Thursday, August 19, 2021

23andShe


For those following my 23andMe mysteries, I decided to surprise my mom with a kit for her upcoming 80th birthday. (It shipped yesterday.) Will keep you posted once I find out where her German DNA up and went. On a related note, Damian and I are planning our latest "If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium" vacation, which in addition to more obivous cities like Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm also includes a stop in Lithuania, from where my maternal grandfather's parents -- Boleslaus Kulikauckas and Elizabeth Bielskas -- emigrated to the United States in 1901.


Because Lithuania and its Baltic counterparts are all in the European Union, we're hoping the CDC and the EU work something out to create a Covid travel pass to make getting around easy. (Speaking of the EU, I'm hoping a technicality might allow me to get a EU-friendly Lithuanian passport by descent.) Vilnius looks cosmopolitan with historic churches, museums and the Neris River running through the city center, so it should be interesting even if I can't dig up any family connections. Please get in touch if you've been and have any advice.

2 comments:

jeff said...

make Antwerp a stop on you tour in Belgium, its a GREAT city

Tom said...

I was able to get an Austrian passport because my father and grandparents had their Austrian citizenship taken away in 1938 with the Nazi takeover. It's much more difficult in some countries than others. My husband's mother came to the US from the Netherlands and he can't get citizenship there. Lithuania may be easier.