Kaunas, Lithuania – genealogy, mail delivery, and those darn hills.

July 13 – 18, 2019

As mentioned in previous posts, one of the primary reasons for going to Kaunas was to try to do some genealogy research on the Goodell family heritage. US census records indicated that either one, or both, of Randy’s great grand parents came from Kaunas to the US in the 1890’s.

Accordingly, we found out that Kaunas is the regional headquarters for archives relating to births, deaths, legal documents etc. We decided to give them a visit. On Sunday, we walked over to where we thought the office was supposed to be, trying to be proactive so we could get there easily on Monday. We were following the GPS on the phone and it kept taking us around and around and not finding the office. Someone in the Goodell family started complaining about those darn hills and we gave up for the day.

On Monday, Randy went off by himself to find the office. Again, hills were mentioned very vigorously in the discussion of whether or not Andrea was going to go (not). After having done a little more research about the office location on Sunday night, it was determined that the archive office was not directly on the street that the address indicated. It was inside a courtyard off that address. Randy finally found it, but saw that that was a very simple landmark that the archive office could have referenced to help people find it.

Unfortunately, once I got inside and talked to the very nice lady, who spoke excellent English, she informed me that in order to do any kind of search for births, marriages, etc. you had to provide the archive with the town they were born in, the church parish, etc. All information we do not know. She suggested we go to the National Archives in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and do a search there.

Monday afternoon, after the archive visit, we decided to find the Devil’s Museum. It promoted itself as a wonder of all things devilish, especially when discussing the Middle Age items, practices, etc. Remember, we are walking to all of these places, as they are relatively close to the apartment and parking is virtually impossible once we leave our little compound.

So, we head off with our GPS to the location of the Devil’s Museum. To say that hills were involved would be an understatement. They were pretty impressive. We finally find the location, happily go up the stairs to buy some tickets and the damn door won’t open! Ooops, it appears that the Devil’s Museum is closed on Mondays.

Traveler tip, avid reader. Always check ahead for the days and hours of operations. Museums like to close on Mondays, as they are open for the weekends. Let’s just say that this traveler tip would have saved Randy quite an earful on the way back to the apartment.

Along the way we did see some more interesting sculptures and artwork.

It did give us a chance to stop in at the Post Office in Kaunas to check on a package we were trying to receive. The lady there told us it was stuck in customs and we had to do a customs declaration online. We did it that night, trying to move the process along.

The reason we were looking for a package is that we use a UPS post office box back in the US to collect our mail and occasionally forward it on to us. We had seen that the documents for our upcoming Viking River Cruise trip in Egypt had arrived at the UPS box, so we had them package it up with the other mail and mail it so us at the Kaunas apartment. We instructed them to send it via UPS so we could redirect it to other UPS offices should it get delayed for some reason. The lady at the UPS office in Ft. Myers did not understand the request and sent the package regular U.S. Postal Service. Which meant that it was going to come regular mail to Kaunas. This was a huge mistake.

Another travel tip, avid reader. Do not send packages regular mail. Our package sat in Lithuanian customs for almost a week. We had to leave Kaunas to go to our next destination before it even cleared customs. We finally got the attempted delivery notice 3 days after we left. We will have to drive back to Lithuania from Poland to get it. About a 900 mile round trip. More on that in future post(s).

Back to the genealogy research. On our last day in Kaunas, we decide to drive to the National Archives in Vilnius. It is about a 120 kilometer trip, so not too far.

We find the archives with no problem, find a parking spot with no problem, and walk happily into the office to find out that it is closed for their lunch break. Oh well, we’re hungry too. Off to grab some food.

Of course we are looking for a quaint little Lithuanian neighborhood spot and cant’ find it. We did find a great little Chinese restaurant that worked very well. We finish lunch, pay the bill and start to leave when it starts to absolutely pour down rain. It even hailed.

After waiting out the storm, with some wine and beer of course, we head back to the archive office. The guy at the research office lets us submit research requests for the great grand parents. We believe their original names were Jonas Godelis and Elizabeth Stevenovitz. In about a month we will see if they come up with anything.

One other interesting note to the genealogy research has to do with Randy’s step father, Joseph Klimas. Joe was a first generation Lithuanian. Both of his parents were Lithuanian and immigrated to the US at the turn of the century.

Well, look what we found in Kaunas during our wanderings.

Petras and 19 other Lithuanians signed the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence in 1918, declaring independence from Russia rule. Petras wound up in Russian prison for awhile and 6 other signatories were executed.

After his release, we went on to a successful business career. He was quite a character as evidenced by the historical references around the bar. The bartender told us a few stores about Petras and included the fact that Klimas is a very common Lithuanian name.

Map progress – none, still in Kaunas.