Lithuania Travel Forum

Slowly our trip to Lithuania is coming together. will be there September 18 2008 for 5 days. We do not speak Lithuanian, so I am looking for English speaking person to help us with information on where to start genealogy search and to locate long lost family members.

I would suggest you join a genealogical association of some sort (maybe through Rootsweb) so that you can return the free services you want from someone in Lithuania, or see http://www.lithuaniangenealogy.org/

thank you for you for your ideas. They were helpful
I did not say I wanted it for free.

thank you for you for your ideas. They were helpful
I did not say I wanted it for free.

I think you should contact Vilnius Tourist Information centre:
Vilniaus str. 22 (Main Office), LT-01119 Vilnius
Ph. +370 5 262 9660, fax +370 5 262 8169
E-mail: tic@vilnius.lt
, link http://www.vilnius-tourism.lt/topic.php?tid=70
. Their duty is to help for free, so they can provide you with a requested information (for free), just you should tell them all your story, and indicate that it is not very urgent. I don't know what the answer might be like, but i think they could recommend you a reliable private guide or so. Tell them the names of the villages you're going to visit to make it clear what kind of problem you may have. Language and pronunciation may be very serious obstacle dealing with locals in the countryside of Ignalina district, and expect that it may be quite complicated to find these villages even with a map and even for lithuanian who haven't been to this remote area before. And the best option would be to deal with a professional guide from Ignalina itself, who could take care of you in general.

I think you might be dreaming if you think the tourist office in Vinius will be able to help in matters of Genealogy. They are there for tourist information and not necessarily looking for family members. As far as Ignalina is concerned: There is a hotel/resort near a lake where you can stay that is not too expensive and there is a restaurant attached to it. Prhaps they could find you a local guide to find your relatives places. From Vilnius take the train that goes to Turmantas. It is just less than 2 hours to Ignalina and cost is about 13 LTL one way. There are 5 or 6 trains per day. If you want to know the name of the hotel, write to my VTMAIL address and I will look thru my notes for it. I was there in 2006, 2007, and three weeks ago in 2008.

Jonellis, i appreciate your sense of irony, I just suggested one of the possible solutions to find an english speaking person for the certain purpose: to help visit some 3 villages (look one of the previous threads). Of course, if it is not an issue, my suggestion can be easily ignored, no problem.

I have been to the tourist office and they only can tell you about trains, buses and planes, Etc to different places. The English speaking people in that office were very young women who took English in school. They try to be helpful, but it is doubtful they know about the rural areas near Ignalina. At the train Station in Ignalina there is always taxis and some of the drivers speak some English. They might be better qualified to ask about small Villages in that area. There may also be someone in the Village of DUKSTAS which is just North of there that could help. My experience has been that when one looks for English Speakers in Lithuania or Latvia, the best chance is young women between 18 and 25. south of Ignalina the train stops at some really small places like Zeimene, Svencioneliai, Pakretuone. And north of Ignalina at Lobiniai, and Gerkonys in addition to Dukstas as mentioned before. Some of these look like no more than 3 or 4 houses from the train.But I think Ignalina would be the best starting point.

Thank you brr & Jonellis for your suggestions. You are kind to be so helpful.
I am not staying in Ignalina as our plans there are for a day trip. I will try both your ideas. I am getting very good advice on this forum which should make my trip wonderful.
Thanks again

Why not tot ry this very detailed on-line map of Lithuania?
http://www.maps.lt/beta/Default.aspx?lang=en