BUTKUS

(and variations)

The following is a listing of the spellings I've seen thus far in my research or heard of from other researchers: BUDKIEWICZ, BUTKAJTIS, BUTKAS, BUTKIS, BUTKO, BUTKOWSKI, BUTKUS, BUTKYS, BUITKUS, BUYTKUS, BUTKESEVICIUS, BUTKIEVICIUS, BUTKIEWICZ.

BORN A BUTKUS

Butkus is a Lithuanian name. It commonly appears in the Polish form BUTKIEWICZ, which may be lithuanianized to BUTKIEVIC~IUS. The root is the Lithuanian verb _buti_ "to be", "to exist", "to live". A Butkus/Butkys would presumably be someone as necessary as life itself.

Poland and Lithuania formed a union in 1386 which continued up to the time that both countries were partitioned and occupied in three stages by Prussia, Russia, and Austria (1772, 1793, 1795). Lithuania fell to Russia as the result of the Partitions, and did not regain her independence until 1918. Consequently, Lithuanians immigrating to America around the turn of the century to escape Russian tyranny are commonly described as Russian subjects.

At the time of the Union, Poland had been Christian (and literate) for 400 years. Consequently, the Polish language had a very large cultural head start, and Polish became the language of record, the language of the nobility in Lithuania. Polish was spoken by most people in Vilnius.

The above information was given to me by David Zincavage and I appreciate his continued efforts to aid and educate his fellow Lithuania researchers! He pointed out to me that the fact that my ancestors spoke Polish might simply mean he was from the neighborhood of Vilnius, but it might also mean he was from the gentry. David also pointed out the Kasprzycki lists one BUTKAJTIS, and 8 BUTKIEWICZ families appearing in the Polish armorials. There are 1021 Butkus', 38 Butkys', 5 Butkis', and 459 Butkevicius' in Lithuania circa 1985.

~SIGH~ This tells me I have a big job ahead of me, as I cannot even locate more than one BUTKUS so far that I am actually related to! How about you?

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