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The town of Gataučiai is Roland’s homeland. His family has lived here for 350 years. According to Roland, although to some it may seem like broken numbers, this is a truth that is not so difficult to verify.
“There are metrics from the Linkuva parish, according to which this data can be traced. In 1671, Gataučiai and Pupiniai are already mentioned. My ancestor Matthew is born. Since then, the town has been alive and we live in it,” he says. the historian.
PHOTO GALLERY. Roland and his wife have been building their home for 100 years.
The move was driven by his wife.
Roland says he grew up in the village himself. Until the age of 8 he lived in various towns, as his father was an agronomist and was assigned to a different collective farm, so the family moved to a new place each year.
“After that, I lived in Pakruojis for 10 years. After the restoration of Lithuanian independence, Dad recovered the family legacy: a house in Gataučiai. The land and the house that I am repairing were returned, and the other house that is in that land was bought.
We returned to Gataučiai with great enthusiasm as everyone was happy to have managed to regain the family property. Later I went to study at university and finally spent 15 years in Vilnius. Later I lived abroad for 4 years. At that time, my parents were gradually developing in Gataučiai; They still lived in Pakruojis, but little by little they repaired a house, cultivated gardens and managed the environment. In 2019, I came up with the need to join, ”he says.
There are two houses in the bean area, one belonging to the grandfather and the other to the great-grandfather.
“Grandfather’s house was repaired by his parents, it’s the house where his father grew up. I also lived there for a time with my wife Aquile. Now I’m renovating my great-grandfather’s house, which we hope to move to at the end of the summer. two houses are separated by a bank. Great-grandfather’s house was uninhabited. Unless someone only stays overnight in summer, “he says.
When asked if his wife Akvilė was not opposed to moving to a town with only 11 registered without Roland, the man smiles saying that if it weren’t for her, the dream of returning to Gataučiai would not have come true.
“When we met Aquile, we started talking about dreams. I started talking, maybe I need to take out a loan, buy an apartment in Kaunas, because I didn’t want to live in Vilnius anymore, kids, let you go to kindergarten after that and everything else.
And she asked me what I really wanted. I said I wanted to renovate my great-grandfather’s house. She said, “Okay, that’s what we do.” It’s all thanks to her. She is a full resident of Kaunas – her parents, grandparents are from Kaunas, her grandparents also lived in the city. If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I would have implemented that idea now. I see that everything is real ”, he smiles.
He wanted to know the generations of his family.
Roland is not only a medieval historian, but he also worked as a tour guide before the pandemic. Especially in Italy. Traveling through small Italian towns and villages that have been around for 800 years, they heard incredible stories that made me think.
“For example, the owner of a local vineyard comes in and says that he is the 10th generation of the family. That means you know all of your ancestors in 500-600 years. I am very fascinated by that continuity when you know that their grandparents, parents and probably their own children and grandchildren will live here. This phenomenon leaves a great impression and you start to wonder why it is not like this with us. Of course, we had deportations, the Holocaust, the genocide and all the ties. However, some connections can be unearthed and those foundations restored, as life would be very sad.
The time has come for me to think, and who is behind you? How does the family survive, how does the relative survive? Either you give birth or you adopt, but that end still comes. Now I see that I am myself, a brother, some cousins, a second cousin and a foundation that you are already the last generation. It will come to an end or you can do something. Of course, sometimes a natural tip is needed. But I thought you wanted to do something about it. I thought I could give it a shot at what was to come after me, ”he says.
According to Roland, many people in Lithuania can do the same as him, because a lot of Lithuanians have grandparents ‘or grandparents’ houses, but we always find excuses why not.
“It is a luxury in Europe and few people have it. The second home is actually a great luxury and for us almost every second has a legacy of grandparents. I thought, and why not repair 300 square kilometers for the same money. meters of house with an area of 2.5 hectares than would have bought a part of the country house 20 km from Vilnius. And all to be closer to work.
For me, the geographical location was important for my story, for its continuity. It gives me a completely different meaning. When you come to Gataučiai, you will see a burned house, another burned house, a kemsyna and you will say that Rolandai, you did not talk a little like that. But I see it with different eyes, I see that it can be good for me, I see the future in it. This place is unique to me ”, he smiles.
A house that is almost 100 years old
Roland is pleased that the condition of the house was not bad: it was adapted for guests staying overnight during the summer. Of course, you couldn’t expect great amenities here – there was no heat or plumbing, but there was electricity.
The house itself, where Aquile and Roland will live, is rectangular in shape and divided into three parts of 60 square meters each. However, the previous occupants of the house had divided these facilities into smaller living spaces.
“Over time, when the house did not belong to our family, more people lived in it and the rooms began to be divided into smaller spaces. Many of those walls do not even deserve the name of the walls: some of them were made of cardboard or the partitions were made of bricks that were not paved, but simply covered with clay. Thus, the whole house was divided into many small spaces.
We knocked down all the aerial walls and left only two originals. We also wanted underfloor heating, so we peeled it off. We found that a double deck had been laid – one laid at the bottom, then rafters and covered with a second, and the floors between the floors were padded to keep it warmer. Original underfloor heating from 1926, but we couldn’t put them down, “says Roland.
Unexpected findings on the roof of the house
This repair helped Roland get to know past generations of the family as well. Unexpected discoveries involving family members awaited the man on the roof of the house, but what he found under the floor did not make him any less interested.
“I didn’t find anything very special under the floor, but there was a garbage pit there. This testifies that where the house was built and before the action occurred, it was not built on a green field. When I started digging that garbage pit, I found a piece of pottery, pieces of glass, a bottle of interwar beer. But at the same time, I found a plastic chess piece. And in 1925, there was no plastic. So there are questions about how it got there, ”the man reflects.
He discovered most of the discoveries on the ceiling. The ceiling was double: an infill was placed between the layers of the ceiling, where Roland was waiting for various things.
“They were mostly all kinds of scraps of paper, but I found letters and a candlestick, kerosene lamp holders. For me, the most important thing was the written information. I found a letter for my great-grandmother’s oldest daughter, Emilia, when she was 18 years old. As I understand it, it was written by your former gentleman. This is the longest four-page letter with apologies, emotions, stories, because she found out in Linkuva city market that he allegedly insulted her.
Elsewhere, I found documents sent to my great-grandfather from Lietūkis. These contracts were shipped on October 19, 1937. I found that contract posted in a place near the fireplace. It was very interesting for me because great-grandfather was a farmer. The agreement asked whether he would agree to enter into an agreement with Lietūkis to grow potatoes for 1938-1939. It was further written that LTL would pay 2.5 percent.
Then it was described how to plant the potatoes so that they are not closer than 40 cm from each other. My dad is an agronomist and reading those instructions, he said that even now we also plant potatoes. This shows that in 1937 there was advanced agriculture in Gataučiai ”, smiles the historian.
He also found a contract for the cultivation of real fescue seeds.
“It is very interesting that he wrote in the letter that after examining the seeds, their purity was 99 percent and germination 75 percent. Looking at it, my father says that it is of incredible quality and that those requirements still apply today. In those contracts, I found another letter from the recovery department that great-grandfather had to supervise the recovery channel. In our lands, land reclamation channels appeared in the interwar period, although they are associated with the Soviet era, ”says the man.
The sweetest discovery deep down
While examining the roof, Roland also found shares of the Latvian Farmers Economic Society worth 100 rubles: “Now they would be worth 3,600 euros, but the company went bankrupt a long time ago. Who would have thought that someone from the town of Gataučiai has shares ”, laughs Rolandas.
But what touched me the most was my grandfather’s notebook in French. This grandfather died before Roland was born, so he lost sight of him.
“But it goes, in my hands your notebook. You see the written margins, the attempts to create your signature. I noticed that his signature was the same as mine. I can see how well they were taught. The sentence is written and I see all the errors corrected. I understood how they were taught to write and speak correctly. And not just grammatically, but structurally. I was also impressed by the fact that at Linkuva Gymnasium she taught to speak French and her other grandfather’s brother was learning German, describing his family in German.
In the gym, grandfather’s brother described traditional school performance to the school newspaper. Every year at the Linkuva Gymnasium, during the Three Kings Festival, high school students put on a performance starring my grandfather, his brothers and sisters, my father, and his brothers and sister. I myself graduated from school in Pakruojis, so I did not play there ”, smiles the historian, travel guide Rolandas Pupinis.
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