Lithuanian Lineages Lazorovich, Maron*, Ruben, Sungela/Sungaila, Veckis,Vilikus

General History

Lithuania, or Lietuva, is the largest of the three Baltic states bordering the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. About the size of West Virginia it is mostly flatland. It has a population of 3.7 million people, 80% of whom are native Lithuanians and Roman Catholic. The country is divided into four provinces: Zemaitija, Aukstaitija, Dzukija, and Suvalkija. Vilnius, the largest city, is also the capital, followed in population size by Kuana.  The average temperate is 6.4°C or 43.5°F.

The Lithuanian alphabet has 32 letters.

A wave of emigration to the United States occurred from the the 1890s to the 1920s. The immigrants settled mostly in western Pennsylvania and Chicago, with smaller groups in Denver, Colorado, Michigan, and Toronto, Canada.
 
 
 

John George Sungela's Ancestry

John George Sungela was born in April, 1929 in Newark, New Jersey. His biological parents died when he was very young. Friends of the family arranged to have him adopted by a couple in which the husband was also from Lithuania.  Thus he has two Lithuanian family trees.
 

Biological Line

John's biological parents were George Martin Maron and Josephine Vilikus. George was born about 1898 in Seredzious, Pastos, Kuana. He and his sister, Mary Zuzana Maroncheck, emigrated to the United States in 1912. He was a photographer by trade and had his own shop at 226 Harrison Ave., Harrison, New Jersey. Josephine was born in 1894, also in Lithuania. She passed on a few weeks after giving birth at West Hudson Hospital, Kearny, New Jersey. George died of tuberculosis in December of the following year (1930). Both George and Josephine are buried at Holy Name Cemetery, Jersey City, New Jersey.

Mary Zuzana married Ramaldi Petro Shauchunas, a native Russian. They settled in Greenport, New York and had a son and daughter, Peter Paul and Vera Joan. Their children and grandchildren live in Texas and Long Island, New York.

John has a sister, Anna Irene Sungela, who was born three years earlier in 1926. She and John were separated when they were children and subsequently raised by separate families. In fact, they did not learn about one another until John turned 18.

The surname Maron was abbreviated or anglicized from its original, native spelling. Records and handwritten notes give the these variations of the original spelling.

Maroncheck
Maronciekute
Maronis
Maronchek
Merinovic

Per Josephine's death certificate, her parents were Frank Veckis and Anna Ruben.
 

Adoptive Line

In December, 1930, John George was legally adopted by John Sungala and his wife, Dorothy Robinson. John was born October 12, 1898 in Lithuania. He emigrated to the United States circa 1920. He spent his early years in Franklin and Albany counties, New York. It is in New York where he presumably met and married Dorothy. (We have traced the Robinsons back to the 1700s in Franklin County, Vermont.) A baker by trade, John and his family lived at 322 New York Ave., Newark, New Jersey. Pictured from left to right are Dorothy, John, and John George.

John Sungala died on December 11, 1953, and was interred four days later at Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington, New Jersey.


The surname Sungela is a variation of the native Lithuanian surname Sungaila, which is one of the ancient two-root nobel surnames dating back to 1450. The first root "su", or "san", means "with" in English. The second root "gaila", or "galas", means "power". With Power. The armorials contain the following references to earlier variations of Sungaila:

• Arms Ogon'cyzk, adopted 1413; from the district of Lyda and Podlasie, Jerzy SANGAW was adopted into the Ogon'cyzk clan at Union of Horodlo/o.
• Arms Lis, adopted 1413; Lithuania. SA~GAJI/O
• Arms Pomian, recorded 1600; from Sa~gajliski in the district of Raseniai: SA~GAJL/O or S~AGYL/L/O or SAGAJL/O
• Arms unknown, recorded 1528; from Samogitia: SUNGAJL/OWICZ.
• Arms unknown, recorded 1528; from Sunkal/y in the district of Vilnius: SUNKOL/OWICZ.

Circa 1989 there were at least 94 instances of Sungaila in Lithuania, plus 13 Sangaila and 1 Sangalas.  Another variation is Songaila. The Lithuanian telephone book has more than 70 Sungaila entries.

In the United States the names have been spelled Sungala, Sungali, and Sungalia. We corresponded with several of these families in North America, but have yet to find a link to John Sungala. Nonetheless, here is a summary of their ancestry:

• John Sungaila, Peter Sungaila, and Paul Sungala were brothers born in Lithuania in the 1880s who emigrated to the United States around 1920.  They  settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.

• 

Petras (Peter), Albinas (Tony), and Jouzas (Joseph) Sungaila were brothers displaced from their native Lithuania during the second World War.  Petras and Albinas emigrated to Australia, while Jouzas and his wife emigrated to Canada in 1949 and settled in Toronto in 1955.

• 

Joseph Sungaila (b. circa 1895) was a "farmer of some stature" in Zemaitija before his property was nationalized in the early 1900s.  Among his children were Jonas and Antanina, who migrated to Canada in 1947 along with Jonas' wife and three children, Jonas, Eugenia, and Tomas.  Reportedly, Jonas Sr. had a cousin, also named Joseph, who emigrated to Canada about the same time.[Perhaps cousin Joseph is Jouzas in the preceeding bullet]

• Some of Vladislovas Sungaila's (b. circa 1840) grandchildren emigrated to the United States around 1900 and settled in Chicago. They and their distant cousins in Lithuania had children and grandchildren of their own. In depth and in breadth, this is the most extensive Sungaila ancestry documented to date.

Research Notes, Acknowledgments, and Links

I am grateful to Irene Guzewicz, Harold M. Shaposka, Robert Shauchunas, Barbara Sungaila, Irena Sungaila, Paul Sungaila, Rolandas Sungaila, Vladas Sungaila, Christine Sungala, and John Windsor for their time, insights, and contributions.

Links......TBD