European Traces in the War of 1812

In 2019 the Lithuanian Museum-Archives of Canada came across a story about Lithuanians having been in what is now Canada as early as the War of 1812. The story was related in the book Lithuanians in Canada published in 1967.  It listed 100 men (one name being duplicated) and their places of birth, suggesting that they had been soldiers and later assimilated into postwar society.

This story is one of both triumph and tragedy, and was relatively unknown among Canadians. Yet, the story of these 99 men offers a fuller picture of a war that was instrumental in the development of Canada as an independent nation.

The Lithuanian Museum-Archives of Canada is proud to tell the tale of these Grand Duchy Lithuanians some two centuries after they made their mark on this continent.