Clay in My Boots: A Romp Through My Genealogical Past

I walked 5 Kilometers today (I’m switching to Kilometers, it sounds like more). I headed off to Sniuraicai “place where Snyder’s walk”, a working class town across the highway. I left Rimuoses Dvaras Hotel, literally translated as “Hotel with Chinese Take-out Box in Front”, and headed down the access road.  Fortunately, there’s an pedestrian tunnel under the highway. I passed the leaving Sniuraicai, conveniently it says leaving on the other side, too. I passed some cute little houses owned by farmers and truckers. Up the one long road that heads east.  Along the way I enjoyed the entry gate competition, I suspect the kids ignore the witch house. I was greeted by local residents as I walked down the other 1/2 a road.  As I exited town, the mayor told me go away and don’t come back (bark-bark, bark-bark-bark). At least that’s what it sounded like to me. As I left town, I got caught-up in rush hour.  I then proceeded back to “Hotel with Chinese Take-out Box in Front”,  for c

Linkova is much smaller than Birza, but larger then Pasvatinys. It has less horses and although the Synagogue is still standing but it’s in bad shape. We found a number of Jewish buildings surrounding the square, and around town. The cemetery is about 2km out of town. It is surround by a wall, but it is extremely overgrown and many of the grave sights are terribly disturbed. The ground is very uneven, but we still managed to get pictures of many of the readable headstones and leave some tsror/stones. With out being able to read Hebrew well, or even to make out many of the headstones, we couldn’t locate any of our Shenker or Kriger ancestors. We also paid our respects at the Vashki Shtetl Cemetery as these two towns are neighbors and my research shows family documents intertwined. This cemetery was mush easier to locate right of the main “highway”. We 

Pasvatiny is where my Grandfather lived until 1912 when at 17 he emigrated to the US with his Mom and four siblings. Pasvatinys is a 3 horse town that burned to the ground in 1902. Wild fires were common in this part of Lithuania. We found a number of Jewish-style buildings in the center of town. We spoke to a man who said his house was built in 1922 and the construction was solid. He didn’t know of any Snyder’s in Pasvatiny. We visited the old Windmill which was used as a jail in Soviet times. The cemetery was in better shape then many we’d seen, but eerily all the headstones are leaning in the same direction as if a great wind storm came through. I took pictures of “readable” headstones to load on find-a-grave and JOBR. I also left tsror/stones on select graves and collected stones from Pasvatiny to leave with my Dad and Grandfather in Baltimore.  Who knew my Dad’s family and Mom’s family lived 12km apart ... in the same County.