Savickas Cross and Jasilionis Building, Gikoniai, Pakruojo, Šiauliai, Lithuania

Not far from the Savickas windmill, near the village of Gikoniai in Pakruojo, Šiauliai, Lithuania, is the Savickas cross:

Above:  Savickas cross, photo by Osvaldas Guokas, 2 June 2017.

Below:  southeast segment of map of Gikoniai in 1940 from the 1995 memories of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė, highlighting the Savickas cross (at the top of the red box) and sites of properties owned by Fulgentas Jasilionis, marked Pulgio Jasilionio (at the bottom of the red box).

In the map of circa-1940 Gikoniai above (see my earlier post), the mill is shown near the top of the red square, where two roads intersect to form an upside-down Y.  There's also an arrow pointing to it, and the words, "pilišavas kryzius," which roughly translates to "citizens cross."  Here is a close-up of the words carved into the lower part of the cross: 

Above:  Savickas cross, photo by Osvaldas Guokas, 2 June 2017.

Here is a transcription of the Lithuanian words on the cross:

"Gikonių kaimo žmonės, šioje vietoje 1901 m. pastatė kryžių‘"

"Šis atminimo kryžius skirtas Gikonių kaimui, Agotos ir Mykolo Savickų šeimai atminti."

This roughly translates to:

"People of the village of Gikoniai, in this place in 1901 erected a cross''

"This memorial cross is dedicated to the village of Gikoniai, in memory of the Agota and Mykolas Savickas family.''  

This Mykolas (born c.1900) is the son of the Mykolas Savickas who built the windmill I wrote about in my previous post, and is my fourth cousin twice  removed.  His wife was Agota Žukauskaitė Savickienė (born c.1910).  This is not the original cross, but rather a new one placed here in 2013.

Nearby are the remnants of a building owned by Fulgentas Jasilionis (1892-AFT 1948), who I am related to by marriage.  My great-grandfather's first wife was a Jasilionis; his second wife was a Banaitis - as was the mother of Fulgentas.  Fulgentas and his family were exiled to Siberia by the Soviets (more on that in a future post), and Fulgentas died in exile.

Fulgentas operated a milk collection point.  The remnants of that and his home are indicated on the map above respectively by a triangle with a dot inside it, and a circle with an X inside it (meaning the house was destroyed), and the name "Pulgio Jasilionio."

Below:  outline of the stone foundation of a building owned by Fulgentas Jasilionis, photo by Osvaldas Guokas, June 2, 2017.

My third cousin Osvaldas Guokas, who took all these photos, said this building appeared to have had two doors.  He also said, "I found an undergound entrance. But it is dangerous to go in. I did not enter inside the undergound area.  Fulgentas Jasilionis had a milk purchasing base.  I think he used the undergound area as a milk warehouse."

Above and below:  a cornerstone of the stone foundation of a building owned by Fulgentas Jasilionis, where there appears to be an entrance to an underground area.  Photo by Osvaldas Guokas, June 2, 2017.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

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 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 Čelkiai 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 hectares, 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!

Memories for Mother's Day

This isn't specifically a memory about Mother's Day, but it is a memory of my mom.  The photo below of my mother, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape (1928-2019), was taken sometime in early 1968, at Camp Robinwood near Willis, Texas.  My Junior Girl Scout troop had gone there for a weekend camping trip, and Mom came along to help.  I don't think camping was one of Mom's favorite things, but she did it anyway, to support me and my troop.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

April 8, 2024: Eclipse Experience

The total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, was a special one for me, as I got to spend it with my husband Mark and with my children, Eric (on the left) and Diane (on the right in the photo below, taken by Mark).

My husband and I are fortunate to live in the path of totality for the eclipse.  Despite pessimistic weather forecasts, we lucked out and had a beautiful blue sky day, with only a few high thin clouds, and warm-but-not-hot weather.

After a brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and orange juice, the kids spread out old sheets in our backyard as totality approached. They wore eclipse glasses that my parents (their grandparents) had worn for the August 2017 partial eclipse in our state. This photo was taken at fifteen minutes to totality.

Here are a couple photos Diane took on her iPhone of the partial eclipse:

They also spent some time looking at the crescent-shaped shadows the eclipse made among tree leaf shadows.  Eric took the next two pictures at roughly the same spot, before and after totality - you can see how the direction of the crescent changes:

My husband has had three eye surgeries and has lost some vision in his right eye, so he chose not to wear eclipse glasses nor look at the sun during totality, instead enjoying the eerie darkness and peaceful quiet of two-plus minutes of totality from our back porch.  This was also my favorite part of the whole experience.

After the eclipse, the kids looked at some photos of their Finnish grandmother and her ancestors, that Diane had copied at their first-cousin-once-removed's home a few weeks earlier.

The night before, my kids got a kick out of some old furniture from their childhood that I still have in our house.  The kitchen table they grew up with is now my work table in the study. My parents bought it for me for my first apartment for grad school in 1979. They remarked on how small it was. Worked okay for two parents and two little kids 10 and under though.

The desk is the one my first Macintosh sat on in the living room when they were little.  (I'm probably going to sell this at an upcoming garage sale - they are both so tall that the desk is difficult to use, especially with a laptop.)  The chair is actually originally from Incarnate Word Academy in Houston, one of four my parents gave me to go around the kitchen table in 1979.

Diane was only able to spend a short time in Texas.  She flew into Houston on Saturday and rented a car to drive up here.  She was able to visit my 93-year-old aunt, her great aunt, Sister Jean Marie Guokas, on both Saturday and on Tuesday before she flew home.

Eric was able to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth on April 3 (to be here for my birthday the next day), and will be flying out of there this Saturday (April 13) on his way to a work convention in Las Vegas.  He took this great photograph of downtown Dallas near sunset on his arrival.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Happy Easter - 60 Years Ago!

Easter in 1964 was on March 29.  We visited my aunt, Sister Jean Marie Guokas, at Bishop Byrne High School in Port Arthur, Texas, where she was principal at the time.  You can just barely see my pregnant-with-sister-Mary mother, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape (1928-2019), in the yellow dress at the rear, with Sister Jean Marie.  I'm wearing a pink dress and blue sweater that my grandmother Elizabeth Florence Massmann Pape (1902-2000) knitted for me.  Just ahead of me is my brother Mark.  In the front are my sister Karen (holding the duck) and my brother Brian (holding the rabbit).

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My sweetie and I on May 13, 2006, the day I received my Master of Science in Library Science degree from the University of North Texas.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Dad Would've Been 95 Today

My dad, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017), the family dog Lucky, and his uncle and godfather, Walter "Walt" Francis Pape (1900-1975), outside Fred's family home at 2093 W. Lunt Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, about 1944 - so 80 years ago. 

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!