Lithuanian Americans
  | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Illinois, Pennsylvania | |
| Languages | |
| American English, Lithuanian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominately Roman Catholic | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Lithuanians, Prussian Lithuanians, Latvian American |
Lithuanian Americans are citizens of the United States who are of Lithuanian ancestry. According to the 2000 US census, there are 659,992 Americans of full or partial Lithuanian descent. The states with the largest Lithuanian-American populations are:[1]
| Illinois | 87,294 |
| Pennsylvania | 78,330 |
| California | 51,406 |
| Massachusetts | 51,054 |
| New York | 49,083 |
Chicago, Illinois, is home to the second largest population of Lithuanians in the world. The small coal town of New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the highest percentage of Lithuanian Americans in the United States. Many famous people in the United States are aware of their Lithuanian ancestry, including Robert Zemeckis, John C. Reilly, Pink, Anthony Kiedis, Charles Bronson, Brandon Flowers, Tom Leykis, Brendon Small and Bishop Louis Vezelis, OFM. Current Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin is half-Lithuanian.
Many American sport celebrities have Lithuanian heritage: Johnny Unitas, Vitas Gerulaitis, Frank Lubin, Dick Butkus and Joe Jurevicius, to mention a few. Most notable representatives of modern art from Lithuania are Jonas Mekas, avant-garde fillmmaker and George Maciunas, founder of Fluxus movement.
Hannibal Lecter, the fictional villain from The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal was born in Lithuania but later moved to the United States and took US citizenship.
The Lithuanian-American community in Grand County, Colorado, is unusual in that it is the only sizeable immigrant population in an otherwise fairly homogeneous population in a rural, mountainous community. There is a small but vibrant Lithuanian community in Presque Isle, Maine. But perhaps the largest Lithuanian community can be found in the Coal Region of northeastern Pennsylvania, especially in Schuylkill County; the small borough of New Philadelphia has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (twenty-five percent).
Large numbers of Lithuanians first came to the United States in 1867-1868 after a famine in Lithuania.[2]
There was another mass emigration during World War 2 In relation to the Russian occupation of Lithuania.
See also
References
- ^ Euroamericans.net: Lithuanians in America
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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