Olga Anna Rankis Stramat was born in Lithuanian. She told a story to John Browne. I am using some of this story here: Olga said I am a Litvac, ?A Litvac is a true Lithuanian." We lived on the southern border next to Russia and Poland. My Grandmother was German is I learned to speak German as a child. My grandfather refused to speak German with his wife because he hated the Germans. He spoke French to her. Grandmother hated the French but she did not refuse to speak the language. ?My mother warned me not to play with the Polish and Russian girls. My mother did not like foreigners. But I played with them anyway, because I wanted to learn the languages. I wanted to learn everything, and I spoke German with my Grandmother, French and Lithuanian with my mother, Russian and Polish with my playmates.?
The old lady continued her story, ?I was fourteen when my grandparents sent me to Brooklyn, New York to live with my aunt. My aunt got me a job as a housekeeper for a rich American family in a Jewish neighborhood, and I learned to speak Yiddish and English. My eye muscles gained strength and I could see better. At age fifteen I already spoke six languages, English, Jewish, Polish, Russian, German, and Lithuanian.?
Olga meet Joseph Stramat and they were married, 15 October 1916 in New York. To this union four girls and one boy were born in Brooklyn, Kings, New York. Olga live to be 98 years old.