^{The News}
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

The real first coffeehouse in Austria opened in Vienna in 1683 after the Battle of Vienna, by using supplies from the spoils obtained after defeating the Turks. The officer who received the coffee beans, Polish military officer of Ukrainian origin Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, opened the coffee house and helped popularize the custom of adding sugar and milk to the coffee. Melange is the typical Viennese coffee, which comes mixed with hot foamed milk and a glass of water.

Other Wikipesia pages of interest on this topic are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Franciszek_Kulczycki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennese_coffee_house http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Melange



Emmerich Koller also chose to comment, saying: As a history buff I read with fascination your review of the film [Day of the Siege]. You really ought to become a professional film reviewer. No kidding! And I enjoyed the follow-up perspective by Hannes. [Day of the Siege] is now on my list of movies to watch since I have Netflix.

 

St. Louis Gathering of Burgenländer and Descendants (Repeat): Theresa McWilliams, our St. Louis Research staff member, wishes to announce an upcoming gathering of St. Louis Burgenländers and descendants. The event will be held Sunday, November 2, 2014, 2-6 pm, at the Community Center Cafeteria of the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, 10235 Ashbrook Dr, St. Louis, MO. As Theresa says: Come, enjoy meeting and conversing with other folks who share an enthusiasm for their Burgenland heritage. Bring photos, memorabilia, favorite family recipes, even a dish to share if you like, or just yourself. For more information, and to let us know you plan to attend, contact Theresa McWilliams tmacwms@sbcglobal.net. Erzählen Sie Ihren Freunden! (Tell your friends!)

 

Village, Church and Regional Chroniks: Last month I introduced a new BB webpage, v_Chroniks.htm, containing titles to all the Burgenland Chroniks (histories) that I am aware of. I also noted that I'm sure there are many more such histories available... so requested your help.

Retired BB staffer, Anna Kresh, was first to reply, mentioning a "regional" book, "Der Bezirk Güssing im Wandel der Zeit", which covers all the villages in that Bezirk (district). She commented that I "probably already know about this, and I don't think you were covering Bezirks in your article, but let me know if you need more info on this."

Indeed, I did know of that book (part of a series, with a book for each of Burgenland's seven districts) but, at the time I put the initial Chroniks list together, I chose not to include books of this type. I have since reconsidered and added a section for Regional books, which now contains all seven of these books plus a number of similar district-wide books. I also include Robert Hajszan's books about the different Herrschafts.

Richard Potetz also wrote, pointing out village book "Jennersdorf, Porträt einer Grenzstadt” (1977), noting that it also covers the full district but "with more emphasis on Jennersdorf and the adjacent villages." He also pointed out that the Sankt Martin an der Raab book also includes Neumarkt an der Raab, Oberdrosen, Doiber, Gritsch, and Welten. I have added the Jennersdorf book and amended the Sankt Martin listing.

Beyond those, I also stumbled on some additional books and dissertations, which I have added, bringing the village book count to 199 (some books cover more than one village and quite a few villages have multiple books, resulting in an actual village count of 178). Adding in the church book count of 14, and the regional book count of 16 gives a total of 229 Chroniks! (We also list books for a few bordering Hungarian villages.)

There are 171 official Gemeinden / Orte (Freistadt, Marktgemeinde, Gemeinde or Stadtgemeinde) in Burgenland (composed from 328 Kastralgemeinden / Ortschaften). We have listed books for 111 of these Gemeinden, leaving 60 to go. Also, as noted above, our listed books cover 178 villages (Kastralgemeinden), leaving 150 to go. Assuming books for these Gemeinden and Kastralgemeinden exist, we are still missing (or failing to identify Kastralgemeinden in) a fair number of Chroniks. Therefore, I again ask you readers to help fill out this list by sending me information about ones you know of but that I have not mentioned and to correct inaccurate or incomplete listings.



Update on book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": As I will do for a while, here is this month's update on purchases of the English issue of the 3rd edition of Dr. Walter Dujmovits' book “Die Amerika-Wanderung Der Burgenländer.”

As of October 30, 711 copies had been purchased, bolstered by a recent bulk purchase of 50 copies by someone! I must confess that this number of copies purchased is a major, extremely pleasant surprise for me... I was thrilled when sales exceeded 200 copies... and now we are over 700! It appears Gerry Berghold was right when he campaigned for an English version so many years ago. Given the recent upswing in purchases, the book rank is now 537, a new low (which is good, as it means only 536 active books on Lulu have sold more).

Several months back, Lulu reduced its production charge for the book, allowing us to drop its price and offer it for online purchase at a list price of $7.41, plus tax & shipping. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page and for any current discounts.



Retired BB Staffer, Anna Kresh, wrote to say: Hello Tom, thought you may be interested in this article appearing in the current newsletter of the Austrian American Cultural Society in Pittsburgh:

"In a first for the Society, an author, Steven R. Roberts, has notified the Society of the publication of his tale of teen-age Austrians who were conscripted into the German Army late in World War II as fodder for the defense of an Eastern Front moving westward under the onslaught of Stalin’s Red Army. Some information about the book, “Private Svoboda”, follows.

Private Svoboda is a just released book I’ve written based on the true story of a 14-year old Austrian boy drafted in 1944 along with his classmates out of his eighth-grade boarding school in Hallstatt. Naive and excited to get into the action, the boys are quickly relieved of any notion of the adventure, romance and heroics of war.

Sent to the Eastern Front, one by one, Alex’s classmates fall as the deafening weapons of battle expose the brutality of war and the unlikely chances of the boys surviving for another day, another minute.

I thought this story might be of interest to your members. It is available in paperback, Kindle and various other digitalized formats through Amazon and my web site www.steverroberts.com."

Anna writes further: Wonder if our BB members would be interested in reading this? I have not yet read it, but knowing several Austrians, including one of my cousins, who also experienced this, I plan on doing so. Anna



Recipes from the German/Austrian cookbook of the Austria Donau Club: We are still waiting for Frank Paukowits to resume sending materials; while he has his computer room back, he now can't find the recipe book! ...but recipes will return (we hope!).



You Decide: One year ago (Nov 2013) the Burgenland Wirtschaftskammer (Chamber of Commerce) put out a new magazine with the initial cover picture being that shown to the right. The picture's title slogan text was, "Hier steckt viel Burgenland drin" (Here is much Burgenland inside).

Not surprisingly, it caused a bit of a stir, prompting SPÖ politician Verena Dunst to object, saying, "It was a slap in the face of every Burgenland woman."

The magazine's chief editor rejected the criticism, claiming neither the image nor the headline was sexist. His claim was that the image and text were intended to bring attention to Burgenland-manufactured products: jeans from Mariasdorf and its zipper from Marz.

So, what do you think: inappropriate sexism or clever marketing? Or both?

Oh, that "small print" at the lower right (in case you noticed it), says "Made in Burgenland. Everything you should know about Burgenland industry, read here! Win with Burgenland Industry; valuable products, page 7."

Zeugnis

womit vom gefertigten Gemeindevorstand hiermit
bestätigt wird, dass Johann Göltl und seine Ehegat-
tin Eva Göltl geb. Schmitzhofer sammt seinen
Kindern: Paul, Stefan, Josef, Susanna, und Ka-
tharina in hiesiger Gemeinde die Zuständigkeit be-
sitzt, und dass derselbe während seines hierortigen
Aufenthaltes sowohl in politischer als auch in mann-
lischer Beziehung sich stets anstandslos verhalten, so
dass kein Hindernis gegen seine Reise nach Nord-
Amerika obwaltet.

             Leiden Wieselburger Comitat in
             Ungarn am 17. Februar 1885

[circle with Hungarian text: Lébény Mezzo Város Petsétje]
       Dudosits Nándor                  Lárár István
           jegyző                           biró

=====

Certificate [of good conduct]

Whereby the town's Board signed below hereby
confirms that Johann Göltl and his wife
Eva Göltl neé Schmitzhofer, together with his
children Paul, Stephen, Joseph, Susanna, and
Catherine, has home rights in this town,
and that he during the time he lived and worked
here always behaved impeccably in regard
to politics and human relations, so
that no obstacle obtains against his travel
to North America.

=====

Testimony

prepared by the community council whereby it herewith
attests that Johann Göltl and his wife
Eva Göltl neé Schmitzhofer, together with his
children Paul, Stephen, Joseph, Susanna, and
Catherine, are residents of this community
and that the same (he), during his stay in this place,
in both public and personal conduct,
comported himself without reproach, so
that there is no impediment to his immigration to North
America.

             Lébény, county of Moson in
             Hungary, on February 17, 1885

    [circle with text: Lébény Market Town Seal]
Dudosits Nándor [Ferdinand]   Lárár István [Stephen]
      Clerk                     Judge / Magistrate

As I noted last month, the second translation is the more word-for-word literal translation and, in general, was the one I found most satisfactory... however, I preferred the first translation for the phrase "in hiesiger Gemeinde die Zuständigkeit besitzt" (has home rights in this town).

Now let's move on to the new comments...



Jürgen Brandweiner wrote to say: in the transcription it states: "sowohl in politischer als auch in mannlischer Beziehung." But it is not "mannlischer" but "moralischer." I think that corresponds to the second translation with "personal conduct." Kind regards...

Given Jürgen's hint, a re-look at the original document forces me to agree with his transcription! I might, though, argue that a translation reads more straightforward as "both in political and moral conduct."



Joe Jarfas was also moved to write, saying (in part): in the (otherwise) excellent description and translation of the 1885 document: the judge is István Lázár (guaranteed!) I know it looks like 'r', but it's a 'z'.

Again, I cannot even begin to argue against this interpretation, mostly because I absolutely agree! I transcribed that part and committed the way-too-common transcription sin of forgetting the writing was in Kurrent script, not Latin script. A well-written Kurrent 'z' looks very much like a Latin 'r' ...and I fell into the trap!

Joe went on to say: How old and obsolete the language is, is shown on the stamp: LÉBENY market town's stamp, where the spelling of stamp: petsétje (pecsétje), I think, became obsolete back in the 1860's.

When I provided the initial translation of the stamp's Hungarian text, I made the leap to the modern spelling (pec...) largely because I recalled the word from other stamps and was aware that Hungarian "officialese" spellings often differed from common spellings. So, despite the fact that the word (as spelled on the stamp) was not in my dictionary, I was comfortable with my translation. Nonetheless, it is good to know that Joe affirmed my assumption, though I am surprised (but only a little, given it is officialese) that the word changed spellings in the 1860s but was still on a stamp in 1885!

Joe also commented: Two other little remarks regarding the text: both [official] 'townspeople' were lawyers, likely fluent in German as well as Hungarian (and maybe a few other languages). This certification must have been requested by the subject in German, since by that time - 1885 - the official language of the bureaucracy was Hungarian. With regard to the content of the note the 1st translation got it right: this is a certificate of good conduct (or Erkölcsi Bizonyítvány).

And, in another comment, Joe largely agreed with me that there is cause to prefer the 'home rights' interpretation of Zuständigkeit over a simple residency translation, saying:  Your interpretation of 'Zuständigkeit' comes close to the true meaning with the 'right of domicile', used even on New York State and City tax forms. Could not understand (especially with my limited English vocabulary back then [in the 1960's]) why they made such a fuss about residency and having the right of domicile in the City. Years later was I able to comprehend the fine distinction!

My reply to Joe (on this last comment) was that, to me, this “fine distinction” was well worth emphasizing, which is why I preferred the first translation. I was not aware that NYC had/has? a ‘right of domicile’ (but then I had no reason to know it). I do have a son in NYC but he has never commented on residential privileges. However, my son who lives in Washington, DC, benefited from a similar thing. He received a special tax deduction as a first-time homeowner in DC when he moved there and still gets special parking privileges not allotted to nonresidents. It’s not quite the same thing as Zuständigkeit but it is similar.



Matt Boisen was also moved to write (in part): Your article about the village recommendation/Zeugnis and discussion that followed prompted me to write and to include a scan of my own family Zeugnis, which was translated twice, once about 50 years ago and again 10 years ago. The older translation was full of errors; for example, "Comitat Ungarn" was translated as the town of "Corrital, Hungary" and "Bezirk Güns" as "Ganz County" and they didn't know what "Vas" meant, so it was not included in the translation. Even my rudimentary German language skills told me there was more to this, so I engaged the help of a local woman who was a native German speaker and she provided me with this translation:

Municipal Letter of Recommendation

We the members of the village council of Lebenbrunn, in the borough of Güns, in the county of Eisenburg (Vas), Hungary, certify herewith, that Mr. Franz Böhm, Roman Catholic, age 42*, profession of carpenter, has had his permanent residency with his whole family (consisting of his wife and three** children) in this community. He has earned through his diligence and hard work, as well as through his moral way of life, the admiration and the affection of all the members of this community. This recommendation has been written for him because he is immigrating to America.

Signed at Lebenbrunn on 4 April, 1888.
Joseph Grossinger
Chairman, Village Council

[**there were actually four children]

This document actually started me on the road to the Burgenland Bunch and the discovery of the old country, the villages and counties of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the subsequent partition and creation of Burgenland, so it occupies a prominent place in the annals of my family history.

The Zustandigkeit discussion also prompted me to try to read the Zeugnis again. I have a terrible time reading handwritten German of this time, so I hope that the above is an accurate translation.

Do these "municipal recommendations" have any equivalent to the "útlevéls" that were used as passports in Hungary? Thanks! Matt Boisen

My first reaction is that Matt's document is quite similar to Bob Chapman's, both in content and tenor, as translated. I did not study it carefully (and still have not, though I invite all interested readers to do your own transcription and translation) but I will note that the word Zustandigkeit is present in the document. Instead, I'll quote the part of my reply to Matt that answered his question concerning an útlevél:

Hi Matt, ...As for similarity to an útlevél (which is the Hungarian word for passport), it is not similar at all. Passports were issued by either the government of Austria or of Hungary, but not by a local village. However, a Zeugnis likely was needed to qualify for a passport (as well as having proof that your military service obligations and any debts had been satisfied).

I’ve not seen a Hungarian útlevél older than 1898, but by then they were formal multi-page paper booklets much like modern passports. I have seen older Austrian Reise-pass(es), which were single-paged, pre-printed (except for personal specifics… name, etc.) and adorned with the crest of Franz Joseph. I’d assume the older Hungarian versions were similar… but cannot verify that. I’d love to see an older one!

He replied (in part): I was under the impression that the early Hungarian passports were not much more than these handwritten documents, but it makes sense that the letter of recommendation would have been the first step in the process. It's odd that I have this fragile bit of brown paper but not the passport, if indeed, anything more was issued in 1888. Unfortunately, this is the only document I have from the old country. I don't even have photos of these people until they were well into their 70s, and their children were well into adulthood.

And I replied further (in part): Austrian passports were fairly formal even back in the 1830s… but then only the upper classes moved about enough to need them. Here are a few sentences from an article I wrote for Newsletter 219:

It was in 1832 that Emperor Francis Joseph the First issued the first emigration patent that recognized the concept of “legal emigration” in Austria-Hungary. This was unimportant before the development, starting in 1846, of railway systems in Hungary, since people seldom had opportunity (except for military reasons) to travel long distances outside the country. Consequently, there was no need for emigration laws or even a formal passport. A simple reference written on a sheet of paper was still widely accepted in lieu of a passport in the 1870s (in fact, that is where the Hungarian word for passport, útlevél, comes from... it translates literally to road/travel letter). As for passports, the traditional travel letters were sporadically replaced with formal passports starting in 1856.

I then commented to Matt that "I wonder if foreign passports were confiscated when people came to the US and committed to stay, or if they were not even issued if you did not plan to come back?"

I followed that up with a short note: "While looking for something else, I came across these sentences in a 1998 BB newsletter (per Fritz Königshofer while discussing excerpts from Hungarian newspaper “Der Volksfreund" for years 1910 to early 1914):

To keep the emigration in some check, new measures were introduced. For instance, in 1911 possession of a passport became an obligatory requirement for leaving the country.

"So it appears that a passport was not a formal requirement for emigration in 1888."

However, the article I quote from above (from BB Newsletter 219), which was about the 1903 Hungarian Emigration Act and its companion 1903 Passport Act, makes it clear that 1903 was the year when passports were first required for emigration.



A final word: As I noted to Matt, I would love to see an early (pre-1900) Hungarian passport (útlevél). If you have one in your collection of family memorabilia and are willing to scan and send the images to me, I would be extremely pleased to share it with the BB readership. Please consider doing so!

The Historische Ortslexikon is a statistical documentation of the Austrian population and settlement history and includes information on population figures and houses. It is used to quantitatively support demographic, historical settlement and culturally-informative work, and offers a wide range of data on regional and local history. The main purpose of this documentation is the inclusion of data from the early statistical (late 18th to mid-19th century) and the "pre-statistical" periods in the quantitative description of the population and settlement history, with the classification of older data into time series ranging up to the most recent data.

The data collection is supplemented annually and is available to users by means of the website of the Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) free of charge. Data cited are from the general source "Historisches Ortslexikon (Angabe des Bundeslandes)" [Historical Gazetteer (of the Federal State)], as well as specified sources for particular details.

Information on the population status derives from standard population censuses from 1869 to present, from earlier censuses (ecclesiastical soul censuses, military conscriptions, Census 1857) in the "early statistical" period from 1754 to 1857, and from tax, manorial, ecclesiastical or military sources in the "pre-statistical" period.

The Editor of the Historisches Ortslexikon is Dr. Kurt Klein, before retiring an employee (most recently, Vice President) of the Austrian Statistical Office (now Statistics Austria) and a lecturer at the Institute for Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna.

I'll now follow with an example dataset entry, picking Wallern as my example merely because it is a village where my ancestors added to their population counts!

Wallern im Burgenland
22 Urlehen (1510). – 1509: 28, 1510: 22(3 öde), 1526: 22(2 öde), 1569: 25, 1571: 26, 1589: 28 H, 1675: 63, 1696: *360 E, 1713: 303 E, 1715: 49(11 Sö), 1720: 74(21 Sö), 1734: 600 E, 1767: 73(35 Sö), 1787: 97-829, 1821: 131-887, 1828: 102-850, 1836: 888, 1843: 916, 1850: 959, 1863: 1063, 1869: 186-1243, 1880: 211-1359, 1890: 203-1239, 1900: 199-1347, 1910: 247-1613, 1923: 280-1612, 1934: 303-1812, 1939: 1878, 1951: 369-1895, 1961: 454-2001, 1971: 486-2061, 1981: 539-1995, 1991: 625-1978, 2001: 653-1978, 2006: 1912, 2011: 688-1803, 2012: 1762, 2013: 1749.
1767: 28 Ganz-, 40 Halblehen, 35 Söllner. - *1830: 26 Ganz-, 44 Halblehen, 24 Söllner, 37 Holden. – 1865: 26 Ganz-, 44 Halblehen, 24 Söllner, 36 Holden, 24 Kurialisten. - 1696: samt Pamhagen 1020 E. Geteilt im Verhältnis der Häuser 1675.- Q 1509: Loibersbeck Josef, Am Waasen, Volk und Heimat 19/1966. – 1526: Urbar Forchtenstein (Breu, Kroatensiedlung Burgenland). – 1569: HKA Urbar 1196. – 1589: Urbar Forchtenstein, HKA Urbar 1196. – 1767, *1830, 1865: Unger Konrad, Entwicklungsgeschichte von Wallern im Burgenland (private Homepage).

What you see above is a typical layout of the data. The village name is bolded then the standard population data follows in the same-sized but not bolded text.

Beneath that, in smaller text, are two separate sections (divided by a "Q", which appears in the third line in this example). The first section in smaller text are "notes" keyed to particular years; the second section (after the "Q") contains "local" references for particular years. These reference citations are abbreviated here but are given in full at the end of the document.

Before I explain this entry more fully, I'll show one more example, as it adds to the basic layout of the data (this time I use Halbturn as my example, as it is the other village to which my ancestors contributed population!).

Halbturn
Neuanlage 1672: 55 Höfe. - 1532: 5 aufr., 1696: 750 E, 1698: 66, 1700: 72, 1713: 556 E, 1715: 73(32 Sö), 1720: 76(33 Sö), 1763: 933, 1787: 140-1156, 1802: 1127, 1821: 136-1150, 1828: 146-1218, 1829: 1316, 1836: 1262, 1843: 1287, 1850: 170-1607, 1856: 189, 1857: 1763, 1863: 1961, 1869: 274-2093, 1880: 312-2473, 1890: 301-2263, 1900: 294-2429, 1910: 330-2460, 1923: 309-2170, 1934: 363-2201, 1939: 2142, 1951: 406-1995, 1961: 452-1917, 1971: 536-1913, 1981: 607-1896, 1991: 635-1856, 2001: 690-1880, 2006: 720-1888, 2011: 741-1898, 2012: 1904, 2013: 1892.
Wiederbesiedlung nach Verödung 1672. - Q 1532 (Urbar Ungarisch-Altenburg), 1698, 1700, 1802, 1829, 1850 (H), 1857, 1998: Brettl Herbert, Halbturn im Wandel der Zeiten, 1999. – Neuanlage 1672: Siedlungsnamen und Siedlungsformen als Quellen zur Besiedlungsgeschichte Niederösterreichs, Studien und Forschungen aus dem Niederösterreichischen Institut für Landeskunde 8, 1986, 118.
Albert-Casimir
Ab 1815: 48 H angelegt.- 1821: 40-250, 1828: 49-236, 1829: 259, 1869: 340, 1873: 334, 1934: 418.
Die Siedlung liegt auf ungarischem Staatsgebiet.
(Pfingsttagsmarkt)
1532: 6 aufr., 1821: 21 E.
Auf dem Hotter der verödeten Siedlung (ungarisches Staatsgebiet) wurden ab 1815 die Kolonistensiedlung Albert-Casimir und 1938 Varbalog angelegt.
Wittmannshof OB
*1785: 8 E, 1821: 35 E, 1828: 5-49, 1829: 52, 1857: 89, 1869: 125, 1872: 100, 1881: 313, 1894: 201, 1910: 248, 1923: 16-280, 1934: 265, 1951: 16-224, 1961: 16-132, 1971: 12-73, 1981: 11-19, 1991: 5-13, 1998: 7 E.
1824/29 Errichtung von Kolonistenhäusern (vorher Weichselhof).

What I want you to notice here are the three named entities appended, with no intervening blank line, to the Halbturn entry (Albert-Casimir, Pfingsttagsmarkt, and Wittmannshof OB).

These are what the documentation calls Ortschaftsbestandteile (i.e., village constituents or parts).  More fully, they call them "topographic units below the village level" and some include abbreviation/notation "OB" after their names when they are still associated with the main village. These Ortschaftsbestandteilen are included only when separate information from older sources were available about them.

You may rightly ask why Albert-Casimir and Pfingsttagsmarkt do not have the "OB" notation appended to their names. The answer is 1) that Albert-Casimir is now in Hungary and is no longer associated with Halbturn, though it was before 1921, as the note below its entry indicates; and 2) Pfingsttagsmarkt no longer exists, which is why it is also enclosed in parentheses.

[As an aside, I will note that this is the first time I was made aware of this place called Pfingsttagsmarkt (Pentecost Day Market). The note below its entry tells me that "From the Hotter (the land associated with a village) of this deserted settlement (in Hungarian territory), the colonial settlement Albert-Casimir was created in 1815 and Várbalog in 1938." I will also note that the references for the main Halbturn entry include a Chronik book entitled "Halbturn im Wandel der Zeiten," a book I was not aware of until seeing it listed here. Lastly, the first note under Halbturn, "Wiederbesiedlung nach Verödung 1672" (Resettlement after obliteration in 1672) makes it clear that this village was totally destroyed, presumably by the Ottomans. I'm not surprised at that fact, although it is yet another item first brought to my attention by reading this entry.]



I now want to take a moment to show one dataset in detail, so I will return to the Wallern entry. However, I will put the data in "linear" form, rather than the reported compact form, to better show and discuss it. So here is the Wallern data again:

Wallern im Burgenland
22 Urlehen (1510)
1509: 28
1510: 22(3 öde)
1526: 22(2 öde)
1569: 25
1571: 26
1589: 28 H
1675: 63
1696: *360 E
1713: 303 E
1715: 49(11 Sö)
1720: 74(21 Sö)
1734: 600 E
1767: 73(35 Sö)
1787: 97-829
1821: 131-887
1828: 102-850
1836: 888
1843: 916
1850: 959
1863: 1063
1869: 186-1243
1880: 211-1359
1890: 203-1239
1900: 199-1347
1910: 247-1613
1923: 280-1612
1934: 303-1812
1939: 1878
1951: 369-1895
1961: 454-2001
1971: 486-2061
1981: 539-1995
1991: 625-1978
2001: 653-1980
2006: (670)-1912
2007: 1865
2008: 1872
2009: 1853
2010: 1814

This entry starts out with cryptic line: "22 Urlehen (1510)."

Urlehen are the farms and lands as subdivided or assigned when the original settlement was created. Farms that were added later (e.g., by expanding the settlement, were not Urlehen). Terms Urhöfe and Urhuben can also be used. Urhöfe refers to a "full or whole" Urlehen, and is often used interchangeably with Urlehen; however, Urhuben refers only to a "half" Urlehen/Urhöfe. Thus the interpretation is that Wallern was established (founded) in 1510 with 22 original "whole" farms.

Interestingly, the next two lines seemingly confuse this:
    1509: 28
    1510: 22(3 öde)

The first line above indicates that Wallern had 28 houses (or household units) in 1509 while the second line claims only 22, but with "(3 öde)" appended, which means 3 were desolate / deserted / unoccupied. I can only presume that the settlement was "under development" in 1509, given it was not "officially established" until 1510.

[Another aside: Other sources indicate that Wallern (Bala in Hungarian) is mentioned in documents from as early as 1269. This seems to call into question this 1510 "founding" date. I have no explanation for this discrepancy! Do write to me if you can explain it.]

The next set of interesting lines are these:
    1589: 28 H
    1675: 63
    1696: *360 E
    1713: 303 E
    1715: 49(11 Sö)

The "H" in the 1589 line indicates that this is specifically a "house" count rather than a household count.

The line for 1696 has two notational items: First, the "E" indicates that this count is of "Einwohners" (residents/inhabitants) rather than farms.

Second, the asterisk * says that this is "fuzzy" data, being estimated or calculated in some way. In this particular case, the note for 1696, "samt Pamhagen 1020 E. Geteilt im Verhältnis der Häuser" says "with Pamhagen 1020 residents, shares in proportion to the houses," implying that there must have been a total population count of 1020 people between Pamhagen and Wallern [Wallern was affiliated with Pamhagen at the time] and that 360 (35%) were calculated to belong to Wallern because Wallern had 35% of the total houses.

Skipping to 1715, we see that the house count of 49 has "(11 Sö)" appended to it. This indicates that 11 "houses" were Söllner or Söllhäuser families (a classification that includes Kleinhäusler, Keuschler, Bergler, Hofstettler, Untersässen, Inquilini or Kurialisten, all of which would, typically, have had 1/16 or less of the land area of a full farm).

The last set of lines I will point out are:
    1734: 600 E
    1767: 73(35 Sö)
    1787: 97-829

I'll start with year 1787, where we have two numbers separated by a dash. The 97-829 pair of this entry signify 97 houses with 829 total inhabitants. Now I'll jump back to the line for year 1734. In this line, because the "E" is the last to appear in this time sequence (see full list above), it takes on an additional meaning: all single (non-paired) entries below this also represent inhabitant counts, not house counts.



As I mentioned above, the time series data is followed by notes and then "local" references. Both contain valuable information and are well worth reading and translating. Again, I'll re-list the Wallern notes and references in a "linear" format, so they are easier to read:

1767: 28 Ganz-, 40 Halblehen, 35 Söllner.
– *1830: 26 Ganz-, 44 Halblehen, 24 Söllner, 37 Holden.
– 1865: 26 Ganz-, 44 Halblehen, 24 Söllner, 36 Holden, 24 Kurialisten.
– 1696: samt Pamhagen 1020 E. Geteilt im Verhältnis der Häuser 1675.

– Q 1509: Loibersbeck Josef, Am Waasen, Volk und Heimat 19/1966.
– 1526: Urbar Forchtenstein (Breu, Kroatensiedlung Burgenland).
– 1569: HKA Urbar 1196.
– 1589: Urbar Forchtenstein, HKA Urbar 1196.
– 1767, *1830, 1865: Unger Konrad, Entwicklungsgeschichte von Wallern im Burgenland (private Homepage).

First, note that the individual entries are keyed to years and divided from each other by an n-dash (–), with references further separated from notes by the "Q". From these entries, we see that the houses/farms are broken out into Ganz-[lehen] (full fief), Halb-lehen (half fief), Söllner, Holden and Kurialisten for years 1767, 1830 and 1865. We also see the note I mentioned for how the "fuzzy" data for year 1696 was calculated.



At this point, I'll provide two lists that may help you understand these data, with the first being a list of commonly used abbreviations, complete with the German words they stand for and an English translation/explanation:

The second is a list of commonly used words and phrases, complete with a translation to English:

In closing, I'll again state that this Ortslexikon contains important and interesting information that can be a valuable addition to the understanding of your family history. I suggest you take the time to decipher the details for your ancestral villages and incorporate it into your thinking and any histories you write.