Vincent's family was said to be well-to-do and owned a large, prosperous farm in Lithuania where they employed several field hands. When the Russians came to try to take over their property, they worked a deal to save their farm where Vincent would join the Cossacks and serve in their Army. Whether this is true or not, is uncertain. During the late 1800's, males had to serve 25 years in the military. One of the few stories that have been passed down through the family about this experience is that he got to play clarinet for the Czar of Russia as part of a Cossack band. After the feast, the band members were allowed to go to the table to eat upon gold plates. He had never seen such a feast before in his life.

His daughter, Isabel, was supposedly named for his sister.

He was described variously as dear, sweet, home person, pious, good father, very nice, religous, but very strict.

Naturalization papers specify his birthplace as Sapiergizkis. Various other spellings of this town are also usable: Sapiezyszki, Sapienyszki, Sapizishok or Sepizishok (Jewish version), and the modern version, Zapyskis. The town is located NW of Kaunas at 54N55 23E40 on the south bank of the river. Classification of the town is Zapyskis, Marijampole Uszd, Suwalki Gubernia, Lithuania -- probably the equivalent of our City, County, State, Country.

The Zapyskis Estate was set up on the first half of the 16th century. It was owned by the Sapiega family, thus carrying the name of Sapiegikis for some time; later on, it was renamed Zapyskis. The small town of Zapyskis was mentioned in the late 16th century. The Kaunas-Virbalis trading and mail track went through Zapyskis. On the second half of the 16th century, P. Sapiega initiated and funded building of a church. (It was repaired and reconstructed in 1677, 1744, 1763, after the 1812 War and after the 1846 Flood. Sermons have not been held since the early 20th century). A parish school functioned in the 17th century. The town was devastated during the wars in the mid-17th and early-18th centuries. Annexed to Prussia in 1795, Zapyskis was incorporated into Russia in 1815. Trade livened up (markets and fairs were organised). In 1825-1847, Zapyskis had the urban rights. The flood in 1846 caused much damage to the town, as did the 1957 fire and WWI. In 1919-1950, Zapyskis was the centre of a rural district. Inhabitants of Zapyskis were engaged in agriculture, fishing, and small crafts. (Source: http://www.lietuva-jums.lt/IMI/i_en.jsp?nr=zapyskis_sen_apie_seniunija)

Zapyškis thru the ages
1501 Panemune
1559 Zopijskei
1578 Sapiežyszki
1599 Sopežiški
1613 Sapieczyški
1808 Zapieciszki
1883 Sapežiški
1900 Sapiežiškiai
1911-1917 Zapiškis
1915 Szapjechischki
1920-1923 Zapyškis
1941 Sapieschyschken


IMMIGRATION:
Per his naturalization papers, Vincent departed from Hamburg on the SS Palatia 19 Mar 1898 and arrived in New York City on 31 Mar 1898. He stated that his destination was Wooster (Worcester?), Massachusetts. He arrived in Cleveland on 21 Oct 1898. The actual ship manifest, so far, has not been found.

SPECULATIONS:
On 29 Jan 2003, this researcher (Sandra Wanicki Rozhon) discovered that a Kazimiery Juszkiewicz arrived at Ellis Island on 03 Apr 1912 aboard the FINLAND. His destination was his brother, Wilunas (spelling?) Juszkiewicz. His home town is listed as Szapieziskis! He was 30 years of age, so born about 1882 and married (his wife's name isn't quite legible on the ship's manifest). He stated that he had been in the U.S. in 1905 in Worcester (Vincent's destination, also), but his final destination in 1912 was Elizabethtown, N.J.. The question certainly is whether this fellow is possibly a relative of Vincent's first wife?
...............
Attempts to find Vincent listed in the ship's manifest for those dates has been fruitless -- the closest record resembling his name and age was Julian (or Yulian) Winitzki who was headed for Milwaukee where his cousin (named Marcin Adamsky) lived. This fellow listed Chovocz as the city he emigrated from. It so happens that there is a town only 4 miles away from where our Vincent was born that sounds much like this one, though not spelled the same. One strike against this name is that if this is an exact spelling, most Winitzki's that have been found seem to be Jewish.
...............
A second possibility is Vicent Bielansky if he was travelling under someone else's name. Another possibility is a Wincenz Wanicki who arrived 13 Aug 1901 on the Friedrich Der Grosse out of Bremen. He emigrated from Rzcgocin?? and listed his ethnicity as Galicy. He had a wife and child with him. While not from the right timeframe, there is a "Kasimir Winicki" (listed as Kasmimir Wunicki on the Ellis Island website index) who arrived in 9 April 1909 on The Rhaetia from a town called "Piple" which I've determined is only 4 miles east of Zapyskis, so also possibly a relative of some sort. His destination was his sister-in-law, Veronica Loslowicz, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Kasimir's age is difficult to decipher. It could be 22 or 42. He lists his wife as a close relative back in Lithuania. Her first name is also difficult to decipher from the original manifest. Starts with an "M"
...............
FROM PALATIA SHIP MANIFEST [31 Mar 1898]:
Pg 153 0012. Winitzki, Yulian M 28y M Russian, Pole Chovocz [destination - Milwaukee)
Pg 168 0011. Bielansky, Vicent M 26y M Russian, Pole Pokosny [name may be Pielansky] [destination - Shenandoah,PA]
...............
FROM FRIEDRICH DER GROSSE SHIP MANIFEST [13 Aug 1901]:
Wanicki, Wincenz M 29y M Galicy Rzcgocin
Wanicki, Bronislawa F 24y M Galicy Rzcgocin
Wanicki, Marya F 9y S Galicy Rzcgocin



CENSUS:
1910 Ohio Census (Ward 24, E.D. 362, sheet 5, 8205 Pulaski Avenue N.E.) lists Wincenty Wanicki; wife Angelica; children Anna (13), Isabel (3), Ludwig (2), and Tekla (11 months). Vincent's age at the time was 40, second marriage, married for 5 years (so they must have married around 1905), arrived in USA in 1899 (this differs from what he claimed on his Naturalization papers), he spoke English, worked in a Drill Factory, and was renting upstairs at that address.

CENSUS:
1920 Ohio Census (ED 299, sheet 27B [?], lines 99-100 4100 E.59th, Cleveland.
1920 " " " " sheet 28A, lines 51-57
Lists all children except for Anna.

RESIDENCES:
1899 - 138 Sowinski (city directory)
1900 - 156 Hoffman (census - possibly as Fritz Winitzski though month of birth is different. Everything else matches well. Right neighborhood.)
1904 - 81 Pulaski (city directory) Helper
1905 - 81 Pulaski (city directory) Helper
1906 - 91 Pulaski (city directory) Car Repairman
(noted on Isabel's birth certificate)
1907 - 8301 Pulaski (city directory) Car Repairman
1908 - 8210 Sowinski (city directory) Car Repairman
1909 - 8210 Sowinski (city directory)
1909 - 8209 Pulaski (city directory) Finisher
1910 - 8205 Pulaski (as noted in 1910 Census) Machine ??? Drill factory
1910 - 7988 Sowinski Milkman
1911 - 8002 Sowinski (city directory) Milkman
1912 - 8002 Sowinski (city directory) Milkman
1912 - 1187 East 80th St. (Declaration of Intention) Milkman
1913 - 8002 Sowinski (city directory) Polisher (reamer)
1914 - 2492 Thurman (westside)(Irene's birth certificate) Polisher
1915 - 4116 East 59th St. (city directory & Jennie's deathcert)Polisher
1916 - 4116 East 59th St. (city directory) Polisher
1917 - 4116 East 59th St. (Petition for Naturalization) Polisher
1918 - 4127 East 56th St. (city directory) Polisher
1919 - 4127 East 56th St. (city directory) Polisher
1920 - 4100 East 59th St. Purchased this home Polisher
1921 - 4100 East 59th St. Polisher
1922 - 4100 East 59th St. Polisher
1923 - 4100 East 59th St. Polisher
1924 - 9815 Greenview Purchased this home Polisher (Garfield Hts)
1925 - 4184 East 75th St. (city directory) Polisher
1926 - 4280 East 71th St. (city directory) Polisher
1927 - 4184 East 75th St. (city directory) Laid off (never returned to work)
1929 - 7014 Claasen (city directory)
Remained on Claasen until he died in 1936.

MARRIAGE:
Married at St. Casimir's Church on Sowinski Ave.. Witnesses: Anthony Subonis, Sophie Mrocinska, Bern Getsewicz (in 1910 census as GECAWICZ, a carpenter, of 1107 E. 79th St.), Mary Nowakowska

NATURALIZATION:
Wanicki Vincent Address: 4116 E.59 St. Cleveland,Ohio 713175-Vol.41,pg.16 Court of CommonPleas, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, Ohio Born: * Russia May 12,1871 Date and Port: March 19, 1898 - New York Naturalized: Sept.11,1917 Witnesses: Karl Lachowski - 6923 Clement Ave. Martin Budniak - 3736 E. 69 St. Notes: * country of allegiance Soundex: W520

DEATH:
WANICKI, Wincenty Death date: 3/11/1936, Cuyahoga County Certificate #15937
Died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

BURIAL:
Calvary Cemetery, Sec 59, Lot 310, Grave 2

OBIT:
Unsuccessfully searched for an obituary in the Cleveland Press. It's possible that an obit was published in the local Polish newspaper.

OBIT:
Name: Wanicki, Vincent
Date: 1936
Source: Cemetery record; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #083.
Notes: 1872-1936. Calvary Cemetery Cleveland, O.

1. Ona (Anna) WANICKI b. 26 Jul 1897, Sapiegiskis, Kaunas, Lithuania; d. 29 Aug 1962, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; bur. Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.

1. Isabel WANICKI b. 27 Apr 1906, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; c. Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 16 Jan 1946, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; bur. Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.
2. Louis Stepan WANICKI b. 25 Aug 1907, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; c. Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 1 Oct 1974, Brecksville, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
3. Teckla (Tillie) WANICKI b. 28 Apr 1909, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 19 May 1940, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.
4. Genevieve D. WANICKI b. 10 Apr 1910, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; c. Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 7 Aug 1989, Parma, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
5. Mieczystaw Kasimir WANICKI, [infant] b. 26 Dec 1912, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 18 Jan 1913, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.
6. Irene WANICKI b. 1 Jan 1914, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; c. 11 Jan 1914, St. John Cantius, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio; d. 23 Sep 1981, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.
7. Clara (Jennie) WANICKI, (infant) b. 18 Sep 1915, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 8 Nov 1915, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.
8. John W. WANICKI b. 21 Oct 1916, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; c. Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 13 Feb 2005, Parma, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
9. Stanley Anthony WANICKI, Sr. b. 27 Jul 1918, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. 16 Nov 1989, Fairview General Hospital, Fairview, Cuyahoga County. Ohio ; bur. 20 Nov 1989, Riverside Cemetery, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.
10. Felix WANICKI, (infant) b. 31 May 1920, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA; d. Sep 1920, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.

The actual spelling of this name is uncertain. No records have been located that can be cited as proof. The Naturalization records for his granddaughter, Ona (Anna) Wanicki (b. 1897) provide her father's name as Wincantas Wanickiutic and her uncle's name as Benedict Wanickiutic. However, a general rule for Lithuanian surnames suggests that possible spellings would be as follows:
Vanickas = male
Vanickiene = married woman
Vanickaite = single woman
There is no senior and junior (ie. Sr. or Jr.)
Wife of Smith would be Kovaliene.
Son of Smith would be Kovalevic^ius / Kowalewicz or Kovalaitis.
Wife of son of Smith could be Kovalevic^iene / Kowalewicziene.



The following excerpts are from the Zemaitis webpage (http://home.fgi.net/~zemaitis/zemaitis2.htm#top):
-----
Many Lithuanians who wanted to Polonize their surname added "icius" (the Lithuanianized Polish "icz") to their last name, for example, emaitis became emaiticius, or, even more Polish than that, emaiticz. To add further confusion, if the surname was Russianized it became Zemaitovski. The emaitis surname is probably not a good name to use for this example, but you get the idea. And, when the emaitis family came to the USA, they didn't speak English (or write Lithuanian) and the Immigration Officials had no idea the husband's surname was emaitis, the wife's surname was emaitiene, and the unmarried daughter's surname was emaityte. No wonder Lithuanian-Americans have trouble tracing their Lithuanian roots.

The -auskas surname endings are Lithuanian for the Polish -owski. The surname ending was Lithuanianized by changing the -o- to -a- and supplying a Lithuanian case ending. It is important to remember that an -a- and -o- are similar sounds in Lithuanian and are often switched. Names ending in -owski and -auskas tend to come from toponyms. The -ow- component means 'of (the) ___,' and the -ski suffix means 'person from _____'. Lithuanian names ending in -auskas may indicates a relationship with a place or person.

A Lithuanian surname formed by the addition of the suffixes (patronymic endings) -aitis, -ius, -unas, -onis, -enas, or-ynas indicates the relationship to the name of one's father or paternal ancestor. Similarly, the suffix -iewicz is the standard Polish patronymic ending and -ovitch is the standard Russian patronymic ending. These suffixes literally means "son of", exempli gratia, Johnson, son of John. They were introduced into Lithuania from Old Byelorussian. Their use dates back to the medieval period when Old Byelorussian was the language of record in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The -aite ending of Lithuanian surnames signifies an unmarried female. Lithuanian surnames in the US with an -aty ending are the Americanized form of the Lithuanian -aite ending.

Arturas Zukauskas of Vilnius, Lithuania wrote: "Purely Lithuanian suffixes indicating the origin are: '-aitis', '-enas', '-unas', '-onis', 'ynis', 'inis'; suffixes indicating smaller one: '-elis', '-utis', '-ytis'. Some Lithuanian surnames (probably from emaitija?) are short and end with '-kus': 'Butkus', 'Bartkus', Vaitkus', 'Vitkus', Jankus', 'Kartkus', etc. Some others are just names of animals and birds: 'Katinas' (tomcat), 'Sernas' (boar), 'Sakalas' (falcon), 'Lape' (fox), Vilkas' (wolf). etc.There are a lot of Lithuanian surnames originating from Polish, Russian, Byelorussian, and German. Some are intentionally Lithuanianized as 'Zemkalnis' from 'Landsberg'."

According to Lithuanian linguistic expert Dr. L. Palmaitis, in Lithuanian orthography the letter ‘i’ after a consonant and before a, o, u, ai, uo, nasal ‘a’, and nasal ‘u’ is not pronounced and is changed into a palatal sound. Lithuanian surnames such as: Andrulonis and Sablauskas are Americanized variants of Andrulionis and Sabliauskas.Lithuanian linguistic expert, Dr. Girdenis, explains that the correct Lithuanian forms of surnames such as ‘Sabaliauskas’ and ‘Andrulionis’ (or ‘Andriulonis’): ‘l’ in such surnames is palatalized (light, soft) and it sharply differs from non-palatalized (dark, hard) ‘l’. The character ‘i’ before ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’ is the sign of palatalization. The spelling of the above mentioned names without the ‘i’ are corrupted – it may reflect obsolete Lithuanian orthography (in 16–19th centuries we have had two different letters for palatalized and non-palatalized ‘l’ – as in Modern Polish).
---------


The Lithuanian-Polish union came under threat from Prussia, Austria and Russia at the end of the 18th century. An uprising by the Lithuanian patriot Col. Jacob Jasinskis in 1794 was defeated, and most of Lithuania was annexed by Russia in 1795. The new rulers tried to Russify the country, closing Vilnius University and banning the publication of Lithuanian books in the Latin alphabet. In the late 1800s, brutal persecution and economic necessity forced thousands of Lithuanian to emigrate.
1795 The third partition of Lithuania. Lithuania was annexed to Russia, the region of Uznemune to Prussia.
1795-1918 The whole Lithuania was ruled by strangers.
1812 Napoleon troops invaded Lithuania.
1831 The uprising against the Russian occupation.
1840 The Statute of Lithuania was abolished.
1861 The abolition of serfdom.
1863 The uprising against the Russian occupation.
1864-1904The press in Latin script was banned. The Russian alphabet was introduced.

Suwalki gubernia districts (and major towns in each, in addition to the district capital):
Augustów (Holynka, Lipsk, Raczki, Sopockin, Sztabin)
Kalwarya [Kalvarija] (Krasna, Lubowo, Ludwinowo [Liudvinavas], Olita [Alytus], Simno [Simnas], Urdomin [Rudamina])
Marjampol [Marijampole] (Aleksota [Aleksotas], Balwierzyszki [Balbieriškis], Godlewo [Garliava], Pilwiszki [Pilviškiai], Poniemon [Panemunis], Preny [Prienai], Sapiezyszki [Zapyškis])
Sejny (Berzniki, Kopciowo, Krasnopol, Lejpuny [Leipalingis], Lozdzieje [Lazdijai], Sereje [Seirijai], Wiejsieje [Veisiejai])
Suwalki (Bakalarzewo/Baklerow, Filipow, Jeleniewo, Przerosl, Punsk, Wizajny)
Wladyslawów [Kudirkos Naumiestis] (Sudarg [Sudargas], Szaki [Šakiai])
Wylkowyszki [Vilkaviškis] (Kibarty [Kybartai], Wierzbolowo [Virbalis], Wysztyniec [Vištytis]).
[Today only the districts of Augustów, Suwalki, and part of Sejny are in Poland; the others are in Lithuania. The modern Lithuanian names of the towns are given in brackets.]

Zapyškis thru the ages
1501 Panemune
1559 Zopijskei
1578 Sapiežyszki
1599 Sopežiški
1613 Sapieczyški
1808 Zapieciszki
1883 Sapežiški
1900 Sapiežiškiai
1911-1917 Zapiškis
1915 Szapjechischki
1920-1923 Zapyškis
1941 Sapieschyschken



DEATH: We may surmise that this individual and his wife were deceased before 1909 or quite old because Vincent's daughter, Ona, was cared for by her maternal aunt Juszkiewicz in Memel (now known as Klaipeda), Lithuania. This was quite some distance away. Of course, it is possible that customs of that time led to the maternal family caring for a motherless child.