Not the first Lithuanians

Having got excited that I may have found the first Lithuanians in South Australia I'm pretty sure they weren't the WARNAS family. While the entry in the Lobethal birth records listed WARNAS, there were none in the SA BDM's. I did find Mathilde Bertha though, she was listed as WARNEST, her parents August Ernst WARNEST and Johanne Luise SCHILLING. August died young aged 36, his surname listed as WARNESS. There are two death entries for August, one in Angaston and one in Adelaide. The information on the BDM's index does not give place of birth or cause of death. This can only be gleamed from the original records. Also because August died early in SA history the records at that time did not contain much information. Hence a call to the Genealogy Society to look at the original only told me that he was a farmer and died of pneumonia.

The next step was to find an entry in the Biographical Index of SA. I found the family under WARNEST, it states they came out on the ship Catharina and were from Prussia. Johanne came from Lagmeil, Zullichau, which is not in Lithuania.

I have again searched the Skjold shipping list with no likely matches and then searched the shipping lists of ships coming from Germany to Australia. Again no VARNO. The Skjold was the only ship to come out to SA that year. You can search these lists online at http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/SAgermanindex.htm

I don't this Jonas Vanagas made a mistake, I would just love to view his records to confirm this information. The search continues.