(Expanded Preview: Vol. 6, No. 1)

Quite by accident, this issue turned out to have a theme: research in the area of Punsk, called Punskas by Lithuanians, near Suwalki in what is now northeastern Poland. Lithuanians regard it as an integral part of the region they call Suvalkija; there are and always have been plenty of ethnic Lithuanians living there. I wish I could take credit for brilliant editing, but it just happened that several of the articles I received deal with this area.

In "I Caught the Genealogy Bug," beginning on page 1, Rei Standish tells how she found herself sitting in a restaurant in Punsk, chatting with her newfound relatives. She recounts the steps by which she found traced her roots, which included wonderful assistance from the secretary at St. Casimir's Church in Plymouth, PA, and from LGGS's own Vilius Zalpys.

Also beginning on page 1 is Diane Rooney's "Lithuanian Genealogist's Guide to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania." While this article may not be not directly Punsk-related, I have a feeling many of you are going to find it so valuable you won't care! If you have roots in Schuylkill County, this is a must-read.

On page 15 are 1917 excerpts from Draugas on Lithuanian "colonies" in Maryville, IL and Racine, WI, compiled and translated by Vilius Zalpys.

Page 16 features information about the new online Family Tree Registry, a resource that has a lot of potential for benefitting researchers. Also on that page is a note from Tom Sadauskas on "Why Is It So Hard to Find My Ancestor's Village in Lithuania?"

On page 17 "Analyzing Lithuanian Surnames" looks at Eidukaitis, a good example of how fascinating and frustrating surnames can be. On page 18 I attempt to play "Genealogical Advisor" and help a lady find her Tumelis relatives in the Punsk area.

Beginning on page 20 are translations of entries for four towns and villages in the Punsk area from a massive late-19th-century Polish gazetteer: Krasnowo and Punsk, Poland, and Lazdijai and Sventezeris, Lithuania. Typically the entries from this gazetteer include information hard to find
anywhere else in English; plus they date from right about the time our ancestors were leaving Europe. So if you have roots in southwestern Lithuania or northeastern Poland, these translations may provide you with some valuable historical background information.

We hope you find this issue interesting, and wish you the best of luck with your research!

William F. “Fred” Hoffman

Fred Hoffman <wfh@langline.com>
Editor of _Proteviai_