The archives in Kaunas continued to provide much insight for our hardy group. After a very refreshing night’s sleep at the wonderfully air conditioned and comfortable Hotel Hof (right across the street from the archives) we were back at work bright and early.  It’s amazing how much progress can be made getting through 55 books of records when 5 people are doing the work.  We managed to finish the work we had begun on Thursday, just in time to meet with Gintaras Dručkus, the Director of the Archives, for the second day, this time we also met with Vitalija Gircyte, Head of the Department of Document Use. Vitalija had just returned from Warsaw where she had spoken at the IAJGS conference! They were both so gracious – it was a pleasure meeting with them and we are delighted that we will be able to work with them in the future.

Lindsay and Lina left our meeting a few minutes before the rest of us, to make an unanticipated but very necessary dentist visit for Lindsay who was extremely uncomfortable due to a cracked filling. Thankfully she was given some relief, but she does need some additional work which we hope will be taken care of in Vilnius on Tuesday while we are there doing research.

We spent the afternoon in the old city of Kaunas. We were all anxious to see the area as it might have looked during the time periods we are researching. Of course there are some slight additions to the scenery – namely cars – but many buildings look the same way they would have looked 100+ years ago.

We found an amusing photo opportunity as we wandered. I’ll let readers judge for themselves. As you can see from Lindsay’s laughing face, you can’t keep a good woman down!

We inadvertently stumbled across a series of events which were definitely not expected. It seems that Fridays are a top day for weddings in churches and also at the civil registry office. We just happened to have lunch right across from a square that had at least one church AND the civil registry office.

I have no idea what this means but it was so unusual, I couldn’t resist capturing it!