Vidunas Family Research: Albina Viduniute Baliutiene Zekas

#NotMyVidunas

about 1890, birth

This one will be short and sweet.

I found a record for a Miss Albina Viduniute who married Julijanas Zekas in Pennsylvania. At first, I thought they were the same Zekas family with Albin and Josephine as children living in Pittsburgh PA, but then I found the marriage record for Josephine who lists her mother's maiden name as Green. Well, just goes to show you that you cannot extrapolate information unles you truly! know it absolutely connects with your person.

Albina Viduniute 1910 marriage

We can glean quite a bit of information from this document, but not nearly enough, don't you know. The marriage was 29 May 1910 in Lawrence Massachusetts. Her maiden name was Albina Viduniute (the female unmarried variation on Vidunas), and that, at the tender age of 20, she was already a widow, and her first husband was Baliutas (her married name would be Baliutiene) and that he died before 1910.

We know that her new husband is Julijanas Zekas, and her new married name would be Albina Zekiene. Based on his age on the marriage document, we can calculate he was born about 1887 in Lithuania to parents Mykolas Zekas and Antanina Jenavyciute Zekiene. His address is 125 Elm, Lawrence MA and he is a Mill Operative.

Albina was born about 1890 in Lithuania to parents Ipolitas Vidunas and Mare Zitkauckyte Viduniene. The document shows this is her second marriage and that she is widowed. Her address is 82 Allen, Lawrence MA, and she also is a Mill Operative.

They were married by Reverend A. Jusaitis, a Priest.

I have run several searches but found nothing I can really claim for this family. Here is her profile on Family Search as well as her Geni.com Profile.

Interestingly, on my Legacy Family software I have Ipolitas Vidunas with no marriage, a child of Kazimeras and Ona Zautraite Vidunas. Are they the same man?

So, that's it! Not much. If you have information to add, let me know using the comment form on the right, or make a comment below. Hope this information finds the right Vidunas folk!

Miscellaneous Information

Mill Operative

So, let's explore some other things. We can look at the occupations, Mill Operative. What was it like to work in the mills? A google search with terms including 1910 Mill Operative Lawrence MA came up with some interesting information. It is a non-creditable source, but Wikipedia is a good place to start your search. We will both start and finish here.

Massachusetts militiamen with fixed bayonets surround a group of peaceful strikers from WikiPedia

Two years after our happy couple married, the textile industry in Lawrence Massachusetts went on strike. Apparently, the manufacturer applied a two hour pay cut because the law changed making hours shorter for women. The Industrial Workers of the World started the strike which eventually included nearly every mill in Lawrence. It lasted for more thant two months in the darkest part of winter. People died, people were framed. IWW leaders finally sent the hungry children around to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont in an effort to create a sympathy vote. This brought about congressional hearings, exposure of the shocking conditions in the mills, and ended when the mill owners decided to give workers raises of up to 20 percent. A year after that, however, the IWW was effectively broken in Lawrence. 1912 Lawrence textile strike, Wikipedia