The best reason I can give for publishing this web site is that I have now found the time or am making the time to research my family roots. I grew up and looked around to find most of the people who could give me information were already dead. Dr. Richard Carlson summed it up the best in his book Don't Sweat The Small Stuff . "Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn't. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over." In 1993 I decided to find out where the Urgolites family came from (my first of many genealogy adventures). I traveled to Lithuania in 1994 and again in 1998. The adventures were certainly memorable and this web page is just a feeble attempt to record some of the vast knowledge and information that I have accumulated over the years. And, of course, it is the best place to record my future adventures. Genealogy was then, and is now, my favorite hobby.

The names Urgolites, Simulavich, Fossen, and Clifton, and the story behind the names has changed somewhat over the years as I continue to discover new and amazing bits of family history. Like a detective searching for long lost clues of an ancient civilization. The work is painstakingly slow at times. But the travel and adventure associated with the research is far beyond what I could have imagined in 1993. My hope is that older generations of our family will recite the family history to newer generations so our family chronicles will never die. I wish upon all future kinsmen who search for roots of the family tree; all the excitement and adventure I have had in searching our family history. May you somehow never ever get too tired to tell it, or too bored to listen. In the end, it isn't so much that we are in the story; but that the story is in us. Return To The Home Page.