how do i find my families original last name?

What you were told was a family story.......... some are true, many have some truth and much more are fairy stories..................... so you write it down who told you and when as it is part of your families oral history and then you forget it otherwise you will forever limit yourself while researching, always looking for something you don't know is real or not...............

You research the same way as anyone else, you start with you and certainly never on ancestry.com or any other online datadase, or all you will learn is how to copy and paste....and you need to learn how to research first............

So you, your own records and the other records you already have at home...these can get you back 5 generations....and all for free and you know they are real...so your own birth cert will show, you and your parents and prove/verify all three of you....their marriage cert is a connecting document and will prove/verify them and their parents, 2 records and you already have proved/verified 3 generations, you continue like this and follow the paper trail back......IF the name changed it will show you in records, you may look at census and find your family then 10 years earlier find the name was different, or the naturlisation record showing two names............. this wqill help you get started http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsinyourownhom... the links page will give you more websites to use once you haeve dne all your foudation work and your local records office and library are also free to use....and if for some reason you think you are missing out once you have done your foundation work your library is where you can access ancestry.com for free.............

A specialist in Lithuanian genealogy can help you

You might attempt to obtain your ancestors immigration records. Since you didn't indicate who "they" were said the name was to long, it is difficult to suggest where to look. There were immigration workers who spoke Lithuanian and "they" would not have changes the name unless your Ancestor told them to do so.

If you know your Grandfathers name and when he died, you might look on his death certificate, who ever provided the information might have used the original spelling of the surname, it is a long shot, but should at least give you the name of his parents and where they were born.

Usually Lithuanian last names finish with as, us, is, vičius.

If we take for example the last name Paulauskas, for a married woman/widow it would be Paulauskienė, for an unmarried woman it would be Paulauskaitė...

For surname questions, the sole determination is the paper path. locate your start certificates, then the start/marriage/demise certificates of your mothers and fathers, then their mothers and fathers, etc till you come returned to whomever made the call exchange. Ditto with the 1st individual to apply the surname. for sure, it may in basic terms be a count of different people spelling the call in yet differently.