I've been able to trace my family's roots to Lithuania (Utena on the paternal side and Musninkai on the maternal side) — both families emigrated in the 1880's so about 140 years ago. While I'm interested in visiting and seeing where they may have lived, I'm wondering if there would even be anything to see that would remotely be anything from that time, or if I'd find anything of interest. Has anyone done trips to these areas or does anyone have advice on whether such an endeavor might be fruitful?

I've spent almost 8-9 months of my life in Lithuania over 4 visits.  You will definitely see something if you know the town names.  I visited the the Jewish graveyard in my ancestor's town.  In '45 there were still scattered tombstones, but during Soviet times they were removed, leaving an empty grassy field with a tiny chain fence around it.  I said kaddish for all my ancestors buried there.  Here are some tips:  Go with a positive attitude, learn to say please and thank you in Lithuanian.  Most people now will know some English, but appreciate the slightest effort to acknowledge their language.  Express pride in being a Litvak.  Litvaks are now valued (if that seems strange to you, think of American white southerners now proud of African Americans from their home states); insist on visiting your ancestral villages and try to learn as much of your ancestry as you can before you go.

Jules Levin, Los Angeles 

I am a Norwegian living in Lithuania and wrote my master's thesis on Litvak migration to Norway. Lithuanian communities are increasingly aware of their Jewish heritage. Utena was formerly a predominantly Jewish town. Many photographs and memories have been preserved. A visit there should be thoroughly prepared. Be sure to contact museums and key people with local knowledge in advance.
Using Google translate, useful knowledge may be obtained from:
http://utenoszydai.lt/
I don't know Utena's Jewish heritage in detail, but Moletai, located between Utena and Vilnius, has preserved Jewish buildings and done a lot to document its Jewish history. Well worth a visit.

Jan S. Krogh

To all:

I have translated the Utena Memorial Book into English, and can make it available to you if you are interested.

Write to me at my e-mail address: jsberger@...,
This way I will get something I can work with.

Regards
Jack Berger
Mahwah, NJ
Mahwah, NJ

Yes! Absolutely go the the land of your ancestors.  I went in 2016 and the experience becomes more valuable as the years go by. My family left when yours did and I know their town names as you do. I urge you to hire a guide who will navigate the driving, tell you things you will never find in documents and very likely can introduce you to a Jewish history specialist in each town you visit.  The guide also is likely to know other people who have come to the town researching their families and might be able to put you in touch with relatives. You didn’t know you had. And while you definitely should learn a few words in the local language the guide can have rich conversations with the local people on your behalf. For instance when the guide said to me “your great grandmother probably went swimming in this river” it took my idea of their lives out of the woeful shtetl life into realizing they had a busy vibrant family life and they were real people. when the guide chatted with an elderly vegetable seller and asked her if she had known any of the Jews she told a very familiar story, which was oh yes, they were neighbors, but they were taken away and, here’s the part that is all too familiar, but my family was on vacation when it happened and we didn’t actually see it happen. Yes, there is still a lot of denial. The towns will not look anything like they did 140 years ago, what town does, but you will get a flavor for the sameness amongst them all and in each town you will probably see 10 to 50 of the wooden buildings from that era. they now are homes to the poorest of the poor the gypsies and others who cannot afford modern housing. please do all your archival research before you go on the trip so that you can spend your time experiencing life rather than sitting in a government office, dealing in foreign languages. I did not learn anything new factually about my family, but being there, being on the land, understanding the distances between where the bride lived in the groom, lived or thinking about that river in a new way made all the difference. I would also suggest that reading a Yiskor  book from your town or towns nearby, where life would be similar, can give you an on the ground understanding of what daily life was like. I can give you the name of our guide, who wasn’t the best, but was a lot better than no guide at all or maybe you can get recommendations here for a really terrific guide. We went in May and everything looked beautiful and not depressing as the broken down cemeteries mate in gray winter weather. you can see I’m very enthusiastic about this, so don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have more questions.
--
Emily Rosenberg
Oakland, California

KESNER in Amsterdam, London, Chicago
STODEL in Amsterdam, London, USA
KAWIN in Suwalki and Poland
RUBINSKY in Suwalki and Poland

Hello,
I am intrigued by your mention of Moletai - which is where my great-grandmother lived before emigrating (with all six of her siblings and their mother) to the USA.

I have come up with very little via searching with Google and Bing. but I did find this: Jewish culture Molėtai region | Molėtai Tourism and Business Information Center (infomoletai.lt).
I have, of course, also searched JewishGen and LitvakSig.

Are you able to point me to any other resources, if any are available via internet, or a museum/archive that I could contact?

Best regards, 
Elise Norman Cundiff

Researching Zieve, Glickman, & Gordon from Moletai and Zelva, as well as Katz, Karklin, Segal/Sogolovich, Biskind, Galvin, Ginsberg, and more (Zelva and possibly Moletai)

Hello, Elise.

Much is written about the shtetls in the Lithuanian-language press on the internet. This requires one to use Google translate, which, however, is not error-free when it comes to Lithuanian. As here:

https://www.bernardinai.lt/nepelnytai-pamirsta-moletu-miesto-istorija-zydu-palikimas/

Some Litvak apartment buildings still stand in Malát. An excellent book has also been published - unfortunately, as far as I know, only in Lithuanian:
Viktorija Kazlienė (Ed.). (2019). Istoriniai pasakojimai apie Molėtų krašto žydų kulturos paveldą. Vilnius: Molėtų krašto muziejus.

The book contains, among others, a detailed city map with the location of many properties before the war. Many pages with both text and photos are in Yiddish and with translation into Lithuanian of an unknown book. Other literature may appear to have been taken from JewishGen.

Some information about the Malat Foundation can be found in the link below, but I have not studied this further.
https://www.facebook.com/MALAT-Memory-Foundation-1771421673094857/?fref=ts

 

Jan S. Krogh, Vilnius, Lithuania

I visited Lithuania in 2019. It is a beautiful country, modern and friendly. We visited Rietavas a small village outside of Vilna. When my gg grandparents lived there is was a thriving Jewish community. Now there is only one Jewish person living in the town and she just moved there. There is a small jewish Cemetery in Rietavas but unfortunately I was unable to identify any of the stones. I did not do any research while I was there but still enjoyed my visit and feel very connected to the community. 

The story of what happened to the Jews in Vilna is very sad and you should definitely visit the memorial. I hope you get the opportunity to go some day. 
--
Jill Golden
COHN/KAGEN Lithuania
SACHS/ZACHS Lithuania 
SIMPSON Lithuania 
HARRIS/HIRSCH Germany

We visited in 2016 and it was an extremely rewarding adventure.  I would recommend the following:
     Lithuanian Holidays, travel@...  
     guide:  Ruta Puisyte   rutapuisyte@... - Ruta arranged for a car and driver to take us from Vilnius to our ancestral shtetls.  She did quite a lot of research on the towns and we were able to visit hidden cemeteries (locals denied they even existed!), as well as meet with people in the towns.

A side comment - we found excellent restaurants, and ate extremely well on the trip.  A pleasant surprise as we expected uninteresting fare.
--

Susan Gray, Chicago
Searching:

 -FELDSTEIN / FELDSZTAJN / FELTON / FELTYN etc.; GOLDBERG; WEINSTEIN / WEINSZTEIN etc. from Warsaw, Lutsk, Kamenets Podolskiy, Kholm.
-APPLE / APPEL / APEL etc; TAUB; LINEAL / LINIAL; KLEIN from Burshtyn, Rogatin, Sarniki, Putyatinsy, Dem'yanov, Solova.
-PAILET / PEYLET / PAILED / PEJLET etc; ITZCOVITZ / ITSKOVITCH etc. from Butrimonys, Panosiskes, Nemajunai, Vilnius, Drosgusitz.
-RATSAN / RACAN; SIROTA from Butrimonys, Jieznas, Brishton.