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).

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).