He was ordained as a Catholic priest and later worked in various locations in Lithuania – Antazavė [lt], Obeliai (1845), and Zarasai (1846–1849), Ukmergė (1849–1855), Pušalotas (1855–1862), Lyduvėnai (1862), Vilkija (1862–1864), Veliuona (1864–1871), Alsėdžiai (1871–1879).

When Jonas Juška moved to Kazan and became acquainted with professor Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in 1875, the brothers began working on publishing the vast material collected by Antanas.

They also convinced the Russian Academy of Sciences to get a special exemption from Tsar Alexander II of Russia to publish a collection of 1,100 wedding songs in 1883.

He recorded words in sentences and explained their meaning in Lithuanian and only then translated them to Polish (later, Russian was added so that the dictionary could be published).

[1] His elder brother Jonas attended a Bernadine school in Dotnuva and was admitted to Kražiai College where he earned a living working as a superintendent in a students' dormitory.

Left without financial support, Antanas enrolled into the Vilnius Theological Seminary which provided free education including room and board.

[6] He also read and was familiar with the latest publications on Lithuanian language and culture, including works by August Schleicher, Motiejus Valančius, Simonas Daukantas, Friedrich Kurschat, Kristijonas Donelaitis, Ludwig Rhesa.

[7] His brother Jonas, encouraged by professor Izmail Sreznevsky, also became interested in the Lithuanian language, but he was more a theoretician while Antanas more a practician working in the field to collect words and examples from the living people.

[13] Juška renovated the church in Pušalotas in 1853, rebuilt burnt rectory in 1857, and built a stone fence around the churchyard and the cemetery.

[17] There were rumors though there is no clear evidence that Juška assisted Antanas Mackevičius, one of the leaders of the Uprising of 1863, who was active in the area of Vilkija.

[21] Residents of Vilkija sent a letter with 72 signatures to Nikolay Mikhailovich Muravyov [ru], Governor of Kovno, asking for Juška's release.

[22] The letter achieved its goal and Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky, Governor General of Vilna, approved Juška's release on 22 February 1864.

To overcome this, Juška offered small gifts (e.g. a candy, ring, spoon) and even cash to compensate for lost time and work.

[32] Due to increasingly poor health (he had a heart condition and asthma),[33] Juška requested a transfer and a demotion so he would not be burdened by the daily tasks of a priest.

[35] When Jonas Juška moved to Kazan and became acquainted with professor Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in 1875, the brothers began working on publishing material collected by Antanas in earnest.

[43] In 1990, a museum of Lithuanian ethnic culture named after brothers Juškas was established in the former rectory in Vilkija where Antanas briefly worked in 1862–1864.

For example, Jonas Kumetis [lt], a local organist in Veliuona, organized a choir which performed songs from Juška's collection.

[61] With the help of Yakov Grot, the Russian Academy of Sciences obtained a special exemption from Tsar Alexander II of Russia to publish a collection of wedding songs.

[76] Many earlier collectors of folklore wrote down only the song lyrics or melody, often edited to remove imperfections and disregarding the context in which they were recorded.

[80] They used the argument that to preserve the nuances of the dialects and their scientific value, the songs could not be transcribed in Cyrillic and needed to be published in the Latin alphabet.

[82] Juška left some notes on the song's context (i.e. that it was performed by shepherds or during a harvest ceremony) but it was not done systematically as the standards for folklore collection were just developing.

The academy asked Oskar Kolberg, who had already published his own collection of Lithuanian folk songs and their melodies, to prepare the manuscript for publication.

[91] The editors, who were not experts in Lithuanian folk songs, faced many difficulties because Juška's notes were often unclear, imprecise, or erroneous as he had no formal musical education.

[97] The simple metre (usually triple or duple) and rather monotonous use of quarter notes (which were commonly used in church choirs) are likely attributable to Juška as his lack of musical education.

[51] Juškas brothers approached the Russian Academy of Sciences regarding the publication of the dictionary which was favorably reviewed by Alexander Potebnja.

[101] After Juška's death, the dictionary was edited by numerous other linguists – Vatroslav Jagić, Filipp Fortunatov, Vytautas Juška (Jonas' son), Jonas Jablonskis, Jurgis Šlapelis [lt], Kazimieras Būga[101] – but the work was very slow and only three volumes were published over the next four decades (letters A–D in 1897, letters E–J in 1904, and up to the word kuokštuotis in 1922).

[104] Therefore, several times Jonas Jablonskis and Kazimieras Būga traveled to areas where Juška lived in attempt to verify and clarify words that were not previously known.

[108] Another key weakness of the dictionary was lack of proper accentuation (this was later corrected by Jablonskis and Būga) and sometimes incorrect markings of long and short vowels, particularly in words from the Samogitian dialect.

[103] In 1880, Juška published ethnographic work Svotbinė rėdą veliuoniečių lietuvių (Wedding Traditions of Lithuanians in Veliuona) which he wrote in 1870.

[115] For example, one episode concerned putting a headscarf (typically worn by married women) on the bride thus signifying her transition into her new role.