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Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

DNA Cousins:

Biography: Father Joseph Graisy was born Feb 25, 1911, to Johann and Maria (Leurer) Graisy of house 155 in Wallern, Austria. He was the youngest of 10 surviving children. He was ordained a priest of the SVD (Societas Verbi Divin / Society of the Divine Word) in 1937 after being a student for 10 years at the SVD's Missionsprivatgymnasium St. Rupert (secondary prep school) in Bischofshofen, Austria (about 25 miles south of Salzburg) and a novitiate for 6 years at the SVD's St. Gabriel Missionshaus in Maria Enzersdorf, Austria (about 10 miles south-southwest of central Vienna). He died Jan 10, 1983, at the Hartmann Hospital in Vienna.

In the 1970s, he began research on the "History of the People of Wallern" and, in parallel, on "Wallern in the History of Its Houses," mostly, as he says in the introduction to the second book, as a gift to his fellow Wallern citizens and as a way to connect back to his home village. As far as I know, the first text was never published as a book but has served, nonetheless, as source material for the published village and parish histories of Wallern and, in part, as sections in his "Houses" text. A first typescript draft of the "Houses" book was produced and scanned copies were made and circulated with Father Graisy's consent, but a second, final version was also completed and a limited run of hardcover books was published around 1981. Because of the book, he was made an honorary citizen of Wallern and the square in front of the old parish kindergarten was renamed "Father Joseph Graisy Square" in his honor on April 3, 2011, a date shortly after the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Of his actual work as a missionary priest, he was sent to Tsingtao (now Qingdao), China in 1938 and then Beijing in 1942. From 1949 until 1955, he served in the Philippines. He then returned to the St. Gabriel Missionshaus in Austria and served as choirmaster from 1956 until 1967. From 1968 until his death, he served in Health Pastoral Care in Pfronten im Allgäu, Germany and then in the Hartmannspital in Vienna.

St. Gabriel Missionshaus, built in 1888, is the seat of the Divine Word Missionaries in Austria and provides management and administration of its Austrian province. In its early years, it established a theological training college for missionaries and has produced some 3,000 graduates over the years. It was a center for scientific research in the fields of ethnology and missiology and ran a printing house and a spiritual formation house. In 1925, about 600 brothers, priests and students lived at St. Gabriel. See http://www.steyler.eu/svd/niederlassungen/st-gabriel/index.php for more information.

That is all I can tell you about him, as I know no more. Anyone who can add to this biography is invited to do so. My plan is to add it to the Graisy pages when finalized.



HUNGARICANA 1767 Urbarium Database Follow-up: Last month I provided a tutorial for the 1767 Urbarium. Judi Page wrote in to thank me for the tutorial, saying "Without it, I would not have ventured into the Hungaricana website. But I decided to give your instructions a try. I think I found some ancestors in it, but I have a few follow-up questions for you."

Her ancestral from Burgenland are the Hockstocks/Hackstocks from Purbach and the Resches from Breitenbrunn. She found four instances of Hockstock in the Purbach data but none for Resch in the Breitenbrunn data. The reasons she wrote was, first, that she needed some help in interpreting some given names (which was easy for me to do) and, second, because there were two columns in the Purbach Urbarium that were filled but had been blank in the Apetlon example I provided. She said, "They are hand-written under the title “Reuntl.” and seem to indicate additional work day obligations. I wondered whether you could make sense of what they are."

In my tutorial, I had provided a rough translation of the headings found in the detail table, as reprinted below:

As you can see above, there is a column in the middle of the table header that I did not translate, as it was, indeed, unused in the Apetlon data. However, rather than reading Reuntl., as Judi suggests, the heading is actually Neuntl, meaning "Ninth part".

In the Purbach data table, that column has additional handwritten text “Äquivalent an Roboth” (meaning "Equivalent of the Robot") below the printed Neuntl and then is split into two sub-columns, each with text handwritten vertically in the columns that matches the preprinted text of the two columns to its immediate left, meaning effectively “horse labor” and “hand labor.” Horizontally below those is written in Täge, meaning “days.”

However, it was not totally clear to me, from what was written, who benefited from the Robot under “Neuntl.” Nonetheless, I suspect it was the local church and its minister and the Robot referred to work in the fields allotted to that church and/or minister. Since the previous columns described the labor (Robot) due to the local Lord, it seems unlikely that this Neuntl labor would also go to him. I had mentioned in the tutorial that the church got a tenth of the peasant's farm yield (a tithe) and then the Lord got a ninth of the remainder… well, a ninth of the remainder is actually a tenth of the whole, right?, so it really does not matter which way you say it (it is really a tenth of the whole for both church and Lord), which is why I suspect this Neuntl labor goes to the church. Like the tenth of farm yield due the church, a share of labor was also required.

Anyway, that is my speculation. If anyone can add to this interpretation (or correct it), I would appreciate it.

Kevin Janisch also wrote with questions about that column. His village is St. Andrä and the handwritten vertical text differed from what Judi reported (the text is shown to the right, after rotating 90 degrees). In addition, the "Neuntl" part was overwritten to read: “zu statt Zehent” = "tithe to take" or possibly "an statt Neuntl Zehent" = "instead of ninth, tenth," where the preprinted "Neuntl" word is then retained.

For St. Andrä, the vertical text (shown horizontal in the above rotated clip) appears to be in both Latin and German, with the Latin part reading “In Natura” and possibly meaning something like "what is naturally expected." The German handscript is hard to read: for the part I could read, I transcribed it as “dem Hanf, undh flachs aufgenomm??” where the ‘h’ in ‘undh’ just seems wrong and where I could not make out exactly what the ending of the last word was. With help from Fritz Königshofer and Wilhelm Schmidt, it appears it is actually “dem Hanf, und flachs aufgenommen,” which translates to something like “the hemp and flax excluded.” So maybe this was product yield that was excluded from the ‘tenth’ usually expected.

Regardless, it indicates that some farm yield is exempt from what is normally expected for the church or local lord, but which recipient is unclear! As for the "units" listed for the column, we have no idea for what the scribbled text is or means.



In addition, I'll comment that you should expect slight variations from what I reported in the tutorial most everywhere in the Urbarium, as villages had their local idiosyncrasies. For example, Richard Potetz reports that the 1767 Urbarium for the village of Welten (Velike/Velika) shows a split ownership at that time:

Velika (VAS)

The word “Család” means “family” in Hungarian, so it is the Skublics family, not a specific person, that is listed as owner of part of the village. The Skublics were a Hungarian noble family of Croatian-Serbian origin that had significant holdings in Vas and Zala counties.

Despite the general truth that the Batthyány owned most of southern Burgenland (and the Eszterházy of the north), this makes it clear that others shared ownership, possibly due to intermarriage of noble families, mortgaging of land, or payment for service to the higher nobility. A close look at the Welten Urbarial listing indicates that other parts of the village (and the peasants on that land) were, at that time, credited to other Dominions too, though it appears ownership may have remained with the Batthyány.



New DKM (Digitalen Katastralmappe) in the WebGIS Burgenland: The recent Newsletter der GeoDaten Burgenland reports that the map services of GeoData Burgenland were updated in July, now being based on the digital cadastral maps provided by the Burgenland Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV) in April 2015. Such DKM data are updated in the Burgenland WebGIS once each year, whereas the aerial photographs are updated every 3 years, the last time being in 2013. The newsletter also reported that "the laser scan data are from the year 2010/2011," though I must admit that I'm not quite sure what that data represents!

In previous BB newsletters, I have mentioned that Burgenland's WebGIS Internet portal is found at address http://geodaten.bgld.gv.at, where a wide variety of map representations can be viewed... but only after you obtain a login and password then work your way though the German-language instructions and results.



BB House Number Conversions: Three more Old-to-New House Numbers Conversion lists were found this month and added to the House Number Conversions project webpage.

The three conversion lists were for the village of Wolfau in the Oberwart district and the villages of Deutsch Kaltenbrunn and Rohrbrunn in the Jennersdof district.

If you have a list that translates the old house numbers to the new street name and number format, please share it with the BB.



Echoes of the Past: The online version of Time Magazine recently ran an article dated July 3, 2015, and titled "The Government of Hungary Is Going to Pay Its Young People Just to Live There." The article's author, Alissa Greenberg, says that the pay offer is "a bid to stem a brain drain." The new program, titled “Come home, young person!” is aimed at persuading Hungarians living abroad to return to their home country by offering a free return flight, a 100,000 forint (about $350) monthly allowance for a year, and the possibility of a job close to family.

The Hungarian Central Statistics Office estimates that 31,500 Hungarians left the country in 2014, a 46% increase over 2013, raising the total to about 350,000 Hungarians working abroad, most of them young singles who are uncomfortable with the country’s abrupt political shift to the right under Prime Minister Viktor Orban (a topic I discussed previously here: NL#230:3, with a follow-up item here: NL#232:1). This seems to be a strong echo of the West-Hungarian (Burgenland) commuting workers of the past that helped lead to mass permanent emigration.

In response to the pay program, a Hungarian street artist put up posters around the country saying, “If you come to Hungary, could you please bring a sane Prime Minister?” While no one has done that yet, apparently over 1000 applications have already been received from those interested in taking up the pay-to-return offer.



Highest Creditworthiness In Burgenland: Oneline news service burgenland.orf.at reported in July that Burgenland municipalities, as a whole, have the highest credit rating among Austrian provinces in an annual Austria-wide comparison performed by the Zentrum für Verwaltungsforschung (Centre for Management Research) in Vienna. This continues the trend set last year. In total, 39 Burgenland villages made it in among Austria's top 250 communities, with nine ranked in the top 50 and 18 in the top 100. The province also had the highest proportion of villages within the top 10%. The leader among Burgenland communities was southern Burgenland's Bildein (district Güssing), ranking 7th overall, followed by villages Klingenbach (district Eisenstadt-Umgebung) and Badersdorf and Loipersdorf-Kitzladen (district Oberwart), all within the top 20.

According to Thomas Prorok, deputy general manager of the Centre for Management Research, "Burgenland municipalities have the great advantage that they have to pay lower transfers to the federal government compared to other provinces. This is an important factor. But one must not forget that the Burgenland communities can also economize well." By this he meant that Burgenland's villages tended to have low staffing and operating expenditures.

Generally speaking, municipalities in Austria with 2,500-5,000 residents have the highest credit rating and the highest share in the first tenth of the rankings (13 percent). The municipalities with the worst credit ranking are those under 1,000 residents and those over 10,000 residents. The reasons for this are that the smallest municipalities tend to be financially weak yet have high expenditures per resident due. Municipalities over 10,000 inhabitants are fundamentally strong but have high transfer loads to the regional and federal governments and indirectly to the smaller communities. They also have large expenditures for centralized local tasks that are insufficient compensated.

The current study was based on fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013, with the analysis of municipal budgets based on local profitability, self-financing capacity, debt and financial capacity. Among the key figures were the public savings rate, the self-financing rate, the debt period, the debt service ratio, financial standing, self-financing ratio and the leverage ratio.

More on the study can be found here: http://www.gemeindemagazin.at/magazin_detail.php?ID=621.



Update for book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": 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."

Current total sales are 909 copies, as interested people purchased 21 more books this month. Given this sales count, the book's rank slipped to 412, still further from its best rank of 397 near the beginning of 2015; still, the book remains a competitor among the best-selling Lulu books and it has now broken the 900 mark in sales. Once again, I marvel at my initial naive belief that sales of just 200 copies would be a mark of "resounding success!" Instead, now I look toward the potential sale of the 1000th copy... will it come to pass? It only took 7 months to move from the 800th to the 900th copy, so it seems quite feasible! :~)

As always, the book remains available for online purchase at a list price of $7.41 (which is the production charge for the book), plus tax & shipping. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page and for any current discounts (and there is at least one discount on price or shipping available most of the time... if not, wait a few days and there will be one!).



Burgenland Recipes: Another recipe from cookbook "Recipes for the New Millennium" (© 2000, Morris Press), subtitled "A Collection of Recipes from Former and Present Parishioners of Holy Ghost Church, Bethlehem, PA."

This one just begs you to eat too many squares and ruin whatever remnants are left of your diet! Please note that the first two words in the recipe title, as it was given in the cookbook, was "Alma's Lepany." They really should be Almás Lepény, the Hungarian words for Apple Pie, so I changed it here (I hope 'Alma,' whomever she isn't, is not offended!)

ALMÁS LEPÉNY OR DEEP DISH APPLE SQUARES
(from Erika M. Cirullo)

Dough:
3/4 c. butter         2 egg yolks
2 1/3 c. flour        1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. sugar          1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp. salt         2 tsp. lemon juice

Filling:
8-10 apples, grated   1 T. lemon juice
1 1/4 c. sugar        1 tsp. cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar and egg yolks together. Add remaining ingredients and mix very well by hand. Divide dough in two. Roll out 1 piece and cover bottom and sides of a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with the pastry. Fill with apple mixture. Roll out second piece of dough and place on top, pinching edges together. Prick top with fork (so steam can escape). Brush top with beaten egg. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes, then change to 375° for 20 minutes or until golden. Dust with powdered sugar, if you wish, then cut into squares.



Cartoon of the Month:


      

Given daughter Anna was born in Apetlon in December 1884, the claim that he came to the US in “about 1882” is likely wrong. If he was in Philadelphia in 1882 and then Minnesota, it seems difficult to father a child in Austria in early 1884. In fact, it appears that the family arrived in June 1887 at Baltimore aboard the SS Weser. This certainly calls into question the remark that he first settled in Philadelphia before going to Minnesota. Their second child, Michael, was born in Minnesota in June 1888, which makes sense if they emigrated in 1887 and went nearly directly to Minnesota. (There remains the possibility than Joseph bounced back and forth between Minnesota and Europe by himself between 1882 and 1887, but that was an expensive undertaking and the biographical text gives no hint that he did so.)

The comment that he settled in St. Paul on “the present site of the Pro-Cathedral, which was then a wilderness” is complete nonsense. A pro-cathedral is merely a parish church that is serving temporarily as the diocese cathedral. The history book was published in 1931, however, the current St. Paul Cathedral was begun in 1907, opened in 1915, and has served in that role ever since, with the prior cathedral being in downtown St. Paul, completed in 1858, and serving as the cathedral until the new one was available in 1915… so there would be no need for a pro-cathedral in 1931 (or in 1887) …and, even if there was a need, it would be an existing church, so the site could not be a wilderness!

The cathedral areas of St. Paul were well-settled in the 1880s and the current Cathedral was built on the grounds of an already-derelict mansion on a hill above the downtown area; it was not a wilderness, as the neighborhood around it had been developed for years. In fact, the area was so-settled that a streetcar line was built in 1888 on what was then known as St. Anthony Hill (now known as Cathedral Hill) that extended all the way west from downtown St. Paul to the Minneapolis city line. The one great bottleneck was the 16-degree slope at the east end of the hill near downtown St. Paul. With the advent of electric street cars, a tunnel was built in 1907 to reduce the grade to 7 degrees. That tunnel is now closed (and the streetcars gone) but it was built almost underneath the then under-construction Cathedral. Being a Minnesota native, I have visited the Cathedral and the surrounding area, as the church is quite spectacular and the east end of Cathedral Hill was and remains an elite St. Paul neighborhood.

The biographical text continues by saying: "After several years he pioneered into Millwood Township, Stearns County, Minnesota, and engaged in farming, although he occasionally worked as a mason when the opportunity presented itself." This seems reasonable and supportable by documentation, though the use of the word "pioneered" may be a stretch. As I noted above, Stearns County is where my emigrant families settled and I have the history book for the county. However, Joseph Tschida and his family do not appear in the Stearns History book, mostly because they arrived in Stearns County well after the true “pioneer” families settled there. North Dakota was settled much later, which is why son John Leonard Tschida qualified to be included in that book. The family appears in Millwood Township in the 1895 Minnesota State census and John Leonard states he was born there in 1892, so the claim of "after several years" (beyond 1887) is reasonable. Unfortunately, the 1890 Federal census was destroyed so we can't pin this down tighter.



But that is enough. My purpose in taking apart this biographical text was to provide warning that the accuracy of biographies in such "history" books is questionable. The books were often written quickly, for profit, and the biographic details depended greatly on personal interviews with descendants, who usually had a vested interest in having their family present well. Too often, the interviewees were young children (or not even born) when the events they speak of occurred, and their statements simply lack accuracy.

Nonetheless, I cherish a quote from a local newspaper found in the Stearns History book, which claimed: "June 8, 1865 -- A German named John Steichner, just arrived from the old country, bought this week from Nicholas Rausch, living near Rockville, twelve miles from St. Cloud, his farm of 160 acres, paying for it $1,200 in gold and $1,200 in greenbacks."

My ancestor was Johann Steichen, a Luxembourger from Kehlen, Luxembourg... but this sentence is about him and he did buy that farm. Isn't it a wonderful sentence? I think so!



Bonus Questions: What was a "greenback"? and how much was "$1,200 in greenbacks" worth in June 1865? and why do they speak of paying both "in gold" and "in greenbacks"?

HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF ALLENTOWN TURNER UND LIEDERKRANZ

The Allentown Liederkranz was organized in the year 1872. Little is known of the early history of the organization until the year 1890, when the society merged with the Allentown Turn Verein, securing a charter in the name of Allentown Turner Und Liederkranz. 75 members signed the charter, and the following men were officers: James L. Schaadt, Pres.; David Widmer, Vice-Pres.;—Frederick Fritz, Recording Secretary—Charles F. Englert, Financial Secretary—George Berrety, Treasurer—F. M. Pukall and Moritz Weikert, Teachers of Gymnasts, and Benedict Arnold, Director of Music. Under the able tutelage of the gymnast instructors, a fine Turn Section was developed. This group, comprised of approximately 40 men, became quite well known for their fine exhibitions of fencing and gymnasts, competing in out of town and local tournaments. The singing group, comprised of approximately 50 voices, also contributed greatly toward the advancement of group singing in this locality.

In 1906 a group of men, who had been singing under the name of "Gesangverein Einigkeit" [= Choral Society Union], became members of the organization, and in due course, several of them were elected officers, principally among whom was Frank Fabian who served as President for 25 years.

In 1907 the property at 217 N. 2nd St. was purchased and the building was remodeled for the purpose of conducting singing, rehearsals and meetings.

In 1911 an auditorium was constructed to improve the facilities for conducting social affairs.

In 1923 the present meeting room and bowling alleys were added, together with a pool room situated in the front part of the building.

In 1935 the entire front building was remodeled into a modern brick structure, and a new barroom, living quarters and rathskeller were installed.

In 1941, with the thought of expanding the facilities of the club, the adjacent property of 209-211 N. 2nd St. was purchased, and in 1946 the property at 219 N. 2nd was purchased, to provide housing for the second steward. Due to prevailing conditions, plans for expanding were dropped.

HIGHLIGHTS OF CLUB ACTIVITIES

The male chorus, singing as a group, participated in various local anniversary celebrations, as well as song fests in Baltimore, Newark, Trenton and New York. In 1925 a ladies chorus was organized, under the direction of John Birmelin. The combined groups, being members of The Workmen's Federation of Singing Societies, participated in national song fests held in Philadelphia, New Haven, Buffalo, Cleveland, and New York. In July, 1936, a children's chorus was organized under the direction of Mrs. Hilda Fiedler. This Group, being quite active, presented concerts and plays at various times throughout the years.

Given the above History was published by the Club, I will assume it is accurate and compare it to what I said in the earlier article.

First, there was some question in the prior article about the correct founding year of the organization (either 1872 or 1892), but I concluded that 1872 had to be correct; the above History confirms it.

Second, I previously quoted material from a 1987 edition of The Morning Call newspaper that stated that the "Liederkranz... was organized in 1872, but it had a shaky beginning. During those early years, its members met under the auspices of the Turner Club. Then it separated and operated independently. Later it disappeared altogether..."  but was later revived and eventually merged with the Turn Verein somewhere in 1907-1909.

The official History indicates the Liederkranz and Turn Verein merged in 1890 and remained together thereafter under the Allentown Turner Und Liederkranz name.

Third, the earlier article, again quoting The Morning Call, stated that the Second Street property was purchased in 1909; the official History reports the initial Second Street purchase was in 1907, with adjacent lots purchased in 1941 and 1946.

Lastly, the previous article reported that a precipitous decline in membership occurred in the 1970s, leading to the eventual bankruptcy and dissolution of the club in 1988. I find it interesting that the official History indicates that, already by 1946, further expansion plans were dropped due to “prevailing conditions.” This certainly foreshadowed what eventually happened!



Louise Fielding also provided some additional material that came from Doris Zettle, daughter of John Zettle, the Turner Liederkranz President in 1947, when the 75th Anniversary was held. Interestingly, Doris' mother was Julia Berghold, and BB founder Gerald Berghold was her second cousin! Doris remembered the emphasis on exercise and fitness and many other activities at the Liederkranz, and she also had programs from the 78th, 80th and 90th anniversaries.

Doris was able to provide a 1920 photo of the "Turn Section" and a 1947 photo of the "Mixed Chorus." I note from the first photo that the organization was, apparently, also known as the "Allentown Turn und Liederkranz" for some time, as that is how the photo is labeled.

I'll conclude this article by first thanking Louise and Doris for sharing these materials (thank you, Louise! and thank you, Doris!) and then will provide three photos, an image of the front of the Turner-Liederkranz building, circa 1947, as printed in the anniversary program Louise shared; and the two photos from Doris, of the Turn Section and the Mixed Chorus. I hope this gives all of you a better understanding of the club history and its activities.






 

* Oberpullendorf Villages from Vas County: Bubendorf, Deutsch Gerisdorf, Glashütten bei Langeck, Hammerteich, Kogl, Langeck, Lebenbrunn, Liebing, Lockenhaus, Pilgersdorf, Rattersdorf, Salmannsdorf, Steinbach (all others from Sopron County).

Note also that "county" in German is Komitat and in Latin is cottus or Comitatus, so those words might appear too.



Way up above I told you to click on the Maps button in the "Databases" section and that would take you to the main Maps Categories Page. If you are at that page, you will see that it has a search box at the top and a long "Categories" listing below that. The top of that list also notes (as I write this) that there are 63174 maps accessible from this page, so don't even begin to expect that I'll tell you about all of them!

One (obvious) problem with the Categories list is that it is in Hungarian (with a little German mixed in!). For that reason, I'll give you a crude English translation below:

If you looked through this list, you will see that the major breaks are for the different repositories where these maps come from. For us BBers, perhaps the most useful are the County Manuscripts Maps, some of the family archive maps (Eszterházy and Batthyány archives, for example) from the Hungarian National Archives, and maybe some of the Military History Museum maps.

However, for our example, we were looking for Bánfalu in Moson County... and there is not a Moson County sub-collection within the County Manuscripts Maps collection, so this Categories list does not appear to be real helpful in this instance. We will, instead, resort to the Search Box to see what we can find.



Search Box: As I said in the previous tutorial, the Search Box is not case-sensitive but is sensitive to the presence or absence of special characters: umlauts, accents, etc. Thus you must include that á found in Bánfalu. One way to do that is to copy it from somewhere (say the BB Villages pages or this newsletter article) then paste it into the search box.

[Side note: You can do that by highlighting the character in this article then hitting Ctrl-c (hold the Ctrl key down and then press the c key) to copy it. Now go to the Hungaricana Search Box and hit Ctrl-v to paste it in. In addition, you might want to create a small file  wherein you paste all the special characters you might need, then keep that file handy as a source to copy from.]

So lets start typing bánfal... you will see that a list of keyword hits appears below the box... you can either select one or just type a wildcard * to select all of them: bánfal* ...and then click the little magnifying glass at the right end of the search box to initiate the search. At the time I wrote this text, such a wildcard search returned 16 hits.

The first one read:
 
National Széchényi Library
OSZK kéziratos térképek

1. Bánfalu helység határának kiosztási térképe [TK 2019]

Title	Bánfalu helység határának kiosztási térképe
Contributors	[...] Bánfalu [...]

Unfortunately, this does not tell us which county this Bánfalu lies in, and you really should verify that so you don't mislead yourself with an inappropriate map.

If you click on the link shown (starts with: "1. Bánfalu...") or on the map thumbnail image, it will take you to a page with more descriptive information. Most relevant on that page is the "Content" section, which reads: Mosonbánfalva. Melléktérk.: Belterület, [1:2400] 3" = 100°. Belterület bejelölve. Külterületen számozott parcellák, művelési ágak színnel. Dűlők részben névvel, részben számmal. Birtokkönyv. Proven.: Néprajzi Múzeum.

The key word here is the first: Mosonbánfalva. The "Moson" prefix tells us this is the correct Bánfalu and thus the map is worth exploring. You can do so by clicking the thumbnail on the page ...but do note that it says [3 image(s)] below the map. Thus this map has been presented in parts to allow more resolution in each part. If you wish to view the whole map, you will need to look at each part separately. Unfortunately, Hungaricana does not provide a way to copy or capture the map image.

As for viewing the maps, this is the same page viewer I discussed in the 1767 Urbarium tutorial. Rather than discuss the page controls again, I'll suggest you read the discussion in the Urbarium tutorial (found relatively early in the "Results" section of that article).

Let's now return to the list of 16 "hits" by using your browser's "Back" button. The second hit provides more information about its map than entry 1 did. In particular, the "Subject" text reads: Dédestapolcsány (régebben Bántapolcsány, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén m.) környékének vázlatos bányatérképe.

Note the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén m. part of this text. It tells us that this Bánfalu is in county Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén (remember the m. abbreviation I mentioned above?) and is not relevant to our search.

I'll let you explore the other "hits" and decide for yourself whether the maps are relevant.



Categories List: At this point, I'll jump to a different map; one not related to Apetlon and Ginger McGurk's research interests. I'll do this so I can speak about using the Categories list (and because the example map I'll show you interests me!).

So, go back to the main Maps page at http://maps.hungaricana.hu/en/. Near the bottom of the Categories list, in the Megyei kéziratos térképek (County Manuscript Maps) section, is an category entry for Vas County: Vas megye kéziratos térképei (Vas manuscript maps). Although it has two subcategories, I want you to click the main Vas link. Doing so should take you to a results page that (today) reports 1361 hits. When using the Categories list, you have no recourse but to read the description of each "hit" entry and decide if it interests you. Of course, this is made more difficult given that most such descriptions are in Hungarian ...but also with a few entries in German or Latin to keep things interesting. All I can suggest is that you copy the descriptive text and paste it into Google Translate to get the gist of what the map is about.

The "hit" that caught my eye was number 19, titled "Mappa viarum postalium et commercialium in comitatu Castrife... [VAML T 19]." From the "main title" box below that, I noticed that the full title, had it not been cut off, was "Mappa viarum postalium et commercialium in comitatu Castriferrei existentium."

This caught my eye because, first, it was in Latin, and second, because the word Castriferrei appeared in it. If you recall from the first small table I placed in this article, Castriferrei is the Latin name for Vas County. Translating the title to English gives: "Map of highways, postal and commercial, existing in county Castriferrei."

Clicking the link (or the thumbnail) takes you to another page where it is reported that the map dates from 1790. I was hooked! So I clicked on the thumbnail to bring it up in the page viewer (you should too). That reveals a map that shows the shape of old Vas county (I've seen enough maps of it to immediately recognize it here) but one that was overlaid with a bunch of red writing and had a "scroll" of information down the left side and some kind of scale at the bottom. Let's ignore the "scroll" and scale for now and zoom into the map itself. In particular, I want you to zoom in to the center-left of the map where the red number "16" appears three times. If you do so, you should see villages Neudau, Burgau and Fürstenfeld at the left edge of the county and Körmend in the lower-center of the map. If you have all these showing (like below) then you are on the map where I want you to be.



But what are we looking at? I ask that question because it is the key reality of using these old maps: nothing will be there to tell you what you are seeing... and you'll have to figure it out yourself. So let's do that.

Körmend (over in the lower right) is current-day Körmend, Hungary, and Neudau, Burgau and Fürstenfeld are villages in current-day Styria (Steiermark) ...and all of these can be seen on a modern map. However, the villages along the road (yes, that is a road) between Neudau and Körmend are likely now in Burgenland and go by their German names, not the Hungarian names shown on this map. I suggest you use our comprehensive "List of All Villages" found at page http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/Map/Villages/AllMapNames2.htm to help translate from the Hungarian to the modern German names. In addition, pull up a GoogleMap of the area (in another window) so you can see the modern names and where things fit. If you do so for the villages along the road marked with the red 16s, you will work out that (from the left) Sz: Elek is Szentelek (you have to un-abbreviate it first) which is modern-day Stegersbach. The next one, P. Sz: Mihál is (unabbreviated) Pusztaszentmihály, which is St. Michael im Burgenland. The next, Német Ujvár, is Güssing and the last, Mindszent is Pinkamindszent, Hungary (so that one isn't in modern-day Burgenland).

Ok, so now we know where we are on the map... but the question remains, what do those red 16s represent? The answer lies in the "scroll" on the left edge of the map (and, in a little hard thinking!). If you slide the map over so you can see the scroll, you'll also see that it consists of a sequence of lettered and then numbered text items... with some black numbers on their right edges. If you transcribe the Latin text for # 16: "Via Comercialis, ex Körmend versus Német Ujvár ad Sz Elek ducens, continet Milliaria" and translate it using Google Translate, you'll get something like "Commercial way, from Körmend towards Német Ujvár to beyond Sz Elek, contains Milliaria (miles / mileposts)." And the black number beside it reads 6 2/4.

Well, that helped, didn't it? In fact, upon additional thought, it should seem obvious that the text describes a route from Körmend to "beyond Sz Elek." Since we are using a Vas county map, "beyond Sz Elek" ought to mean to the County border, not to Neudau just over the line in Styria (if it meant Neudau, it would have named the town, yes?). And, if it is a route, then "6 2/4" ought to be a distance measure, as the Milliaria (miles/mileposts) translation implies. So then, "red route 16" is 6 1/2 Milliaria from Körmend to the county line beyond Sz Elek along the "Commercial Way."

For curiosity, I had GoogleMaps give me directions from Körmend to Neudau. The route it chose matches well the route on the 1790 map, implying that the roads have not moved much from back then, and it gave me a distance of 30.1 miles. Well, 30.1 miles does not match with 6 1/2 Milliaria, so that measure is not a modern US mile! That then prompted me to look more carefully at the "scale" at the bottom of the map, where I learned that we were dealing with Milliaria Germanica, not just Milliaria!

Doing a web search for Milliaria Germanica revealed that 1 Milliaria is a distance of 742,040 cm (= 4.61082279 miles). Multiplying that mile number by 6.5 (the distance in Milliaria along route 16) gives 29.97 miles... which is surprisingly close to the 30.1 miles that GoogleMaps reported (for the slightly longer distance into Neudau rather than to the county line)! And I'll take it as a confirmation that my interpretation of the text was right.

There are a few other things worth noting about this map, but I'll just summarize them here. First, there are two types of roads on the map, the "Commercial Ways," like route 16, and "Postal Ways" (Via Postalis), marked with red letters and drawn on the map with double lines (look close, you'll see them)... these evidently were the "freeways" of the day. Second, there are small patches of road marked with red lines (usually crossing a river, a county line, or entry into a bigger city). The text at the bottom of the scroll tells us that "Linea Rubra denotat Vias Teloniales" (red lines indicate customs/toll roads)... I think of them as likely marking the equivalent of toll booths ...so some things never change!

-- End of Tutorial
 

The document is not a travel document but the Hungarian "Szolgálati Cseléd könyv", the work permit booklet for household and farming servants. It was issued by the local administration and obligatory for those working as servants.

The document you've send me shows only the picture page and it reads above the foto: "The picture is provided with the servants booklet holder's signature, in addition the permit is also signed on the lower part of this page."

The picture shows the signature "Kovacs Kati."

Below the picture it reads: "The work permit booklet holder's signature: Kovacs Kati."

As you can see on the green stamp, the permit was issued 1902 in Szombathely.

After receiving Peter's reply and sharing it with Judy, Margaret then wrote to me saying, "Something I don't remember seeing before - in case you'd like to include in newsletter," and she included the image. As I'm always interested in sharing historical information with you readers, I was pleased to receive it and wrote to Judy asking for more information (which resulted in the biographical information I related above).

Judy also mentioned that "I do not know anything about her work history in Hungary prior to her marriage and immigration to Chicago. That is why the Hungarian document is so interesting to me." Unfortunately, the page she had was only one page in a multi-page booklet, and it is the other pages that would have reported Katharina's work history.



Like I am prone to do, I did some research into these work permit booklets, as I was curious and thought you might be too.

In looking over what Peter had reported, I agreed with everything he translated except for one minor detail: he had noted, correctly, the 1902 date on the green stamp but had leaped, incorrectly, to a statement that the permit was issued in that year. If so, Katherina, who was born in 1898, would have been four years old and looking very mature for her age! Clearly, the 1902 date on the stamp was not related to the actual issue date. (Not to give Peter too hard a time about this incorrect assertion, I'll report that I wrote to Judy saying, "I note that she was only 14 at the time the work permit was issued… shows you the reality of existence at that time, doesn’t it?" I had blithely accepted Peter's assertion but could not even do the arithmetic correctly!)

Given there is no other date on the page, we only know that it must date from before 1922, when her surname changed due to marriage, and probably after the 1912 date that I erroneously substituted in claiming she was 14 when the permit was issued... but I'll say more on that later.

My research into these Szolgálati könyv (service books) took me in two directions:

First, I found a number of other, highly-similar examples of these books, dating from 1899 up to 1941 (though other information suggested that the book was in use already in the 1870s). In the following paragraphs, I will use one of these other books to describe what they contain (as I can't do that using Katharina's truncated book).

My second direction was in a search for the controlling Hungarian laws affecting service workers and the service books they were required to have.


 
The book, itself, was a multi-page document (some with up to 48 pages in all) with the "picture" page on the back of the front cardboard cover and an information page facing it (see example from 1918 shown to the right).

The information page recorded the maid's place of birth and of residence, both addresses including the village name plus its district, county and country. The page also identified the issuing office and the date on which the book was issued, along with an official signature and official stamps. Lastly (or sometimes firstly, as in this example; Hungary was a very bureaucratic country, after all), the price of the book and the cost of preparing it were indicated, usually with glued-on stamps to indicate that the appropriate fees had been paid.

The next pair of facing pages included a place for official notes and then a very thorough verbal description of the maid, including facial features, age, height, religion, place of permanent residence, etc.

The remaining pages were for job entries, which included basic information such as the employer's name and civil standing, the dates of entry into and out of service, and the agreed wage and whether room and/or board were included. These pages also included "certificate of services" entries evaluating loyalty, job skill, work ethic and morality... a sort of "report card" that could help or hinder further employment.


 
As for controlling laws, I found a 1907 law, titled "Regulating the relationship between the farmer and the economic maid" that consisted of some seven chapters with 70 numbered sections in all (see http://www.1000ev.hu/index.php?a=3&param=6984 for the Hungarian text of this law). The use of "Szolgálati (cseléd) könyv" is specified therein.

While I won't go into great detail about the law (it is boringly bureaucratic!), I will note a few things. First, the law explicitly states that no one under 12 years of age can be issued a permit/service book. Thus it is quite possible that Katharina could have been working as a maid at age 14 (not that it being legal in anyway indicates that Kate entered into service at such a young age).

Second, it says that minors (under the age of 18) must have the consent of their legal guardian and must be placed under the "house discipline" of the host (employer). The fact that the book exists establishes that consent (if needed) has been given.

Third, to be employable, the law requires the maid to have a permit/service book, and it also requires the employer to fill out the job entry information and, on termination of service, the certificate of service.

Thereafter, the various chapters establish the legal guidelines for initiating a contract for service, carrying out (or early-terminating) the contract (even down to details such as what happens when the maid or the host family have serious illnesses), solving contract disputes, and even legal punishments for criminal offences committed by maid or employer.

Lastly, I'll note that the law references prior versions of this law dated 1876 and 1896, thus establishing that regulation of maid service was in effect as early as the 1870s.



One final note... Judy tells me that "The language spoken by the Kovacs family in their household in Neuberg was Croatian, as evidenced by the numerous letters, received by Kate through the years from her family in Neuberg, written in Croatian and also her Croatian prayer book. Her husband, Michael, was German-speaking and this was the language they spoke with their sons. Croatian was the language that my grandparents spoke at home. I know that the Burgenland Croatian language is unique and is dying. I would be interested in connecting with any BB members who still speak or understand this Croatian dialect."

So, if you wish to share your interest in Burgenland Croatian, drop me a note and I'll put you in contact with Judy.