 Since Lithuania as a country did not exist at the time, the people who arrived to the U.S. were recorded as either Polish, German or Russian; moreover, due to the language ban in Lithuania and prevalence of Polish language at that time, their Lithuanian names were not transcribed in the same way as they would be today.As a result, information about Lithuanian immigration before 1899 is not available because incoming Lithuanians were not registered as Lithuanians.Only after 1918, when Lithuania established its independence, the immigrants to the U.S. started being recorded as Lithuanians.