Savickas Windmill near Gikoniai, Pakruojo, Šiauliai, Lithuania

There's an old stone tower windmill in Gikoniai, called the Savickas mill.  It was built in the late 19th century (it appears on an 1896 map) by Mykolas Savickas (c1859-1919), who is my third cousin thrice removed.

Above:  Savickas mill, by Osvaldas Guokas, 2 June 2017.

Below:  southeast segment of map of Gikoniai in 1940 from the 1995 memories of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė, highlighting in red the Savickas mill (center of the red box).

In the map of circa-1940 Gikoniai above (see my previous post), the mill is shown in the center of the red square, near the name "Juozo Savicka."  Mykolas Savickas had four sons; at least two of them (Juozapas and Mykolas Jr.) survived to adulthood and married.  The present-day location of the mill can be better seen on a satellite image.

The image below is of the mill in the 1960s, when it appears to have still been in operation.  The mill took about 10 years to build, with about a meter of masonry added each year.  The stones were plastered over, and the cap is made of wood.

Above:  Savickas mill in the 1960s

Below:  Savickas mill, by Osvaldas Guokas, 2 June 2017.

Above:  Savickas mill, by Osvaldas Guokas, 2 June 2017,

More information about the windmill, including additional pictures, inside and out, is available here:  https://malunai.lt/malunas.php?malunas_id=172.

A 3D model of the windmill is available here:  https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/gikoniai-windmill-eda74d6e555043feb554567c3dcd4af3.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Gikoniai, Pakruojo district municipality, Šiauliai county, Lithuania - Maps for 1924 and 1940

Some years ago, my third cousin Osvaldas Guokas sent me some maps of the Lithuanian villages where our ancestors and kinfolk were from.  One of those was Gikoniai, a village on the east bank of the Daugyvenė river, seven kilometers south of the town of Rozalimas.  Just east of Gikoniai is ČelkiaiČelkiai village, the birthplace of my great-grandfather Charles (Kazimieras) Guokas, 1863-1939, and many of my Guokas relatives

The 1923 census recorded 30 homes in the area with a population of 148.  Below is a 1924 map of the area (click on the image to view a larger version), showing landowners (surname first) and the amount of land they owned (in hectareshectares, abbreviated ha.).  I am related (albeit distantly, and usually not by blood) to almost everyone on this map.

The map below (click on the image to make it larger) was drawn in 1995, of Gikoniai in 1940, based on the memories of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė (1934-2018), who is my second cousin once removed.  Aldona shared many photographs and other information with Osvaldas and me before her death in April 2018.

Aldona was the daughter of Steponas Radauskas (1899-1944), whose land was in the upper left hand corner of the maps (shown as Radausko Stepano in 1924 and Stepano Radausko in 1940).  He was the son of my great-grandfather's sister,  Agota Guokaitė Radauskienė (1861-1942), and inherited the property from his mother after her death.  Aldona lived on this property for some time during her childhood.  It is near the Daugyvenė river and a forest with, according to Osvaldas, "the wonderful name Mėlynbalos miškas - Blue swamp forest."

The map has a legend (sutartiniai ženklai) in the lower right corner.  It shows surviving homesteads (išlikusios sodybos), homesteads destroyed by the Soviets (panoikintos sodybos), and new homesteads (naujos sodybos), such as the one with the note "perkettos ir perstatytas Bernardo Radausko nemas," which indicates Bernardas Radauskas' house was moved and rebuilt there.  Bernardas Radauskas (born 1861 in Gikoniai), is the father of the famous Lithuanian poet Henrikas Radauskas (1910-1970).  That fact is noted on the 1940 map on Bernardas' original property ("Bernardo Radausko poeto Henriko Radausko tevo").  The house on the original property was not completely destroyed; it was in good enough condition to be moved and rebuilt.

Osvaldas also tells me that, because there were so many people with the same surnames (and sometimes the same given names), the villagers used nicknames for daily communications.  A couple examples are on the 1940 map.  Justinas Radauskas (1896-1977, Justo Radausko on the map), the father of sculptor Elvyra Radauskaitė (more on her in a future post), was called "Martyniuko" or "Martyniukas" (his father's name was Martynas).  Another Justinas Radauskas (Justino Radausko on the map, perhaps the son of Agota and Steponas' brother) was called "Bauko" or "Baukas."

There are a number of crosses indicated on the 1940 map.  Many are gone now, but one that has been added since can be seen in Google Maps Street View on Radauskas property near the intersection with the road that crosses the river and goes into the village of Plaučiškiai.  There will be more about crosses and bridges in future posts.

Other places identified in the legend are roads (keliai, keleliai), chapels (kapeliai), a milk skimming [or collection] point (pieno nugriebmo puntkas), and a [wind]mill (malūnas).  The latter two will be the subjects of future posts.

It is amazing how the Soviet regime changed the village. Today there are only a few houses in Gikoniai.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Utėnai, Smilgiai parish, Panevėžys district municipality, Lithuania

My daughter will be leaving soon on a trip to the Baltic countries, so I wanted to post these previously-unshared photos from Lithuania taken by my third cousin Osvaldas Guokas (her third cousin once removed), of our ancestral village of Utėnai, two kilometers southeast of Smilgiai and in Smilgiai parish, and part of Panevėžys district municipality.  

Some of our Guokas ancestors were from Utėnai, with marriages in the late 1700s, births particularly between 1807 and 1819, and deaths in the 1820-1853 range (including my third great-grandfather, Antanas Guokas, in 1820).  By 1852, our ancestor Jonas Guokas (my second great-grandfather) had moved to Čelkiai, about nine kilometers northwest of Smilgiai, where his 12th (of 18!) child, my great-grandfather Kazimieras (later Charles) Guokas, was born in 1863.

Osvaldas visited in early June, 2017, and took the following pictures.  Of the first four, he wrote that he found "old wooden houses....19th century.  It's like my grandparents' house; memories from childhood. Flowers like near the house of my grandma, white windows, doors with a strange mechanism that was very difficult to use in childhood....[you] can see an outhouse near the house [to the right in the background in the first photo]....no toilets inside the house in those times.  An old woman, that I met in this house, let me take some photos. She says that one old Guokas is still living in an old house in the Utėnai area."

Osvaldas also visited a cemetery in Utėnai.  He wrote, "It is very old, with only two crosses we can see in the cemetery. It is small...we can see stones around the cemetery territory."

"One [above]- Narakas (surname), 1901.  Another [below] -  Dominykas, I can read it only with my fingers. It is some surname but it was impossible to understand."

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Memories for Father's Day

This isn't specifically a memory about Father's Day, but it is a memory of my dad.  The photo below is from a visit my parents made to our home in Redmond, Washington, in October 1990.  My father, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017), is reading to his first two grandchildren, my son Eric (who's a little over age four in this photo) and my daughter Diane (who is about 19 months old here).  

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!