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Hmm, at that time choosing one's nationality was often influenced by two things - religion and social status. First thing, people would mostly often identify themselves by religion. So to say speaking Polish/being Polish meant that they were Catholics and speaking Russian(earlier Ruthenian) being Russian orthodox.
In this respect, the majority of Lithuanians were catholic and thus it was sort of natural to identify with being Polish if they wanted to switch to a better status ethnicity.
Secondly, identifying with Lithuanian origins and speaking language meant that one was of the lowest social rank (uneducated peasant), and thus people, if they managed to achieve anything more in their life / received some education, took any position were ashamed of being Lithuanian. It should be remembered that in 1897 there was a full ban of the Lithuanian language usage in the public sphere/ Lithuanian books, so if children wanted to learn to read and write they had to do it in Polish/Russian.
Thus, it is not really surprising that better off Kaunas people wanted to identified themselves as Poles rather than Lithuanians ...
Regarding genetic distinction between the Slavic and Baltic people - I am just wondering how to interpret that, for instance, it is very much likely that Jotvingian genetic influence should be rather distinct within current Belarus people. Jotvingiai spread much into current Slavic territories before those territories became Slavic, but we don't know their genetic make up and how much similar they were compared to other Eastern and West Baltic tribes or Eastern/Western Slavic tribes.
Similarly, it would be very interesting to get genetic samples of the first archeologically Slavic people and to use it as a reference, otherwise, readings of who is Slavic and who is Baltic can be rather confusing, at least that how I perceived the current level of understanding of these issues. For instance, now you write about Slavic influence in the Souther Baltic, but could that also be because of the Baltic influence in the Norther Slavic?
What do you think? What is your reference for Slavic versus Baltic people? How to deal with currently dead West Baltic populations whose genetic influence, nevertheless, should be remaining within those territories where they lived.
Moreover, according to archeological/linguistic research, there are lots of indications pointing out that it were Baltic people who were more widespread and lived within current slavic territories, rather than Slavic came to the current Lithuanian territory. Of course, I think mixing of the Baltic people with Slavic and even more with Ugro-Finnic people did take place - this is what the latest research states, too, but equally it would be interesting to check the mixing of Slavic populations with Baltic, especially where Slavic people (parts of Belarus, Poland and Russia) live within the former Baltic territories.
These are two map from wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balts (sorry they are in Russian, but this is what I found on ENG wiki page)
1) before Great Migration (III-IV AD)
2) after Slavic Migration (VII-VIII AD)
"Map of the ancient Baltic homelands at the time of the Hunnish invasions (3rd-4th c. AD). Archaeology identifies Baltic cultural areas (in purple). The Baltic sphere originally covered Eastern Europe from the Baltic Sea to modern Moscow"
Green - Finno-Ugric
Purple - Baltic
Red - Slavic
Green - Slavic
Purple - Baltic
Yellow - Finno-Ugric
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