Hello,
Does any one have a Lithuanian Surname Dictionary that can look up the origin or meaning of the last name GRIGULA. This is my grandmothers maiden name and she was born and lived in Lithuania from 1917-1955. Thank you so much for your time and help it is greatly appreciated.

Susan

Hi,
Grigalius is lithuanianised christian name Gregor(greek). In this case Grigalius is shortened to Grigas and then diminitive suffix -ul is added. There are a lot of surnames with root Grig- in my dictionary. Hope it helps.

Ps.: Grigula most popular in Varniai, Kražiai, Rietavas, Tveriai and Klaipėda districts. The surname is probably of samogitian descent because it is almost nonexistent east of Samogitia (West Lithuania).


I just saw your other thread. If you have time Kražiai Church records are available for you http://www.epaveldas.lt (just copy-paste Kražių in Antraštė form and uncheck bibliotekos and muziejai). Unfortunately the written language is Latin and russian (from about 1800).

Hello,

Thank you so very much for your reply, I am most grateful for the information.

I will search the records you have suggested as I do have time and I have the Russian Alphabet to Polish, German and English. Will take time as this will be the first time that I will use it but I should be able to find her and her parents. One step closer, thank you again for your kindness.

Susan

Just to clarify some lithuanian terms:

gimimo - birth
mirties - death
santuokos - matrimony

Good luck!

Thank you, I am in the Church books now and searching in the years that I think that my great grandparents were born. If I remember correctly my grandmother was only 19 0r 18 when she gave birth to my mother. So I am looking in the 1977-1989 records first to see what I can make out.

Again, thank you

Susan

Correction 1897-1899


Susan

Susan,

Here's what someone sent me regarding what it says in Vanagas:

We find in Vanagas' Dictionary:

1:714:

GRIGUILA 1 Alsedz^iai
GRIGULA 26: 1 Kuliai, 5 Kraz^iai, 5 Kvedarna (with long accent on the U), 13 Rietavas, 5 Tverai, 1 Varniai.

The patronymic root is obviously Grigalis, Grigalius = Gregory.

I believe the locations of people with this surname is from around 1955 before everyone moved to the big cities (e.g., Vilnius, Kaunas)

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks, this is great and makes a lot of sense now that I see when the name became Grigula in 1955. That is when my grandmother immigrated to Canada and would have used that spelling. I can also now search for the other spellings that show up in Kraziai as that is where she is from. One of those 5 if not all have to be related to her.

Again, thank you so much for your time and help with this, much appreicated.

Susan

Susan,

My reference to 1955 was the approximate time period that the numbers for the distribution of the surname in various parts of Lithuania came from.

Because there may be as many as 50,000 different Lithuanian surnames (as many in Germany with its much larger population), you find many surnames with only 5 or 10 listings in the entire country.

Tom S.