The Name Game

All genealogists play the name game.  Multiple spellings of our surnames is fairly common.  My great grandfather came from Lithuania with a relatively easy last name. Dausin.  Well, perhaps not that easy.

I have seen so many spellings that I started a spreadsheet to keep track of the various spellings.  Lithuanians add a suffix to the root of their last name which identifies whether the individual is a man,  a married woman, or an unmarried daughter. (See a great explanation here by John Peters, a genealogist who helped many Lithuanian Americans over their brick walls.)

I added the date and source to my spreadsheet; when looking for a new record I usually start my search with the spellings closest to the date of the new source.

	First	Last	Date	Source
1	Joel	Dauzin	1897	Naturalization paper
2	Julias	Dausaunas	1890	Sister Beth's papers
3	Julijonas	Dausinas	1902	Marriage register (Church)
	Julionas	Daunsinos	1902	Marriage license & certificate
4	Julijani	Dausinas	1903	Daughter Bronislava Haimi (?) baptism record
5	Juligan	Dauzen	1904	Son Boleslav's birth certificate
6	Julijano	Dausinas	1904	Son Bolieslaum's baptism record
7	Julius	Dausen	1907	Joseph's birth certificate
8		Dausinas	1904	Boleslav baptism record
9	Julius	Doosen	1910	Census
10	Julius	Dowsen	1918	WWI Draft Registration
11	Julius	Dausen	1941	Anthony's birth certificate
12	Julius	Dausinis	1943	Edward's birth certificate
13	Julius	Dausenas	1952	Death certificate
14		Dausinas	1967	Paulina's death certificate

Turns out, that wasn't enough. Several databases, like Cook County's genealogy site,  let you put in the soundex code. Since most of the spellings had the same sound, I felt they would all have the same soundex code.  Generally speaking, the table below bears that out.  250 without the suffix and 252 with it.  Again, I used a spreadsheet but there are several good soundex converters that will do the work for you.

D	A	U	S	I	N	AS
	O	U	Z	E		IS
		W		AU
		O
D			2		5	2	0	Soundex

That just one of the many name games I've played to find information about my great grandfather.  He didn't leave a lot of information behind.  I'm still searching to find his entry to the US (around 1892) and any information regarding his origins in Lithuania. 

Till next time, keep the blue side up ... Lynn

I Didn't See That Coming ... Szilala, Šilalė, and Chelele

One of my key research projects is to discover where my Lithuanian ancestors came from. OK, yes, they're from Lithuania. But I'd like to narrow it down to a town or village. I'd love to find relatives in Lithuania.

My last name, Dawson, is an Anglicized version of the Lithuanian name Dausinas. The root name is Dausin; the suffix as indicates it is a man's name. Dausinaite is the version an unmarried woman would use, Dausinene would be used by a woman who married a Dausinas.

After years of research I found that my first cousin twice removed, Anton John Dawson (b. 1892) stated on his WWI draft registration that he was born in Szilala, Kuna, Russia.  Of course this was not easy to learn. The version posted on ancestry.com was nearly impossible to read.
 

 I requested a copy from the National Archives and received the following:

Ah, much better. Unfortunately I was unable to find this town on a map of Lithuania so I posted a query on the Lithuanian Genealogy Yahoo Group.  It took no time for this august group to tell me that Szilala is Šilalė, Lithuania.  Š is pronounced Sz.

I spent another year researching distant relatives and found that my Great Great Aunt Ana or Ona Dausinaite's husband Frank Rasckauskas/Raczkowski said he was from Chelele, Russia in his Declaration of Intent to become a citizen. I assessed they were married in Lithuania because I can't find a marriage certificate for them in any of the Chicago Roman Catholic Churches.

These are the only documents I have that provide a Lithuanian hometown.

When I was in Lithuania in 2012, I had dinner with Dalija, a woman I met via her on-line family tree.  We have a common ancestral surname (not Dawson). When I showed her the two documents, she said, " Szilala, Šilalė, and Chelele are the same place." There is no doubt, I didn't see that coming!

It may seem obvious as you read this, but these two documents were among hundreds of documents I had studied. Doh!  I couldn't see that Chelele was a phonetic spelling of Šilalė.  You could have knocked me over with a feather. 

Since then, Dalija and her friend Vaclava found Anton's father's marriage registration and were able to confirm this location.  I still haven't found relatives but I will continue my search.

Till next time, keep the blue side up ... Lynn

Flying Cousin

This weekend I combined my two hobbies, flying and genealogy, when my husband Steve and I flew to Richmond, Virginia to visit my second cousin Joe.  Joe is one of many cousins I know only because I'm a genealogist.

A little background.  My parent are both only-children.  That means I have no aunts, no uncles, no first cousins.  Both my mom and dad moved away from home when they graduated from college in the Midwest. Independently they chose jobs located in sunny California and met while they were working for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. Later they moved to New Orleans, which I call home. 

How Joe and I are related.  Although both sets of grandparents visited us every year, we were so removed from family that we rarely met any great-aunts/uncles or cousins.  While growing up, I heard stories about my paternal grandfather's brother, Uncle Lawrence, and his wife, Aunt Ragna, in Chicago.  In the 1960s and 1970s it was too expensive for our family of seven to visit so we didn't really know them. 

In the course of my family research, my dad suggested I contact Uncle Lawrence's daughters, Doris and Christine, who still live near Chicago as they may have more family information than he does. His suggestion paid off and eventually we realized a visit was in order.  In 2007 my dad and I went to Chicago for several days and I can't begin to tell you how much fun it was.  My Dad and I along with Doris and Christine and their husbands, Marion and Mike, chased down church records and tombstones. While I was in Chicago, I briefly met Doris and Marion's son Joe, my second cousin.  

Flying to Richmond. My dad emailed to let me know that Joe is temporarily working in Richmond which is 95 miles or 1:50 driving time from my home in Madison, Virginia.  My husband Steve and I decided that instead of driving, we'd fly to the Richmond/Ashland Airport in Hanover County (KOPF) - just 13 miles from Joe's hotel. 

It was such a beautiful day, we took two airplanes.  Steve flew his 1946 Globe Swift and I flew my 1957 Cessna 172.  When we arrived, I took Joe for a sight-seeing flight over King's Dominion Amusement Park. Their 1/3 replica of the Eiffel Tower is so large that it's on the aviation sectional map as a landmark (see chart below).

We lunched at Bass Pro (yes, they have an excellent sea food restaurant) while I grilled Joe about his family to fill in blanks in my database. 

The flight from our home airport, Culpeper County (KCJR) to Hanover County is just over 50 miles - under 30 minutes in the Cessna. Even adding in time to drive to the airport (25 min) and do a pre-flight inspection on the plane (20-30 min), we still saved about a hour (round trip) and significantly increased the joy factor. 

I learned everything I hoped for and Joe surprised me with a few new stories. All in all, a perfect day.

Till next time, keep the blue side up ... Lynn