THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 7
ISSUED AS REQUIRED BY Gerald J. Berghold
Mar. 1, 1997
(all rights reserved)

This edition of the newsletter primarily concerns the possible
itinerary followed by Burgenland immigrants on their way to the
new world, the three Hungarian counties from which Burgenland
was formed and some comments from members of the bunch.


BURGENLAND IMMIGRANTS ITINERARY

I remember asking my immigrant grandmother Hedwig (Hattie)
Mühl Sorger about her trip from the Burgenland to Allentown, PA.
She left Güssing in 1905 with her twin sister Francisca (Fannie)
and her mother Joanna Pöltl Mühl. Their father (Josephus Mühl,
b.1835, a carpenter) had died of pneumonia shortly before they
were born in Klein Murbisch in 1885. A fire later destroyed their
home in Klein Murbisch and they moved to a cottage owned by an
uncle at the foot of Güssing Castle. Their mother made a
precarious living as a maid and seamtress and both girls went into
service as maids at age 14. Their older brother, and only sibling,
Joseph became a tailor, emigrated to Allentown in 1903 and sent
them passage money. He must have done well since he sent them
fare for 2nd class tickets (steerage passage cost $12-14) and they
were spared the discomfort of steamship steerage. Second class
also avoided immigrant processing at Ellis Island.

My grandmother told me her uncle used his horse and wagon to
take them to the train station in Güssing. They had at least 3 large
suitcases, some smaller luggage and 2 large metal covered wooden
steamer trunks, plus some food packages. They went by train to
Kormend, Hungary and then to Vienna, where they transfered to a train
for a German port (either Bremen or Hamburg?). Their ship was the SS
Caronia (?) [Ed: Hedwig, her mother Johanna, and sister-in-law Anna
Tschentschitsch sailed in Feb, 1905, on the SS Kroonland from Antwerp,
Belgium to NYC. Sister Francisca sailed on the SS Kroonland in Sept, 1904,
also from Antwerp.] and grandmother told me they had a comfortable trip
with good food which included the first banana she ever ate. She didn't
know whether to eat the peel or not! Upon landing in New York they were
met by Joseph, took the ferry to Newark, New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley
RR to Allentown where Joseph had rented a small house in an ethnic
neighborhood. They soon found work in a local cigar factory. The
twins were married to Burgenland immigrant men within a year. I
have similar travel stories concerning my other three grandparents
with more or less detail. My grandfather Alois (Louis) Sorger came
from Güssing (hamlet of Rosenberg) in 1901. He left from
Eichselbaum (Badafalva), district of Szt. Gotthard; where he was
working as a brick layer.

A construction friend took him and a friend (Steve Mankos - they
later built houses side by side in Allentown, PA and were life long
neighbors) by construction wagon to Szt. Gotthard, where they
took a train to Kormend, then Budapest and Hamburg. Their ship
was the SS Phoenicia, Hamburg-America Line. Traveled steerage for
$14. Arrived NY, Aug. 17, 1901. Went through Ellis Island and
took a train to Bethlehem, PA where they had a room with the
travel companion's brother. Jobs as bricklayers were waiting for
them.

The Berghold brothers, Frank, John and Joseph first came to
America (John, my grandfather, made one trip back and return)
from Poppendorf (Patafalva) via Bremen, Germany (SS Karlsruhe,
North German LLoyd Line) in 1901, steerage, Ellis Island, New
Jersey ferry and Lehigh Valley RR to Bethlehem. They used their
father's horse and wagon (he was a blacksmith and Gasthaus
owner) to go to Jennersdorf, then by train to Kormend, Budapest,
Vienna and Bremen. They all got brewery jobs (Uhl's in Bethlehem
and Neuweiler's in Allentown). They all married immigrant
Burgenland women. Frank eventually became a farmer and produce
merchant and Joseph, after a stint as a tavern keeper in
Catasauqua, PA became a coal dealer. John stayed at the brewery,
then returned to Poppendorf with his new family. He built a new
home with his US savings, but emigrated again in 1912.

In none of these cases do we have all the details. Today a tourist
trip to the Burgenland, even for an experienced traveler, can still be
daunting. From Winchester, VA, it requires transport to Dulles
(Washington, DC), flight to London or Munich, airline transfer to
Vienna and transport to village, but no real hassle. In the early
1900's, there were at least two difficult borders to cross, Austrian-
Hungarian and Austrian-German, with much concern about travel
papers, health status, money carried and exchanged and custom
requirements. In late 1892-93 for instance, the German border was
closed due to a severe cholera epidemic in Hamburg. Typhus and
smallpox epidemics also closed the borders from time to time. A
traveler could be stuck. There were also at least three train
transfers and a long wait to board ship at the immigration hostels
at Hamburg or Bremen. Steerage immigrants had Ellis Island (Castle
Gardens pre 1892) processing awaiting them. There are some
facts that allow us to establish a logical itinerary. We know that
train service from Güssing to Kormend (a spur discontinued after
WW-II) began in 1899 and somewhat earlier in Jennersdorf, the
last Hungarian station on the Budapest-Graz line. The Raab Valley
service, Budapest-Graz, via Szombathely (Steinamanger) opened in
1883. This was 247 miles of rail which then took 8-10 hours. It is
still operating today. It was the logical way to get to Budapest for
connections with Vienna and Germany (probably via Salzburg-
Munich for the southern ports in Holland and via Prague for the
north German ports) from southern and middle Burgenland. North
of Oberwart, there was early train service to other parts of Austria
with connections from Vienna for Wiener Neustadt-Pinkafeld-
Oberwart-Gross Petersdorf. There was also a line Pamhagen-Gols-
Parndorf-Neusiedel-Bruck-Vienna. I'm not sure when these lines
went into service. During the early 1900's, the Hamburg-America
Line (HAPAG) operated a travel agency in Güssing. This accounts
for many immigrants from this area leaving from port of Hamburg.
The agency could issue a through ticket, rail as well as ship,
including US rail if required. Other agencies operated pre- and post-
WW-I in Neusiedl am See, Eisenstadt, Pinkafeld, Oberwart,
Grosspetersdorf, and Güssing (i.e., North-German Lloyd was in
Güssing in 1922 plus others) and immigrants could use the
handiest (or cheapest) service. The Austro-Americana Line provided
trans-Atlantic service from Trieste as early as 1913, but I have yet
to find Burgenlanders to the US who went this way (there must be
some). We also know that in 1910, 91% of Austro-Hungarian
immigrants left via Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam and Antwerp. Of
these, most (80%) used Bremen and Hamburg. The remainder used
Trieste(7%) and Genoa (2%). When looking for ship lists, I'd try
Hamburg or Bremen first.

The itineraries given for south Burgenland immigrants of the 1900-
1920's period to New York and Pennsylvania may not apply to
north Burgenland immigrants of the 1870's. Most of them settled
in the mid-west; St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Wisconsin and
the Dakotas. Rail transport may not have been available that early
and they may have used Danube and other river transportation.
They also had a NY to mid-west journey. What was their route? Did
they use any canal or riverboat transportation? Were they part of
any western wagon trains? Does anyone know? Likewise the middle
Burgenland (Oberwart district) immigrants of the 1890's settled in
the "German" belts of Chicago and Detroit. What was their US
route? Emigration routes to Canada and South America would of
course also differ.

The 1910-20 US census shows when a recent immigrant came to
the US. Given this date, the US Immigration Lists (via soundex) or
Steamship Lists will provide an immigration card (if there is one).
The card will identify the ship, steamship line, exit port and
Burgenland point of origin. With this information and a good atlas
(or better yet an old 1900-1920 Baedecker travel guide), plus
some hints given here, you should be able to assemble a pretty
good itinerary for your ancestor. Test it against what you may
already know. If anyone has a documented itinerary for one of their
Burgenland immigrants, please send me the details!


LOCATION OF CIVIL RECORDS (from Frank Teklits)

<< I have been reviewing civil records, but apparently Gussing is
not the district for Moschendorf (NemetSaroslak), as my review of
those records came up with nothing. Does the 1773 Hungarian
gazetteer provide the district name or the Hungarian fiches in the
IGI files? >>

(my answer) No, only tells parish and synod. Where are the Civil
Records for Moschendorf? Try Civil Records for Strem, LDS Nos.
0700570-0700573. Unlike the church records which are found in
the village where the church is located, the civil records are in the
municipal office (Gemeindeamt) serving the locale.

Today Strem provides Gemeindeamt service for Moschendorf. I'm
assuming it was the same in 1896 when the government decided
that the churches would no longer be responsible for vital records.
The records could be at Kormend, Hungary, the municipal office for
the Pinkamindzent area today, but I doubt it, since it appears
Hungary gave all plebescite records to Austria (except for Budapest
archive copies). Don't ask me how I picked Strem. It involves a
convoluted task of looking in some German language publications
that I bought in Austria and then comparing that to the LDS
catalog. I'm in the process of putting this sort of thing together for
all of the Burgenland Bunch Austrian villages for a future
newsletter. I misled you when I suggested you look in Güssing
surrounding area records. I thought they'd be there because some
other district records are there and Moschendorf is in the district
(Bezirk) of Güssing. Completely confused?


BURGENLAND WAS FORMED FROM THREE HUNGARIAN COUNTIES

While researching "Burgenland Maps" for a previous edition, I found
that some of the Burgenland villages had not been in Vas Megye
prior to 1919. They were in surrounding counties. I hadn't been
aware of this and the map article carried a note to that effect.
Yesterday I spent the day at the local LDS Family History Center. I
copied the LDS Library Locality Index for "Austria-Burgenland-
locality", all 74 pages! Cost the price of a book, but now I can easily
cross-reference German (Austrian) and Hungarian village names as
I previously copied the same index for "Hungary-Vas Megye-
locality". The index for each mentions the name used in the other
index. Given either name, I can use them to find the applicable
microfilm records. While reviewing the Austrian index, I found
those villages that were not in Vas Megye, but which are now in
Burgenland. They are mostly the villages in the See Winkel (N and E
of the Neusiedler See), which were in Moson Megye and those
around Eisenstadt and E which were in Sopron Megye. Burgenland
was formed from much of Vas Megye and some parts of Moson and
Sopron Megyes.


END OF NEWSLETTER-EDITED & DISTRIBUTED BY GERALD J. BERGHOLD