anzacs', including https://russiananzacs.net/
Trove -  https://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=minkslin&l-availability=y
Dr Al Taškūnas, Lithuanian Studies Society, University of Tasmania.
 




 

Petras Stasiunas (Peter Stanton)

Around 100,000 people emigrated from Lithuania during the interwar years, mostly for economic reasons, The peak period for emigration was 1926-1930, with an estimated 60,000 leaving. Most made their way to South America but at least 50 that we know of, and probably many more, reached Australia. Petras Stasiunas was one of these young migrants who had been born in czarist times, experienced the First World War and the birth of independent Lithuania, but had decided to leave in the late 1920s.

Born on 5 August 1898 to the north of the town of Pašvitinys, Petras appears to have spent his first 30 years in Lithuania and to have participated in the Wars of Independence (1918-20), but on arrival in Sydney aboard the Orontes from London in 1929 his occupation was listed as farm labourer. He settled in Newcastle and within a few years appears to have become relatively successful, being listed as a motor tyre dealer ('Peter's Remoulds') in the mid 1930s.

 Source: Trove, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) Saturday 28 May 1938 p 22.


Petras kept in touch with his compatriots in Australia, participating in the activities of the Sydney-based Australian Lithuanian Society, and in 1937 traveled overseas to visit Lithuania.  He was still a single man at this stage, and may have returned 'home' to find a wife. If so, that quest was unsuccessful - or the Second World War may have interrupted plans - and in 1941 Petras married a Newcastle woman (Kathleen Comerford). That marriage, however, was short-lived and divorce soon followed.

By the late 1930s Petras had improved his standing and had built a tyre service centre in Newcastle at a cost of over 2000 pounds (Peter's Tyre Service at Tighe's Hill). He had also become a naturalized British subject (1939), changed his name by deed poll to Peter Stanton (1940), and offered himself for army service at the start of the war.

The war years may have adversely impacted the service station business because during that period Peter returned to his earlier occupation - farming - purchasing a property at Louth Park, near Maitland. In August 1948 he married a second time; this time he chose a newly-arrived Lithuanian refugee, Ona Venclauskaite (born in 1928, she had arrived in Australia only in February 1948). Sadly, their marriage did not last long either as Peter died in June 1949 at Maitland after attending to flood damage on his farm. He left a wife and a son.

An obituary was published in Mūsų Pastogė on 6 July 1949, including the following details (my loose translation):

One of the older Australian Lithuanians, Petras Stasiunas-Stanton, died on the 28th of June in Maitland. The deceased was 53 years of age, born in Kriukų county, and had been a volunteer [in the Wars of Independence]. He arrived in Australia in 1929 and settled in Newcastle, working in those difficult times for one and a half pounds a week. Nevertheless he managed to save and get ahead, securing his own tyre repair workshop. During the last war he bought a farm at Maitland, where he lived until his premature death. He had married a new Lithuanian migrant only about 8 months ago; a conscientious Lithuanian, even though living far from any community groups he always cared about their activities and often supported them financially (Written by Antanas Bauže). 

  

    

Rev. Jonas Tamulis (1915- 2010)

The previous post gave a very brief history of the short-lived Australian Lithuanian journal Užuovėja, published monthly during 1949 and 1950. While the publication had several editors during that time - Julius Veteikis, Petras Pilka, Vincas Kazokas, Mikas Apinys, and Fr. Petras Butkus -  it was underwritten, and probably the brainchild, of a remakable Lithuanian priest, Jonas Tamulis.

Accounts vary, but Tamulis appears to have been born in England around 1915. The family returned to Lithuania while he was quite young and settled in the village of Žindaičiai, near Jurbarkas. Ordained a priest in 1940, he was one of the group of British citizens permitted to leave Lithuania during the first soviet occupation (1940-41) who made their way to Vladivostok and then to Australia aboard the Hai Tan, arriving in December 1940.

Tamulis spent the remaining war years as an army chaplain in Brisbane but was able to reach the USA in early 1946. For a while he ministered to the St Casimir Lithuanian parish in Los Angeles before being posted to another parish. By the late 1940s Australia's Mass Migration Scheme was attracting large numbers of displaced Lithuanians from European refugee camps and Tamulis volunteered to return to Australia.

From December 1948 Tamulis worked as a chaplain at the Migrant Reception Centre in Bathurst. From there he was able to travel to Sydney and other regional centres to provide religious services to the newly forming Lithuanian communities, and it was very soon after his arrival that Užuovėja first appeared. Produced by the Society of St Casimir on a rotary hand press, each 30 page edition aspired to high journalistic standards with news, information, and articles on literature, science, and the arts. Initially published from the Bathurst camp, by November 1949 it had found a home in Sydney.

As well as providing regular church services in Sydney, Rev. Tamulis was also responsible for the establishment of the first Lithuanian Catholic Centre in Sydney (at 5 Young Street, Circular Quay) and a Lithuanian weekend school. However by 1950 he had fallen into disfavour with the Australian church hierarchy - apparently because of his attempts to promote the establishment of a Lithuanian parish in Australia - and returned to the USA where he followed his religious vocation in Michigan until retirement in 1991.



Sources (see Links on RHS):
Australian Lithuanians;
Mūsų Pastogė (1949-50); and
Metraštis No.1 (p98).

   

A view from 1950

The Australian Lithuanian publication Užuovėja ('A Shelter from the Wind') was published monthly in 1949 and 1950, initially at the Bathurst Migrant Camp and later from Sydney. The 1950 calendar for subscribers included a short article on Lithuanians in Australia (p85) from which I have extracted the following snapshot of knowledge and views from 70 years ago:

As far as we know, the first group of Lithuanian migrants arrived in Australia at the end of the 19th century, settling initially in Adelaide. They had established a mutual-aid society there but after a few years the community dissolved as members moved to settle elsewhere in Australia.

A new wave of migrants arrived after the First World War. It is believed that around a thousand people arrived in the interwar years, mainly from Lithuania and Scotland. They were also scattered around Australia, although a larger number settled in Sydney and its environs. The people in Sydney established an Australian Lithuanian Society, which later received newspapers through the Lithuanian government's Society for Assistance to Overseas Lithuanians. Even now there are over a dozen families from that migration who continue to participate in community activities, largely because of the efforts of Mr Bauže who has been president of the Society for close to 20 years.

Nevertheless the fact that today we can only count a few dozen active community members out of 1000 arrivals is a sad and sobering thought. Now we are expecting another modest influx of migrants. Official figures as at September 1949 show 4800 new Lithuanian migrants in Australia; optimistically this figure may grow to around 7000.

At present our communities and lively and energetic. Nevertheless, many are forced to work in isolated parts of the country; especially disturbing is the lack of [Lithuanian] educational facilities for our young people. In the author's opinion, our community leaders should work up a broad plan now to address the likely future erosion of our numbers.

      

Ona Baužienė (Anna Bauze)

In 1983 Anna Bauze was awarded a BEM (British Empire Medal) for her services to the Australian Lithuanian community. She had arrived in Australia as a young woman in 1930 and was an important and popular member of the Lithuanian community until her death in 2003. Here is a brief outline of this remarkable woman's story.

Ona was born in Essen, Germany in 1904. Her father Juozas Vyšniauskas was employed at the Krupps Steel Works and her mother Antanina Ravinaitė Vyšniauskienė worked on rural estates. Their settled life in Germany was turned upside down in 1905 when they were forced to leave during the Russo-Japanese War; the Tsarist government demanded that all young Lithuanian men return to Russia and the German authorities said they should either leave or be deported. Like many others, the Vyšniauskas family decided to move to Scotland and Ona grew up in the industrial town of Motherwell.

By 1922, with Lithuania having secured her independence, the family decided it was time to return home. Ona had completed high school and was training for a teaching vocation in Scotland, but had also been raised within the strong Lithuanian community in Scotland and so was able to adjust to the transition remarkably well. She was soon working as a clerk at the Vilkaviškis courthouse. In 1927 she married a young army officer, Antanas Bauže. However by that time the family was becoming disillusioned with the political situation in Lithuania - a military coup d'etat in 1926 had installed an authoritarian government. Ona's parents left Lithuania for Brazil in 1929 and Ona and Antanas Bauže left for Australia in 1930.

Attitudes to non-British migrants in Australia at that time were sharpened by the effects of the Great Depression. For example, Adelaide's daily paper 'The Advertiser' reported on 18 August 1930 that 202 foreign migrants (including Lithuanians) had entered the state of South Australia during the first 7 months of the year and that the state's Premier had been asked to make a strong protest to the Federal government about ongoing migration. Fortunately those Lithuanians who had arrived after living in Britain or other English-speaking countries appear to have been reasonably well accepted.

Ona and Antanas Bauže settled in Sydney and were soon raising a family and operating a grocery store in Paddington. Ona's memoir (published in 2002) is a useful source of information on Sydney's Lithuanians of the 1930s, including the Scots Lithuanians Frank and Maggie Augustas (Augustaitis) at Redfern; Bella and Joe Miller (Plaušinis) at Waterloo; and the Kairaitis, Peters and Patrick families at Blacktown.

The Sydney Lithuanian Women's Social Services Association around 1960; Anna Bauze is standing in the top row, centre.

. 

Ona Bauze played a unique role, contributing to both the early (pre-WW2) Sydney Lithuanian community and the growth of the much larger community which developed with post-WW2 migration. She took an interest in welfare issues, for example by assisting new arrivals with accommodation and employment. One of her significant achievements involved planning and fundraising for the building of the Lithuanian Retirement Village at Engadine, Sydney, which was officially opened in 1984.  Read more about that project by clicking here.

Click here for a 2003 In Memoriam tribute to Anna Bauze.



Sources:
'A Lithuanian in Australia: Memories of My Life' by Anna Bauze; Sydney, 2002;
Metraštis; Sydney, 1961 (for the image above);
Sydney Lithuanian  Information Centre website (see links).

Ellen Skierys

One of the earliest Australian Lithuanian women we have any details about was Ellen Petraitis/Peterson Skierys. My thanks to her niece Rosemary Petraitis/Peterson Mitchell for the following biographical outline.

Ellen was born around 1892 in Manchester, England, to a Lithuanian family. Her elder sister Mary had been born in Lithuania only a year earlier, so we can assume the family were very recent immigrants. Her parents Alexandra and Izidorius Petraitis - later known as John Peterson - went on to have another 10 or 11 children in Manchester, but only 7 of their offspring survived to adulthood.

Izidorius Petraitis/John Peterson was a successful tailor who operated his own business in central Manchester until the depression years of the 1930s forced him to close. Not only was the business profitable for Izidorius but it also provided a solid start in life for most of his children who were employed there at one time or another. It also appears he travelled back to Lithuania, at least in the late 1890s, on business matters: earlier posts here and here have recorded the stories of Australian Lithuanians Jonas Vedrinaitis and Ksaveras Skierys and how they seem to have been recruited by Petraitis as apprentices.
 
Ksaveras (also known as Alexander) Skierys lived with the Petraitis family in Manchester for some time, as well as working further afield, including Scotland and Ireland. However in 1911 he departed for Australia, settling in Sydney where he found work as a tailor.  Ellen, who had fallen in love with him in Manchester, decided to follow him. So, at the age of 21 she boarded the 'Irishman' in Liverpool on 20 March 1913 for the two month voyage to Sydney.  There she worked for a tailoring firm in Surrey Hills until she and Ksaveras/Alexander married in 1916.

Ellen and Ksaveras Skierys had three children: Alexander, Nelly and William (Bill). They were active members of the Lithuanian community in Sydney and Nelly, at least, continued the family tradition of entering the tailoring trade, initially indentured to her father.

Ellen and Alexander Skierys, with Nellie (born 1919) and Alexander (born 1917)

Forty years after leaving Manchester Ellen travelled back to revisit England and spend time with her relatives; she returned to Sydney in 1955 with her younger sister Nellie (Angela) who stayed for 18 months.

Ellen died in 1975, Ksaveras in 1961. They are buried at the Woronora cemetery (Sydney) together with two of their children, Nellie and Bill.   

    

"A 100 year old Lithuanian in New Zealand"

This was the title of a newspaper article published in 1950 by prof. Mykolas Biržiška about Jurgis Šeižys, probably the first Lithuanian to have settled in New Zealand. Here is my abridged version.

The story begins around 1850 when Jurgis Šeižys was born in the village of Šiukštoniai, in the parish of Joniškelis in northern Lithuania. Around 1875 he left his home village and settled in Riga, Latvia, where he found work in a large tobacco factory. After 12 years at the tobacco factory Jurgis began to complain of chest pains; the doctors couldn't help him except to recommend a change of employment, preferably in a fresh air environment. He then decided to set out on a long journey, first to Belgium and Holland, then London and finally to New Zealand, arriving there around 1888.

In New Zealand Jurgis Šeižys became known as George Scheigis and tried his hand at several occupations before settling down. He married a local Maori girl but after 4 years was left a widower with a young son. By 1900, having established himself as a successful sheep farmer with a few other business interests he decided to return to Lithuania to find a wife. However, without a passport he only got as far as London. Fortunately, while there he was able to make contact with his sister and nephew in Riga who were able to travel to London to meet him and spend a few weeks together.

Jurgis returned to New Zealand and married a local englishwoman with whom he had more children. His relatives in Europe lost touch with him after the First World War and it was only after the Second World War that his nephew, by then a displaced person in Germany (living in the USA from 1950), managed to make contact again. By that time Jurgis was around 100 years old.        

http://www.geocities.ws/hulia_album/NZ_scheigis_rock.html

 http://www.geocities.ws/hulia_album/NZ_scheigis_rock.html

Source: The article appeared in Australijos Lietuvis (the Australian Lithuanian) on 6 February 1950, pp 8-10 and was based on information supplied to Biržiška by fellow academic prof. Jonas Šimoliunas, the nephew of Jurgis Šeižys. My thanks to Dana Grigonis, a volunteer with the Australian Lithuanian Community Archives, for providing me with scans of the newpaper and links to the above images. 

Notes:

1. Jurgis may not in fact have reached 100 years of age in 1950; other online sources (Geni, Ancestry, MyHeritage, the NZ Government's BDM online) suggest his date of birth may have been more like 1860, or even 1865;
2. He settled in the far north of the North Island, living at Rangiputa and Rangaunu, and was buried at Kaitaia in 1950. His story has also been recorded by at least one local historian in New Zealand and his name is commemorated by Scheigis Rock in Rangaunu harbour;
3. Jurgis' first wife was Ani Mihaka, the second was Elizabeth Read;
4. The first son, Henry Scheigis (1896-1965) served in both World Wars (WW1 - Maori Pioneer Battalion; WW2 - 28th Maori Battalion);
5. A greatgreat neice, presumably from the USA, visited the Schengis family sites in the North Island in 2000-01 (see images above);
6. There are suggestions, so far unverified, that Jurgis Šeižys was not the only early (pre-WW2) Lithuanian to settle in New Zealand. Other surnames to research include Vasiliūnas and Raudonis.  

Lithuanian Australians in World War 2

The recent 75th commemoration of D-Day (the allied landings in Normandy) reminded me that there were also Australian Lithuanian servicemen and women who participated in World War Two.

At least 25 Australian servicemen who served during WW2 (1939-45) recorded their place of birth as Lithuania. Some were born in independent Lithuania (from1918) while others had been born while the country was still part of the czarist Russian empire. Here are a few of their stories.

Myer ALTMAN, born 9 May 1923 in Kaunas was living in Mosman (Sydney) with his father Samuel when he enlisted at Sydney University - he was an economics student there - in October 1941. He continued to serve in Australia until discharge in January 1946.

Judah John DAVIES, born 21 October 1905 in Kaunas enlisted in May 1941 at Paddington (Sydney). He was a motor accessories traveller, married to Betty Shwabsky Davies, and saw active service in the Middle East and New Guinea before being discharged on medical grounds in September 1944.

John KELLERT (Jonas KELERTAS), born 9 June 1924 in Panevežys, enlisted at Bankstown (Sydney) in July 1942. He qualified as a radio/radar mechanic and served in New Guinea from October 1943 to May 1944, discharged in October 1946.

Harry KURZKI had been born in 1893 in Kaunas and served in the Russian army during WW1 during which time he received a gunshot wound to the head. He arrived in Australia in 1925 and enlisted at Paddington (Sydney) at the age of 49 but was discharged after one month as medically unfit.

Zalman LEVI (also known as Zale ZAPOLSKI) had been born in 1904 in Lazdijai and enlisted at Claremont (Perth) in June 1942 at the age of 38. He was married, an antique dealer, and only 5'3" tall, but recorded continuous full-time war service in Western Australia, New South Wales, and the Northern Territory until January 1946.

Walter MARCIN (Vladimiras MARCINKEVIČIUS), born 9 December 1917 in Kaunas had arrived in Australia in 1928 with his parents and settled in Arncliffe (Sydney). He had attended the Royal Art Society of NSW and the Julian Ashton Art School while completing a 5 year apprenticeship as a stained glass draughtsman. Walter enlisted with the RAAF in March 1943, served as aircrew and navigator before being promoted to Flight Sergeant and Warrant Officer and joining the RAF (in the UK) in May 1944. He survived the war in Europe and was discharged in January 1946. 

Anthony PATRICK (Antanas PETRAITIS), born 10 September 1908 in Sintautai had arrived with his family in 1928 from Scotland and worked in Sydney as a french polisher. He enlisted in May 1943 and provided 1030 days of active service within Australia until the end of the war.

As well as the above, the following Australian WW2 servicemen recorded Lithuania as their place of birth. Many were Lithuanian Jews, several were from the same family:

Isdore BERMAN (Idelis BERMANAS) from Jurbarkas;
Bernard BLOCH (BLOCHAS) from Varniai;
Max BLOCH;
William BLOCH;
Kay Kazys BRAZ (BRAZAUSKAS) from Kaunas;
Samuel EPSTEIN from Kaunas;
David GOLDBERG from Kaunas;
Hyman GRAY from Zanov(?);
Sundel HANEMANN from Memel (Klaipeda);
Maurice MARGOLIS from Vilnius;
Noel MILLER (Chane MILERIS) from Nemakščiai;
Leon PLATUS from Godz(?);
Max PLATUS;
Edgar SEEBERG from Zabelai(?);
Harry SEGAL from Žagare;
Albert SILVER from Židikai;
Leslie SILVER;
Peter Stasium STANTON (Petras STASIUNAS) from Pašvitinys.

Still others who served Australia during WW2 were the Australian-born descendants of Lithuanian immigrants; for example Lt Frank John AUGUSTUS, the son of Pranas and Magdalena AUGUSTAITIS who had arrived in 1924 from Scotland; and Aircraftwoman Frances Merle SIMKUS, the grandaughter of William ŠIMKUS who had been born around 1861 in Memel (Klaipeda) and arrived in NSW in 1886. Others included Bombardier Anthony Joseph ALANSKAS from Western Australia and Staff Sergeant Anthony Wedrien from Sydney.



Sources: NAA (National Archives of Australia) and Ancestry.com

Sydney Lithuanians in 1915

An earlier post https://earlylithuaniansinaustralia.blogspot.com/2015/08/sydney-lithuanians-1914.html dealt with early Lithuanians in Sydney around the time of the First World War and included the photograph below. I had mentioned that they had written an article to the American Lithuanian newspaper Lietuva, which they are displaying at the base of the photo, and have now tracked down the article which provides some more detail about their lives here.

Lietuva (meaning Lithuania) was published in Chicago from 1892 to 1920. The article from Sydney was published on 16 April 1915 (not in 1914 as previously thought) and sets out what the authors knew about the small number of Lithuanians in Sydney at the time:

• they knew of 21 people in their circle: 9 men (4 of whom were married and one a widower); 6 women and 6 children [we now know that there were in fact more Lithuanian-born people living in or near Sydney at the time];
• they considered their standard of living to be good; six of their number had acquired property (four owned their own homes and two had parcels of land);
• at least six of these community members worked in the tailoring trade where wages ranged from three to six pounds per week; although the wage rates were good, the cost of living was a little higher than in the UK, in particular accommodation rentals, and this was an incentive to acquire property as quickly as possible; 
• the first Lithuanians they knew about had arrived back in 1887; these were Jonas Mickevičius (John McCowage) and his family - see the above post for more details on him. Jonas was the most well-to-do member of the community, having acquired a home near the centre of the city; one of his sons was a successful Sydney greengrocer. Another early immigrant, Stanislovas Urnėžius (Stanley Urniarz) had arrived in 1904 from Manchuria. All the other Lithuanians in this group had arrived more recently from England or Scotland;   
• the authors contended that opportunities for new immigrants were improving as there was a shortage of labour and the standard of living in Australia was better than in other countries; they looked forward to welcoming more Lithuanian immigrants and growing the size of their community.

If you would like to read the full article (in Lithuanian) it is accessible through https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045284/1915-04-16/ed-1/seq-4/#

Armistice Day 1918

Earlier posts on this blog have outlined the stories of the first-generation 'Lithuanian Anzacs', men of various ethnicities who had been born in czarist Russia within the borders of present-day Lithuania in the late 19th century and who served with the First AIF (Australian Imperial Force) during World War I. As we approach the centenary of the end of that war, I thought it would be interesting to look back at where some of them were on Armistice Day 1918.

By the end of the European summer in 1918 it was becoming clear that the Great War was coming to an end and that the Central Powers were near defeat. An armistice with Bulgaria came into effect on 30 September 1918, followed by Turkey a month later, then Austria-Hungary on 3 November and finally Germany on 11 November. Nevertheless, the fighting continued on the Western Front right up until the 11th of November. Reports from the field record an abrupt end to the bombardment at 11am and an eerie sense of numbness, exhaustion and quiet on the front lines. In contrast, celebrations had started earlier in the day in many towns and cities across the world, later followed by bonfires and fireworks near some of the front lines that evening.

Martin Place, Sydney, 11 November 1918

 Lithuanian Anzacs on 11 November 1918

At least 40 'Lithuanian Anzacs' served overseas during World War I and nearly half this number were still in Europe at the end of the war.  Many of their stories have been outlined previously (click on their names below). A summary was also posted earlier [click here].

The longest-serving were Stanislaw Urniarz (Stasys Urniežius) and Militan Schatkowski (also known as Militan Oldham) who had both enlisted four years earlier, in November 1914. On Armistice Day 1918 Private Urniarz was still in the field in northern France, working at the 2nd Australian General Hospital; soon after he was permitted to proceed on furlough to the UK. Private Schatkowski/Oldham had already been in the UK since early 1917 and was working for the Australian Red Cross in London on Armistice Day.

Several of the Lithuanian Anzacs had been wounded on the Western Front and transferred to England by November 1918. Private William Frank Jaks was severely wounded in September and invalided to England; he met Armistice Day at the Reading War Hospital. Private Gerard Skugar, wounded in August, was at the Devonport Military Hospital (Plymouth). Private Leo Gordon was wounded in action for the second time in October and was at the 1st Auxillary Hospital at Harefield on Armistice Day. Private Paul Finn, wounded in action for the third time in August, was in medical repatriation in England. Others in England for medical reasons included privates Harry Cooper, Joe Caplan, Anthony Januski and sapper Ishai Belkind.

Some had suffered wounds but were still active combatants in the field as Armistice Day dawned, including Private Heyman Wolfson (enlisted in 1915, wounded in 1916).

A few were fortunate to meet Armistice Day in the field and to have survived the war without apparent major injury, including: Corporal Emerick Schimkovitch (enlisted in January 1916, in the field in France from October 1916); Private William Kalinowsky/Kalin/Kalinauskas (enlisted September 1916, in the field from December 1917); Driver Joe Ipp (enlisted February 1917, in the field from November 1917); Private Stanley Zygas/Stasys Žygas (enlisted September 1917, in the field from April 1918).

Still others had enlisted late in the war and had been sent overseas but not yet entered the field of battle. David Wishman enlisted in May 1918, disembarked at London at the end of September as a private with the 34th Bn and and was still in the UK on Armistice Day. 


And lastly, there were those who did not survive the war and could not return home. Six men were killed in action or died from wounds received in action:

• Charles Oscar Zander (died 22 August 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, France, no known grave, commemorated at Villers-Bretonneux);
• John Brenka/Brenke (died 23 August 1916 in the Battle of the Somme, France, buried at Boulogne East Cemetery);
• Anthony Puris (died 10 May 1917 in the Somme, France, buried in the vicinity of Noreuil, no known grave, commemorated at Villers-Bretonneux); 
• John Lovriaen (died 20 September 1917 in the Ypres campaign, Belgium, place of burial unknown);
• Franc Matzonas; (died 11 November 1917 in the battles for Beersheba, Palestine, buried at Beersheba War Cemetery (Israel)); and
• David Minor (died 11 May 1918 in northern France, buried at Meteren Military Cemetery).

https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/armistice/62000-Poppies-Display
Handcrafted red poppy flowers on the Australian War Memorial's grounds representing the almost 62,000 Australians who lost their lives during the First World War.

  





  

1941: a 'Lithuanian actress' arrives in Australia

The article below appeared in a Melbourne newspaper in May 1941. It raised a number of questions when I read it recently, in particular how could a Lithuanian woman and her son make their way from Vilna (today known as Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, but from 1922 to 1939 it was known as Vilna having been temporarily annexed by Poland) to Australia during World War Two?  The only organised evacuation from Lithuania and the other Baltic States to Australia that I knew of was that of  the 173 British nationals who arrived on the SS Haitan in December 1940, and the Wajslic family were not part of that group. 

LIFE OF MELBOURNE (1941, May 23). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 6. Retrieved April 23, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8162765

A little while later a search of the web revealed some further details. The National Archives of Australia site showed that Yochweta (also referred to as Yochevet or Jochweta) Wajslic and her son David had arrived on the Suwa Maru in May 1941. Yochweta was born in 1887 in Blonie, Poland (not far from Warsaw) and her nationality was given variously as Lithuanian, Polish, or stateless. David was born in 1922 in Warsaw and his nationality was noted as either Polish or stateless. These archival documents suggested that the family were Polish Jews.

Monash University's accumulated history of 'Yiddish Melbourne' yielded an interesting biography of the Wajslic's husband and father, Jacob Waislitz - also listed elsewhere as Vaislitz or Vayslitz - http://future.arts.monash.edu/yiddish-melbourne/biographies-jacob-yankev-waislitz/. Born in Poland, he was a 'world renowned Yiddish actor and director' who had arrived in Melbourne in January 1938 as part of a world tour of plays and solo performances. He was in Australia when war broke out in 1939, but his wife and son were stranded in Vilnius. Fortunately they were able to escape in 1941 via the Trans Siberian Railway and Japan; Jacob had secured Australian entry visas for them and 'they were able to board the last boat bound for Australia'.

From the information available it appears that this family originated in Poland, as opposed to the disputed Lithuanian-Polish territory of Vilnius. However, both Jacob Waislitz and his wife Yochweta had been members of the Yiddish Vilner Trupe (Vilna Troupe), a theatrical group established in 1916 in Vilnius which later relocated to Warsaw. The Vilner Trupe was highly regarded at the time and had toured Europe and the USA in the 1920s - hence the newspaper's reference to Yochweta as an actress.  Further information on the Vilner Trupe is accessible through the web, for example: http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Vilner_Trupe.

It still isn't clear why Yochveta was described as a 'Lithuanian' actress in the Australian press. Perhaps there was some misunderstanding and someone having come from Vilnius was assumed to be Lithuanian? Perhaps membership of the Vilner Trupe suggested Lithuanian nationality? Another speculative answer may be that Yochweta and David were part of the estimated 15,000 Jewish refugees who made their way from Poland to independent Lithuania in the months after the 1939 German invasion of Poland. They may then have been amongst the six thousand Jews who succeeded in obtaining transit visas from the Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas to enable them to travel by the Trans Siberian Railway to Japan. Sugihara, however, had to leave Kaunas in September 1940, so the timing for the Wajslic family's departure - several months later - doesn't neatly align with this hypothesis. Perhaps someone knows the answer?