1845 - 1909

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• Birth	Abt 1845	, , Lithuania
  Gender	Male
  Died	Bef 1909	, , Lithuania
  Person ID	I1103	Wanicki/Rozhon and Kapusta/Jemiola
  Last Modified	19 Apr 2002 22:02:46
  Children	1. Benedict VANICKIUTIC, b. Abt 1869, Sapiersyzkis, , , Lithuania   2. Isabel VANICKIUTIC, b. Abt 1870, Sapiersyzkis, , , Lithuania > 3. Vincentas (Vincent) WANICKI, b. 12 May 1871, Sapiegiskis, Kaunas, Lithuania
  Family ID	F376	Group Sheet

• Notes

  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.