I am researching my Lithuanian ancestry. My maternal grandfather, John Puchis son of James Puchis an
He had 3 brothers: Alexander, William and Vincent who also lived in the US. He married my grandmother, Catherine Karpicz February 27, 1908. She also came from Lithuania the daughter of Michael Karpicz and Eva Bazutis. She had a brother, Stanley and a sister, Constance. Stanley emigrated to South America, Constance to the US. That’s about all I know of my Lithuanian family, I would love to know more.
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Do you have any documents with a place name in Lithuania they came from? Naturalization records? It is very important. People with surnames Puchis (Pucys, Pučys) and Karpicz (Karpičius) were living around Varėna and Valkininkai. Just guesing.
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Unfortunately I have nothing, only a memory of my mother telling me that her parents came from a small village near Vilnius. Both of your suggestions seem to fill that bill. I know from census records that my grandfather came to to US in 1900 or 1906 (conflicting records) and my grandmother in 1905.
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I found Stanley Pucis (Putkewitz Stanislaw) naturalization record in 1913 or 1911 in Philadelphia. He came from Olkiniki (=Valkininkai) in Russia at that time. I am trying to send it to you.
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Thank you for doing this. We don’t have a Stanley in our Puchis family. John, my grandfather, his brothers: Alexander, William and Vincent.
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Where in the US did your family settle? There are large groups of Lithuanian immigrants in certain states. I've been researching a Lithuanian family that settled in Connecticut. Knowing where to look can help you find records more easily.
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Thank you for your interest. My grandfather, John Puchis (1882-1946) immigrated in the early 1900’s. According to the 1910 census he came in 1900, the 1920 census has 1904 and the 1930 census 1906. He was married in 1908 at Our Lady of Vilnius church in Lower Manhattan, NYC. In 1910 he was living on Osborn St. in Brooklyn, NY. His older brother, Alexander Puchis lived in Mercer County, NJ in 1920.
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Hello!
As Virginija mentioned earlier, it looks like we'll need to find the hometown in Lithuania first before we start diving into researching records. Have you located naturalization or immigration documents for John or any of his siblings? Those documents can often provide some clues about where exactly they came from.
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No, I don’t have anything on my ancestors immigration other than conflicting data (year of entry) from different census records.
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According to the 1930 census, John Puchis had filed first papers, or an intention to become a citizen. There are collections of these naturalization papers in FamilySearch and Ancestry. I'll try looking for his, they should have the name of the city he came from. If you can find his World War I Draft Registration card, it also might have the town where he was born. With that information, you can start looking at parish records in Lithuania to find his birth records and other family members.
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I found a WWI draft registration card for John on Ancestry. It was indexed as John Preches, but I believe it is him. Unfortunately it doesn't ask for his birthplace. He checked the box that he had filed first papers.
I found one for Alexander, his brother, it just gives Russo-Poland as his nationality with no birthplace.
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I think, I found the place. Troky (Polish), Trakai (Lithuanian).
Trakai [Lith], Troki [Pol, Rus], Trok [Yid], Traken [Ger], Trakay, Troki Nowe, Troki Nove, Novyye Troki
Russian: Троки. 16 miles WSW of Vilnius (Vilna).
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Trakia, 16 miles SW of Vilnius. This was found on a WWI draft registration for one of his brothers.
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Great!
There are some indexed records for Trakai (Troki in Polish) on the Polish indexing site Geneteka. The records are only for a limited time frame that's a bit early, so you may need to save that for future research. In the meantime, there are some church records available through FamilySearch. I'm guessing if they were married at Our Lady of Vilnius Church, they were Catholic? The Catholic records are not indexed and will need to be browsed page by page.
Another thing to be aware of, is that Trakai was both a town and a district, so it's possible that they were from even another town within Trakai district.
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