Newspaper Wednesday -- Ambrose Vidunas 1893-1962

Ambrose Vidunas 3-Generation Pedigree
from Ancestry.com

The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, Pennsylvania) ·  Wed, Apr 21, 1954 ·  Page 21
Downloaded on Mar 11, 2017 from Newspapers.com

It started with this newspaper clipping I found as I searched for every instance of Vidunas in Newspapers.com.


Ambrose Vidunas.  He bought property on 213 East Green street, West Hazleton.

Below are Google Map views of his house as it looks today.  It probably didn't look that much different then.

213 East Green Street, West Hazelton
Google Maps 2017

213 East Green Street, West Hazelton
Google Maps 2017

213 East Green Street, West Hazelton
Duplex on left of white house
Google Street View, 2017

 Ambrose also went by Vidun, as evidenced by his WWII Draft Card.  Here, in 1942, he was living at 213 E. Green Street in West Hazelton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.  He was 49 years old, was born 29 November 1893 in Lithuania.  Guess I'll have to find his immigration records.

He worked for the Lattimer Coal Company in Lattimer, Luzerne, Pennsylvania.  It seems to be his own signature.  Interesting, the Mrs. Rose Jenkus is his sister Rose Vidunas Chenkus.  She was living with her husband on 46 Jefferson Ave, West Hazelton.  Ambrose was tall at 5'11" weighing in at 157 pounds.  He had gray eyes, gray hair and light complexion.  He had no physical deformities.

Ambrose Vidunas WWII Draft Card, 1942

This is Ambrose's death certificate.  He was 68 years old, working as a Bartender.  His name was listed as "Vidunius."  He was living at 329 West Green Street, West Hazleton, was married but the informant, Mrs Joseph Boris of 329 W. Green Street cannot remember his wife's name, but only knew they had separated.  She did not know his parents' names.  He died of Anthro-Silicosis and Emphysema, made worse by his pneumonia.  He is buried at Sts Peter & Paul Lithuanian cemetery in Hazleton.

Ambrose Vidunas death certificate 1962

Below is his obituary, found in Ancestry.com and was downloaded from Newspapers.com.  It reads:

Ambrose Vidunias, 239 West Green Street, West Hazleton, died at 7:20 a.m. yesterday at St. Joseph Hospital where he had been a patient since Sunday.

Born in Lithuania, he resided most of his life in West Hazleton.

He was last employed as a bartender at Chenkus' Cafe, West Hazleton

This would be his sister's cafe, by the way

The deceased was a member of Ss. Peter and Paul's Lithuanian Church

 Surviving are a daughter, Mrs (Helen) Boris, West Hazleton, wife of Justice of the Peace Joseph A. Boris; one granddaughter; two great grandchildren; a sister, Mrs. Rose Chenkus, West Hazleton; three brothers and two sisters in Europe.

The funeral will be held from the Pusti Funeral Home, 480 West Broad street ....  Interment will be in the parish cemetery.

This provides the answer as to who Mrs Boris is on the death certificate.  How sad that she did not know her grandparents' names, even, nor this man's wife.

Ambrose Vidunas obituary 1962
found on Ancestry.com, clipped from Newspapers.com

Here is the video discussing this information