Scots?
Martha Donald came to Australia with a Scottish name despite possibly never having been outside the Baltic States or Germany before. She had married and divorced another Estonian with this most non-Estonian surname, Donald. His forenames were very Estonian though: August Voldemar. His father and grandfather before him were born in Estonia: any Scottish connection might have started with the great grandfather or earlier.
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| Martha Donald's colourised photo from her selection for Australia papers Source: National Archives of Australia |
Stanislovas Blažaitis, on the other hand, had been born in Scotland on 3 August 1906 (although one record says 1908), despite the very Lithuanian name.
Stays Blažaitis, colourised photo from his Bonegilla card
The Blažaitis family
Economic migration from Lithuania after the famine of 1867-88 and into early 20th century took many people as far away as the United States, Canada, South Africa, and even Australia, but others only got as far as Scotland or England. It looks like Stanislovas‘ parents or maybe even his grandparents were part of this movement.
Stanislovas‘ father was also Stanislovas, born in 1884. His mother was Katrina Lapinckute, born in 1878. Both lived in the village of Carfin in North Lanarkshire in the central lowlands of Scotland. Stanislovas senior lived on Bell Row while Katarina lived on Back Brick Row. Neither street still exists in Carfin according to Google Maps. Indeed, if anything, the whole village looks from the air as if it has been rebuilt since World War II.
Regardless, the two parents, Stanislovas, then aged 19 and working as a miner in the Carfin coal mines, and Katrina, aged 25, were married in Carfin’s Roman Catholic Church on 26 September 1903. They were to have 7 children altogether, but 2 of them died very young.
The Blažaitis family returned to now independent Lithuania on 15 May 1921, when Stanislovas junior was 14 years old. Unverified data shows that he initially lived in Kaunas. Stanislovas Blažaitis (in some documents simply Stasys) graduated from high school there. In 1928-30 he served in the Lithuanian army attaining the rank of non-commissioned officer.
Stasys in Lithuania and Germany
According to data from the first census of Lithuanian police officers in 1932, he was working as an ordinary guard with the border police of Pagulianka village, Ukmergė county.
He met his future wife, Konstancija Janonytė-Pociūnaitė, in Kernavė, Širvintos district. There he rented a room from his future wife's parents and worked as a policeman in the border service in the village of Gurakolnė. They married on 11 February 1934, when Stasys was aged 28, and continued to live in Kernavė.
On 27 September 1935, he was admitted to the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union.
According to data from the Lithuanian census of 27 May 1942, he and his family now were living in the town of Karmėlava near Kaunas. He is known to have worked as a police officer in the Kaunas County until 4 February 1943.
When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviets from August 1944, Stanislovas left for Germany. His wife and 5 children (4 sons and a daughter) stayed in Lithuania.
The Arolsen Archives have only one record for him, from an index compiled in the early 1980s from small sets of cards. Unfortunately, the handwriting in this record is such that neither the eye nor Google Translate’s phone app can decipher where he was or what work he was doing although, and it is a big although, one entry dated 17 May 1945 seems to read Wehrmacht, German for the Nazi Armed Forces.
This being the case, it is probably that he did not desert his wife and family, but was forcibly taken from them due to his position in the Lithuanian forces then fighting with the Germans against the Soviet Union.
The record of his interview with the Australian selection panel confirms this idea, as it says, ‘Forcibly brought by the Germans’. It also records that, at the time of his application for Australia, he was living in Camp Riga in coastal Lübeck, a camp which must have been set up to house Latvians. Among the languages he knew, English was second only to Lithuanian and ahead of Russian and Polish. His English language skills were described as “very fair” – probably as positive a description as anyone was going to get from this panel. Strangely, German was not mentioned.
Martha in Germany
The Arolsen Archives have been able to digitise 11 records for Martha Donald, all with the same birthdate of 9 April 1912 or, in one case, her maiden name of Kivipuur. They tell us that she was born in Harku vald, a local government area close to the western side of Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn.
Her parents were Johannes Kivipuur and Leena, formerly Tramm. The two languages she knew already when being registered as a Displaced Person were Estonian and German. Her previous place of residence was in Tallinn. Her place of residence in Germany was Marburg-Lahn, where she worked in local the Universität Ohrenklinik or University Ear Clinic.
We don’t know what kind of work she was doing there. Indeed, her previous occupation is not recorded either on the AEF DP Registration Record or the Australian selection panel’s interview record. There it was noted that she had 6 years of primary education and was suitable for work as a domestic. This was the occupation to which all the women were assigned unless they could type, had previous nursing experience or were young and presentable enough to work as waitresses in Government hostels in Canberra instead.
A fifth category for the chosen women was housemaid, but the difference between this and domestic is difficult to discern today, when probably there are no women admitting to either occupation.
One Arolsen Archives list indicates that, on 13 June 1947, Martha had left Marburg-Lahn for an UNRRA camp in Hanau, over 100 Km to the southeast and still around two hours travel away. There was a major DP camp near Hanau, at Babenhausen, handed over to UNRRA by the US Army in May 1947, which was listed as Martha’s last address in her papers for migration to Australia.
Martha and Stasys Meet
Martha and Stasys sailed to Australia from the German port of Bremerhaven on the American military transport ship General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947. If Stays thought that he had left his wife and children temporarily, he knew by 1947 that there was no going back, not perhaps for a lifetime. Similarly, Martha may have known that August Donald had been rounded up by the Communists but would not have known that he had died in prison on 15 August 1947, a relatively youthful 45 years old.
Stasys was 41 years old when he left Europe. Martha was 35. At some stage before embarkation or in the next two months, the two met. Ann thinks that Stasys might have made the first move on learning her name, which seemed so obviously Scottish. After all, Scotland was where he had lived for the first 15 years of his life.
They were married in the Bonegilla camp at the start of a new year in a new country, on 1 January 1948. Despite Stasys’ Roman Catholic upbringing, they were married by the local Lutheran pastor, Bruno Muetzelfeldt.
Early Years in Australia
One week after the Heintzelman passengers arrived at the Bonegilla, on 15 December, Stasys had joined the camp staff. His maturity at the age of 41, his former employment as a policeman and border guard and the fact that he had grown up speaking English (but probably Lithuanian in the home) would have made him quite an asset. Martha joined the staff on that date too. Again, at the age of 35, she was more mature than most of the women.
They stayed on the staff until 25 October 1948. On 1 November, they left for new employment at the Beechworth Mental Hospital, in Victoria but less than 50 Km southwest of the Bonegilla camp.
You may have wondered why we earlier made of point of Stasys’ admission Lithuanian Riflemen's Union in 1935. His interest in shooting as a sport became apparent after the move to Beechworth, when the local newspaper, the Ovens and Murray Advertiser, had 18 mentions of Vytautas participating in competitions between July and October 1949.
Undoubtedly, he and Martha were released from their contract obligation to work where sent by the Employment Service on 30 September 1949, along with nearly all the other First Transport arrivals. They are likely to have moved away from Beechworth then, but we will not know more until the National Archives of Australia releases their citizenship application files.
They Become Australian Citizens
Thinking of citizenship, Stasys was so keen to do something about his that he advertised his intention to apply for naturalization under the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser as early as 4 June 1949. At that time, the Act required one year‘s residence immediately preceding the date of the application and another 4 years in the preceding 8 years, 5 years in all, although there were exceptions. Perhaps the Beechworth lawyers advising Stays, named in the advertisement, thought he might be eligible under one of the exceptions as someone who had spent his first 15 years in Scotland. They were wrong.
Stasys tried again together with Martha in February 1955, advertising together in the Melbourne Argus newspaper. On both occasions, the naturalization law required advertisements in 2 newspapers but the second advertisement has not been captured yet by the National Library’s Trove digitising service.
This time Stays was successful, along with Martha, when they took their oaths and received their citizenship certificates on 23 January 1958 (Martha) and 4 February 1958 (Stasys). Why there should have been 11 days between 2 separate ceremonies is an unknown. They then were living at 35 Cecil Street, Fitzroy, close to Melbourne’s central business district.
In those days, 35 Cecil Street might have been shared accommodation, like that in which Kostas Bušma lived. Due to the pause in home building during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II, this often was the only type of accommodation available to those who could not afford to buy land and build a house or buy an established house.
35 Cecil Street, Fitzroy, would have been designed and probably built in the 1880s,
and still has some of its original bluestone (basalt) paving in the street
Stasys took the English-language forename Stanley when he became a citizen.
In their first appearances on a digitised electoral roll, the 1958 and 1963 rolls for the State of Victoria, they were still at the Fitzroy address.
By the time the 1967 rolls were compiled, they were living in St Albans. This was a residential suburb only a few kilometres northeast of Melbourne’s centre. Martha was described as a machinist while Stasys was a guillotine operator, but we are not told the industries in which they were working.
Stasys Dies
On 14 September 1970, Stasys died of a heart attack while at work, at the age of 63. The Melbourne Lithuanian language newspaper, Tėviškės aidai, reported that he had married an Estonian and had been living without mixing with other Lithuanians. He was buried on 17 September in the Fawkner Cemetery from Melbourne’s Lithuanian (Roman Catholic) church.
Martha stayed at the St Albans address, according to the electoral rolls, but by 1977 she had moved closer to central Melbourne, in her own flat in the suburb of North Melbourne. Downsizing, we probably would call it now.
Martha dies
She was still there when a 1980 roll for the electorate including North Melbourne was compiled but another 1980 New South Wales roll shows that she had moved to the Estonian retirement village on Estonian Road, Thirlmere. She was back among people who spoke her mother tongue, many of whom would have understood the twists and turns in her life.
Normally the Estonian newspaper in Australia, Meie Kodu, would have carried numerous advertisements from family and friends after a person’s death. For Martha there was one only, on 3 February 1999. It gave no details. In the Estonian language, it said, “Rest in peace” and recorded that it had been inserted by the Eesti Abistamise Komitee, the Estonian Relief Committee. This was the organisation which had founded the Estonian Village, Thirlmere, and was still running it in 1999.
From a photograph of a plaque for Martha in the Thirlmere Cemetery, we see that she died on 18 January 1999. She was 86 years old. An entry in the very reliable Website, Australian Cemetery Index, has her buried in Wollongong, but the Administrator of the site thinks that this may be instead where her body was cremated.
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| Martha Blazatitis' plaque in the Thirlmere Cemetery, with her first name spelled as the Estonian Village administration thought it ought to be spelled; the Estonian reads, "Born (née) Kivipuur, in Harku local government area, in Estonia, Died in Picton: Rest in Peace" Source: Ken on Find A Grave |
Although Martha was well enough to make a donation to the Australian Estonians’ Rahvuskapital fund in 1983, we hypothesise that her health deteriorated quickly after she moved to Thirlmere, so soon that she was unable to make and keep friends there. Like Stasys not mixing with other Lithuanians in Melbourne, she possibly did not spend time with other Estonians there either, making friendships which might have followed her to Thirlmere.
Given that Martha was 11 years older than the average age of all the Heintzelman passengers and Stasys was 17 years older, they possibly felt that they had little in common with these younger people. Estonians and Lithuanians of their own age in the Melbourne communities mostly would have arrived before World War II or have been born here, not having life experiences in common with those of Martha and Stasys.
A person in poor health in the Estonian Village would have been cared for well, but possibly would have had little social interaction with other residents. This may well have been a lonely end. However, Martha may have been too unwell to notice.
SOURCES
‘AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP Registration Record, Donald, Martha, Folder DP0843, names from DON, RACHELA to DONNER, Herbert (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from D /’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66913948, accessed 11 May 2026.
Argus (1955) ‘Advertising’ Melbourne, Vic, 3 February, p 15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71631119, accessed 12 May 2026.
Australian Cemetery Index ‘Martha Blazaitis’ https://austcemindex.com/inscription?id=1157522, accessed 11 May 2026.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Registration as Australian Citizens’, Canberra, ACT, 2 October, p 3300 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240882361, accessed 12 May 2026.
Bonegilla Migrant Experience, ‘Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Stasys Blazaitis’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203693078, accessed 11 May 2026.
Bonegilla Migrant Experience, ‘Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Martha Donald’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203693079, accessed 11 May 2026.
Find A Grave ‘Marta (sic) Blazaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?fulltext=&firstname=marta&middlename=&lastname=blazaitis&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=&locationId=&bio=&linkedToName=&plot=&memorialid=&mcid=&datefilter=&orderby=r, accessed 15 May 2026.
Find A Grave ‘Stanislaus Blazaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212524938/stanislaus-blazaitis, accessed 12 May 2026.
Geni.com ‘August Voldemar Donald’ https://www.geni.com/people/August-Donald/6000000029438163871?through=6000000039104063771, accessed 12 May 2026.
Geni.com ‘Martha Lisette Blazaitis {Donald} (Kivipuur)’ https://www.geni.com/people/Martha-Lisette-Blazaitis-Donald/6000000039104063771, accessed 12 May 2026.
Kuchel, Rachel (2015) ‘A hearty welcome and new beginning’ Lutheran Church of Australia, 10 June https://www.lca.org.au/blog/2015/06/10/a-hearty-welcome-and-new-beginning/, accessed 10 May 2026.
Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1949) ‘Bonegillast, need, kes alustasid uut elu kahekesi’, (‘From Bonegilla, those who have started a new life as a couple’ in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 30 September, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85529251, accessed 11 May 2026.
Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1983) ‘Rahvuskapitali Tanu’ (‘National Fund Thanks’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 31 August, p 6 https://dea.digar.ee/cgi-bin/dea?a=d&d=meiekodu19830831.1.6&e=-------et-25--1--txt-txIN%7ctxTI%7ctxAU%7ctxTA-------------, accessed 12 May 2026.
My Heritage ‘Morkuniene Family Tree,
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 351, BLAZAITIS Stasys born 3 August 1908, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4695250, accessed 12 May 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; DONALD Martha DOB 9 April 1912, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005894, accessed 12 May 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; BLAZAITIS NEE DONALD MARTHA, BLAZAITIS (NEE DONALD), Martha : Year of Birth - 1912 : Nationality - ESTONIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1101, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693079, accessed 12 May 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; BLAZAITIS STASYS, BLAZAITIS, Stasys : Year of Birth - 1906 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 745, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693078, accessed 12 May 2026.
‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 ZM, 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST Nationality/origin of person listed : Estonian / 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Marburg/lahn (SK)’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70452790, accessed 12 May 2026.
‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 ZM, 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Marburg/lahn (SK)’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70452784, accessed 12 May 2026.
‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.2 HE 033 9 EST ZM, 2.1.1.2 HE 033 9 EST Nationality/origin of person listed : Estonian’, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70539799, accessed 12 May 2026.
‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.2 HE 033 11 EST ZM, 2.1.1.2 HE 033 11 EST Nationality/origin of person listed : Estonian,’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70539884, accessed 12 May 2026.
‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.1 HE 032 RUS 11 ZM, 2.1.1.1 HE 032 RUS 11 Information on foreigners extracted from files of social securities and employment agencies of the district Marburg/Lahn’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70451687, accessed 12 May 2026.
Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1949) ‘Advertising’ Beechworth, Vic, 4 June, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/268200609, accessed 15 May 2026.
Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1949) ‘Sweepstake Shoot To-Day’ Beechworth, Vic, 9 July, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/268193869, accessed 15 May 2026.
Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1949) ‘Rifle Shooting, Beechworth Club, To-day’s Shoot’, Beechworth, Vic, 8 October, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/268197421, accessed 15 May 2026.
Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1970) ‘Mirė Stasys Blazaitis‘ (‘Death of Stasys Blazaitis’ in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 29 September, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1970/1970-nr37-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 12 May 2026.
Wikipedia ‘Harku Parish’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harku_Parish, accessed 11 May 2026.
Wikipedia ‘Carfin’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfin, accessed 11 May 2026.
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