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ABOUT

Hello/Labas! I'm Andrew Kapochunas, and this blog site is one of two successor sites to the one I started in 2008: LithuanianMaps.com, which is now a static site, last updated March 31, 2021. In 2024 the Lithuanian Cartographic Society, with financial support from Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, launched a new, updatable version of LithuanianMaps.com: https://lietuvoskartografija.lt/lithuanianmaps/.

 

My history as a Lithuanian-American:

  • September, 1947: Andrius Kapočiūnas was born in the Lithuanian-Estonian Displaced Persons camp in Kempten - Allgäu, Germany

  • April, 1949: arrived in New York City, along with my parents and two sisters, to live in an apartment sponsored by one of my father's cousins, and her husband, in Blissville, Long Island City

  • Beginning in 1950, with both my parents working full time, and no access to full-day day care, my mother enrolls me at three different schools in three years: P.S. 1 and then P.S. 80 in Long Island City for kindergarten. After teachers at PS 80 refer to me and one of my sisters a "the little Nazis," I tell my mother I will never speak to her again in Lithuanian, so I can lose my accent.

  • In 1952, as a discovered five-year-old in second grade at PS 72 in Maspeth, Queens, I am removed from class by the principal, who entered my class to tell me, my teacher and classmates, that, because of my age, "I need to go back to kindergarten with the babies," for a third year.

  • September, 1954: as a seven-year-old, I told my second-grade teacher at P.S. 72 that my first name was Andrew. She accepts, and that becomes my first name from then on.

  • April, 1955: "Andrew Kapociunas" became a naturalized citizen of the United states

  • November, 1985: I legally changed my last name to Kapochunas to make it easier for me and my two children to pronounce and write my last name

  • Summer, 1988: bought my first antique map of the historic Lithuanian area

  • Fall, 1988: my daughter begins collecting postage stamps, rekindling my interest in the postage stamps of the Baltic states and Memel

  • 1990: I joined the Lithuanian Philatelic Society of New York, began writing for their Bulletin, and eventually became the bulletin's co-editor

  • 1990: I joined the Lithuania Philatelic Society, Chicago, and began writing for their Journal on both postage stamps and Lithuanian maps

  • 1991: I became a member and supporter of LitvakSIG, the JewishGen group for those interested in exploring their ancestors' roots in Lithuania. My LithuanianMaps.com website is soon hotlinked on their site, along with my offer to help members find their ancestral shtetls, and provide them with detail map images of that shtetl on antique maps of Lithuania

  • 1996: I made my first trip to Lithuania to meet my first cousins and their families. I returned in 1998, in 2001 with my family, in 2003 with my oldest sister, in 2005 with my oldest sister, in 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, and my last visit: 2019

  • 2008: I build my first website: LithuanianMaps.com

  • 2013: I give my first presentation on maps at Seton Hall University, NJ: "The influence of maps on society and art"

  • 2014: I join the New York Map Society, am invited to join its board as Secretary, and volunteer to create a new website for it, becoming its Webmaster, too

  • 2014: my and my parents' story are part of the exhibition "No Home to Go To" hosted by the Balzekas Museum in Chicago. I attend the traveling show at the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington, DC

  • February 2016: I give a talk at the main branch of the New York Public Library: "How Maps and Map Collecting Helped an Immigrant Find His Place in the World"

  • Spring 2017: part of my collection of Lithuanian maps is displayed at the Consulate General of Lithuania in New York City.: "300+ Years of Lithuania on Maps - 1552 - 1862." I give a presentation there on opening night: "How Maps and Map Collecting Helped Me Find My Place in the World."

  • July 2017: I represent the Lithuanian Cartographic Society in Washington, DC at a meeting of global cartographic societies

  • March, 2019: I decide to sponsor a yearly cash award of 500 Euros, to be given to a resident of Lithuania, for the best
    environmental-themed map depicting a problem in Lithuania, a map whose dissemination I hope will raise awareness
    and a drive for remediation.

  • November, 2019: I go to Vilnius, Lithuania, to present the first Environmental Map Award to Danas Augutis of the Lithuanian Nature Fund (Lietuvos gamtos fondas), analyzing trees in Kaunas Oak Forest, and proposing treatment and maintenance to keep the trees in good shape. The next day Danas gives me and my ffirst cousins a personal tour of Kaunas' forest park 

  • December, 2020: given the pandemic, I virtually present to the winner of the 2020 Environmental Map Award: Marijus Pileckas, lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, focusing on wetlands, the environment, and water resources
    management. His maps were created as part of a European Union-funded project: "Reduction of the negative impact of alien invasive plant species on ecosystems and human well-being in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border region."

  • January, 2021: I launch LithuanianJournal.org

  • 2024: the Lithuanian Cartographic Society launches the successor site to LithuanianMaps.com

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