Anthony John Yakas

Anthony John Yakas (the gentleman seated in the photo) was my paternal grandfather. The others in the photo are his wife Jadviga "Ida" and his two oldest children Ida (standing) and Anthony (sitting). Anthony John was born on Sept 12th 1892 in Sileli, Lithuania (self reported place of birth on his WWII draft registration card - see below). He arrived from Lithuania in 1909 and lived with his Aunt and Uncle Pauline and James Isadore Yakas in 1910 at 49 Whitman street in New Britain, Conn. 1909, the year of his immigration, was 9 years before Lithuanian independence and the region of Lithuanian was controlled by a combination of Lithuanian nationalists, Russians, Germans and Poles. It was also 5 years before the German take over of the area at the start of WWI. The nationality of the Yakas family is reported as Russian in 1910, and Lithuanian from the 1920's onward.
Anthony John had a 6th grade education presumably gained in Lithuania. He was granted US citizenship on Sept 23rd, 1923. He and Jadviga married in 1914 and were living at 48 Williams street in New Britain in 1930, where he continued to live until his death Oct 14th 1951 at age 58. Also at the same address lived the Giddix family with son Leonard (age 6 in 1930) who were life long friends and who were also from Lithuania.
Anthony John and his wife had three children Jadviga "Ida", Anthony, and Robert, born in 1916,1918, and 1929 respectively (all appear on the 1930 census). By 1930 his occupation was reported as a "polisher-buffer" at a "hardware plant" presumably in New Britain. He was never in the military. His cause of death is said (by family reports) to have been stomach cancer.

There has been considerable confusion as to when the family changed its name from Yakas to Hicks, why they did so, and why the name Hicks. The family referred to themselves as "Hicks" on the 1910 census, along with a family of cousins living nearby. All other references afterwards and through to Anthony John's death certificate in 1951 have Yakas as the last name. His three children were also referred to by Yakas on the 1930 and 1940 censuses. It seems that the children changed their names to Hicks after their fathers death in 1951 (although Ida was already a Bartusiewicz by 1944).
Family history reports a vague story about Hicks being a way of spelling "X", implying that the family was unable to write or spell on arrival to America and simply had to sign their last name as X. I do not find this to ring true since different family arrived at different times from Lithuania, and Anthony John had a 6th grade education when he arrived which should include the ability to spell his own name! Also, the family seems to have agreed to go by one name or another all at the same time. I have yet to see a mixing of Yakas and Hicks names on a single document. My guess is they all felt that a name like Hicks sounded more American so they used it earlier on and only after becoming comfortable with their ethnicity did they revert back to Yakas. I have not yet determined why they chose the name Hicks.



(Above is his draft registration for WWII)

Bob