Monday 31 March 2008

The Varno family

As mentioned in an earlier blog, it is believed that the Varno family was the first Lithuanians to arrive in South Australia on the ship the Skjold in 1841. Their names do not appear on the shipping list, but as the list is not complete its not surprising.
Today i found an entry in the Lobethal Register of Baptisms for 1848 while in the Lutheran Archives.
The entry reads:
Maria Elisabeth WARNAS, born 15 March 1848 at Light Pass, parents of August Ernst Warnas and Johanne Luise Warnas nee Schilling.

Could this be the Varno family? In German a W is pronounced as a V in English and because the reference to the family from Vanagas was in Lithuanian the way the surname was written was in a singular genitive (Not sure if that is correct) case and so appeared with an O ending rather than the nominative 'AS'.
The names are very German sounding as well, but if they were Lutherans it is possible that this would be the norm.
Will keep looking.

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