Surnames?

I've been doing my family's history for over ten years.

Names were more fluid in the past than they are now. My last name can, was, spelled a variety of ways including starting with a G instead of a J and at one point in changed twice in three generations.

Were the documents written or typed? An A can often look like a U or vice versa. I had cursed many a sloppy census taker. (One in Pittsburgh spelled my father's first name, BEN, as REN.)


Douskurt.
Dauskurt. Only one letter difference here.

Duskart. This looks like official sloppiness.

Have you been able to find your g-grandfather's parents? If not, are there any more clues in that bible that some who reads Lithuanian could help you decipher? (My wife's family is full of people who were born in places which have changed from Poland to Russia a few times. I got a nice Polish guy to help me with the local spellings of the town names.)

At least you have a lot to go on, do searchs under all the spellings and see what you find.


Joe (or Jhoe or Gehn or Jo or Choi)Nation

Hi Joe...

I've been working on mine since 92'/93'. When I first started his name was all I had to go on, and still stuck there.

I can't find his parents...or siblings.

All the documents were handwritten, except the documentation of his death, it was typed.

The Bible is tucked away at an Uncle's home, who are in the process of moving, so the likelihood of getting them to dig it out again is slim to none. When they brought the Bible out a couple of years ago to go through it for me, three pieces of the puzzle that I needed they didn't bother to get. (The publishing company, year, and any other writing on the Bible)

I have made hundreds of searches on the spelling of his name w/every available variation.....sometimes I get a hit, sometimes I don't. I have been registered with JewishGen...among several other Lithuanian organizations that work on genealogy for years now, and still nothing.

I do know this....

On the Census it listed his mothers native tongue as "Anabai" and his fathers native tongue as "Rusha"...both birthplaces were listed as Russia. Now again, the spelling comes into play, thats the best I can make out of what was written.

And another slap is the fact that the story was told that Stanley come over with either two sisters or two brothers, they were stow-aways on a ship. So, if thats the truth...then there wouldn't be a record of them entering into the country.

He sopposedly settled in Chicago...w/both siblings. If he arrived here in 1901, my Grandfather was born here in 1910, so somewhere between 1901 and 1909..he made his way into Arkansas...therefore no census records covering those years...lol

Then...lol, with the fact that there are only a handful of relatives alive with that given name(I think 5) , that even increases the chance of the story of it being sisters that travelled here with him because of no others with that last name.

And...if they were from Russia...we have the spelling variants on the last names due to sex.........

I'll probably never figure it out..........LOL

BTW, I've wondered if he wasn't French to start with...someone told me once that it was a possiblity with the last name...?????

If you know where he came in, you can find some ship manifests and see if his name is there. I found my great grandfather on a ship to Ellis Island -- twice. Once to work, the other time to bring his family. His name, fairly straight forward, had variations in spelling due to the fact that he didn't read or write. So he told the people at immigration his name, and they wrote it down as best they could.

If he came in at Ellis Island, you can visit there and look him up. Sounds like you could use a trip.

Luckily I don't have any Lithuanians in my lines because EVERY single person I know that does has run into the exact same problem you have.

I don't think the name is derived from French. It sounds more Germanic and/or Russian.

MMS, you've probably already seen this site, but I thought this list of surnames was interesting. http://www.lithuaniangenealogy.org/databases/surnames/surnames.html?letter=D

One there, Dauksa (Dauksas) looked close. The site has other good information too. What a fascinating mystery!

I can imagine coming up with Descartes, but not easily.

I have this same problem, nobody seems to exist with my dad's last name (my maiden name) past my great-grandfather. My father-in-law has been doing some really good genealogical research (he started with his family, then his wife's, now is doing mine because it's a challenge and for sozlet, his granddaughter). He managed to find a hand-written census from around the same time you're talking about (1910, maybe), where our current last name was written but so badly that it was typed, for computer records, as something COMPLETELY different. He sent me an image of the original census (fascinating!!!) if you squint you can see both.

They weren't Lithuanian but probably similar issues/ problems -- we know they were in Russia, but it's not a particularly Russian name and the family probably stopped there from somewhere else -- but we don't know WHERE.

Farmerman, at this point...lol, I'd take anything.....



Freeduck...they tell that he was a stow-away....but I'm not even sure about that one either...lol



I've seen that one in there...have wondered about it, maybe I oughta go back and snoop some more around it.




Osso...Funny you say that! I have come up with that name before.....


The closest that I have come is Dysert, I have found where three siblings come through a port....two older sisters, one younger brother, all together. But the mans first name isn't anything similiar to my GGF's....so haven't went any further with that one.

And I have found a Stanley Dauszkurt before, that showed him as a Coal Miner. I need to go find that record again...he was off in another state. But my GGF died with Coal Miners TB....could be that they are the same man.

Sozobe...isn't it frustrating!! It is to me...to want to figure out your lineage and can't get past a GGF...

My other lineage, I have waaaaaaay back, not a problem if I stumble somewhere along the line, because I have so much of it anyways.

But this one man!! LOL, I just keep coming back.....

If he was a coal miner then check Pennsylvania. At that time, there was massive immigration there from all over Europe (my GGF came at that time to Pittsburgh) to work in the mines. And from PA to Chicago is a sort of natural progression.

I'm trying...lol, wouldn't ya know the moment that I want something, I can't find it....I should've saved it....

Have you looked into old Latin and/or ancient Greek etymologies?

>raising eyebrows< Hummmmm......interesting. Thanks for the idea...will do that.



Thank you....

I have finished doing the research. His last name was "Smith".

If his bible was Lithuanean, the reasonable inferrence is that he came from the Baltic. Surnames got terribly mangled by immigration officials, so most of the varients you've mentioned probably don't mean too much. The name inscribed in the bible is probably close.

So, center your search on the Baltic and run close varients on the inscribed name. Keep us informed of your progress.

Yea..uhh huh Nick...lol, that would probably be easier than trying to find this needle in a haystack!




Thanks Asherman...I will try that also...

Its sad how mangled surnames were after their arrival. The other sad part to this story is he was sopposedly a stowaway, so if thats story is true, it doesn't leave me much hope for finding his port of entrance.

The other little tid-bit I have left out here...is the story goes that he arrived here in the states and went to Chicago w/ his siblings. He was sopposed to have had ties with the Mob, got into some kinda of trouble and landed in Arkansas.

The things I have figured out:

His arrival was written as 1901 in a ...1920 Census( I know..doesn't mean much) , also they told this he was naturalized in 1916. (Which really doesn't mean much..lol)

I can't find him listed on any 1910 Census?

And I can't find him listed on any 1930 Census?

Now..if he arrived in 1901, he wouldn't have been on the Census taken in 1900, so his whereabouts in that 9 year time span has eluded me. I know that my Grandfather was born August 6, 1910...soooooooo he had to have been around in late 1909..for that birth to have taken place..lol My Grandfather was the oldest, and there were other children born in 1913,1914, 1917,and 1918...afterwards.

After the 1920 Census, he disapeared again. But..come to think about it..I can't find my grandfather listed either, so I may have to go and look at that differently, and see if the stories hold true that he was known for leaving for long intervals....the family could have been living with someone else.

He died in 1936.

This is the 1920 Census...if someone would pleaseeeeee click on it and see if they can read it...lol

I made a mistake on it......

Where I thought it read "Native Tongue", it says..."Place of birth". GRRRRRRRRRR.....Where I got the other I don't know....




My Papaw...he's holding my mother, 1950. He was 40 years old when she was born....he was a Giant of a man....anyway, its his father who I am looking for.

Place of birth makes more sense. I looked all over for an Anabai, and the only thing I can find is some oil fields in Kazakhstan. I hope you don't mind all the input, I do love a good mystery and really can't help but diging myself.