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.   

    

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/#

Sydney Lithuanians, 1934

This photo, courtesy of Metraštis No 1 (p15), is of participants at the 1934 Lithuanian Independence Day celebrations in Sydney, organised by the Australian Lithuanian Society:

Presidents of the Society included:

• Jonas Vedrinaitis (John Wedrien): 1929-31;
• Antanas Bauže: 1933-36;
• Jonas Vedrinaitis: 1937-38;
• Kazys Brazauskas (Key Braz): 1939; and
• Antanas Bauže: 1940-50. 

Luda Popenhagen (Australian Lithuanians, p22) records that:

The Honorary Latvian Consul, J McLeod, who was British by birth, was also the official representative of the Lithuanian government in Australia.  Consul McLeod and his wife began attending the Lithuanian Independence Day celebrations in 1934, and continued to be popular guests of honour.  From 1937 onwards the Estonian House in Sydney's city centre was used, as it was close to public transport and contained an auditorium suitable for banquets and concerts.

Popenhagen also provides this snapshot of the economic situation of Australian Lithuanians during the Great Depression [presumably based on Australian Lithuanian Society member records]:

• 23% were wage or salary earners;
• 14% were self-employed;
• 11% were employers;
• 12% were unemployed;
• 40% were not in the workforce

(source: J. Kunca 'Lithuanians' in J. Jupp (ed) The Australian people; an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins, 2001, p570)  

Sydney Lithuanians, 1914

This photo (courtesy of Metraštis No. 1, p14) is captioned 'a group of early Lithuanians on a picnic':

The same photo was reproduced in Luda Popenhagen's Australian Lithuanians and titled 'Lithuanian Australians picknicking in Sydney c. 1914, holding Lietuva, the American Lithuanian newspaper which published articles about Lithuanian migrants in Australia'.

We know that John Wedrien (Jonas Vedrinaitis) and Alexander (Ksaveras) Skierys had written an article to Lietuva, which was published on 16 April 1915; see the posts of 5 March and 12 March 2015 for their stories, and that of 14 June 2019 for more about the article they wrote.

I'm confident the man on the far left of the photo is John Wedrien and that the man sitting in the front row (looking down) is Alexander Skierys.

It would be great to identify the ladies and the other two men in this photo.

Perhaps one of the other men was Jonas Mickevičius (known as John McCowage in Sydney)?

Metraštis No 1 (p8) recounts a few elements of Mickevičius' story as told by John Wedrien:

• he arrived in 1887 from the UK with his wife and one child, together with two other Lithuanian men.  The two other men soon returned to London;

• his wife, who according to Vedrinaitis was the first Lithuanian woman to have set foot on Australia, died after 10 years here;

• Jonas had met no other Lithuanians in Australia until a chance encounter with Vedrinaitis at a Sydney market in 1913 or 1914;

• he operated a greengrocer's shop.

Other Lithuanians who were living in Sydney at that time included:

• Jonas Balaika;
• Aleksandras Daukantas;
• Antanas Juknaitis;
• Petras (Peter) Kairaitis and his brother Vincas (Bill) Kairaitis;
• Petras Kazlauskas;
• Pranas Maciunas (Franc Matzonas); and
• Stasys Urniežius (Stanislaus Urniarz)

John Wedrien

Jonas Vedrinaitis/John Wedrien
(source: Metrastis No. 1)

John Wedrien was well-known in Sydney for 40 years. He was a tailor and a keen amateur fisherman. He was also the first president of the Australian Lithuanian Society (in Lithuanian - Australijos Lietuvių Draugija), formed in 1929 in Sydney.

Born in Kudirkos Naumiestis around 1885, he emigrated to Manchester, England, near the end of the nineteenth century where he entered the tailoring trade. He later moved to Scotland and to Australia in 1913, settling in Sydney, New South Wales.

Wedrien's exact Lithuanian surname is unclear, being given as Vedrinaitis (Bauže, 1955) and Viedrinaitis (Metraštis No. 1, 1961); I will use the first variation.

Advertisement in Sydney's French language press
'Le Courrier Australien', 1932 (source: Trove)

Metraštis No. 1 records that Vedrinaitis had left Lithuania for Manchester aged 13 in the company of Izidorius Petraitis, a tailor; presumably he was apprenticed to him. Vedrinaitis is said to have returned to Lithuania when called up for the Russian army as he was concerned he would forfeit his inheritance (two farms) if he did not show up. As it turned out, he was rejected due to his short stature and he then returned to Manchester.

The 1911 Census of England and Wales shows that John Wedrinaitis, a tailor aged 25, single, was a resident of Manchester at that time. He was boarding with his two brothers, Joe aged 23 and Antony aged 21; Joe was a cabinet maker, while Antony was also a tailor. All three are listed as born in Lithuania and of Lithuanian nationality. The younger brother, listed as Anthony Weidrenitos, went on to serve in the Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment from 1914 to 1920, receiving the Victory Medal at the end of World War One. He died in Manchester in 1943.

Jonas Vedrinaitis arrived in Sydney from Bremen with his wife Eva in March 1913 aboard the German passenger ship Friedrich der Grosser (they are shown on the passenger list as Mr and Mrs John Weddrien). He had a friend, Ksavieras Skierys, already living in Sydney, who took them in and helped Jonas find a job. Very soon after arriving in Australia, Vedrinaitis took out a subscription to the American Lithuanian periodical 'Lietuva" and wrote an article for that newspaper about Lithuanians in Australia which was published in 1915.

Antanas Bauže wrote an obituary for Vedrinaitis following his accidental death in March 1955; he had gone fishing with a friend on Botany Bay and presumably drowned when their dinghy capsized during a storm on the night of March 3. His body was only recovered 5 days later. Jonas left behind his wife Eva, daughter Agnieška (Agnes), and sons Antanas (Anthony) and Juozas (Joseph); he was buried at the Woronora catholic cemetery in Sydney.

Expenses for a 1931 social function while Wedrien
was President of the Society (source: Metrastis No. 1) 

Bauže knew Vedrinaitis and his family well; both had been active in the Sydney Lithuanian community. Vedrinaitis was well-established in Arncliffe, Sydney, with his own home as well as a tailoring business. He was president of the Australian Lithuanian Society 1929-31 and 1937-38.

The inaugural meeting of the Australian Lithuanian Society was held on 27 October 1929 at John Wedrien's home, East Street, Arncliffe. I'll cover that organisation's story in a later blog post.



Sources: Obituary for Jonas Vedrinaitis by Antanas Bauže in Mūsų Pastogė, 23 March 1955; Metraštis No. 1; Ancestry.com (UK records, ship's passenger list).

What's in a name?

When I was growing up in Adelaide I was well aware that some Lithuanian DP families had shortened their surnames after arrival in Australia in order to make them easier to pronounce in a society and culture dominated by English speakers. For example:

• Stasiškis became Statkus;
• Vasiliauskas became Vaskas;
• Venslovavičius became Vens.

First name simplifications (Antanas to Anton, Pranas to Frank, etc) were even more common. I went through the Australian educational system being known as John rather than Jonas. It was only later that I realised there was also an economic dimension to such name changes; your competitiveness in the jobs marketplace is improved if you have a more local-sounding name.

What was also clear was the fact that many families chose not to dilute their identity and used their 'difficult' Lithuanian names in both the confines of the Lithuanian community and in wider society.

Early Lithuanians and name changes

As with the DPs, many of their predecessors also chose to simplify or anglicise their names. Some did so in Australia, others while they were resident in Britain, North America or elsewhere before arrival in Australia:

Kazys (Key) and Jadvyga Brazauskas (Braz), Sydney
 (source: Metrastis No. 1)

• Stasys Žygas became Stanley Zygas;
• Aisikas Segalis became Isaac Segal; and
• Kazys Brazauskas became Key Braz.

However, the pattern of name changes for early Lithuanians seems broader. There was likely more pressure on them to assimilate or disguise their cultural identity:

• Jonas Vedrinaitis became John Wedrien;
• Zigmas Baltrušaitis became Sid Bolt.

Jonas Vedrinaitis/John Wedrien, Sydney
(source: Metrastis No.1)

Others made more wholesale changes:

• Jonas Zeleniakas became John Green;
• Kazys Astrauskas became Charles Ashe;
• Juozas Plaušinis became Joe Miller;
• Zale Zapolski became Levi Zalman;
• Lozoraitis became Brown, Petraitis became Patrick, Ruzga became Ross.

Further complications for the amateur historian arise when people are known by or use several variations of a surname, for example:

• Piliulis/Paliulis/Phillules;
• Mikėnas/Makeness/Mekenass;
• Čepkauskas/Capouski/Cepkouski.

Also, even without simplified or anglicised names, some people alternated their names depending on the cultural context they were in:

• Max Lipschus (a german name) from Memel/Klaipeda was known to the Lithuanian community as Maksas Lipšius;
• Stanislaus Urniarz (a polish name) from Vilnius was known as Stasys Urniežius.