BB News No. 45 dtd 31 Oct 1998

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 45 DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND GENEALOGY (issued biweekly by Gerald Berghold) October 31, 1998 All Rights Reserved. Permission to Copy Granted, but Give Credit. This first section of the 3-section newsletter features: - The villages of Rohrbrunn and Deutsch Kaltenbrunn, - Translations from a German Text Concerning the Village of Wallern, - Report of a Trip to Gols, - More on the Name Waldburga, - Hianzisch, - Language Changes and a Defense of Dialect. THE FATHER LESER SERIES, extracted & translated by Albert Schuch 40) Rohrbrunn The former Batthyány castle in 1930 owned by Wilhelm TILL from Vienna. In 1524 the village "Ndkuth" (Rohrbrunn) was given to Franz Batthyány, consisting of 7 farms. In 1599 the Batthyánys already owned 20 houses in Rohrbrunn. In 1605 the BOCSKAY rebels destroyed almost the whole village (most villages in the Güssing area met the same fate!). Number of inhabitants: 1802: 357 (354 Catholics, 3 Lutherans), 1812: 371 (367 C, 4 L), 1856: 452 (450 C, 2 L), 1930: 750 (748 C, 2 L; in 99 houses). 22 casualities in WW I, plus 2 m.i.a. and 7 war-related deaths in hospitals. In 1930 9 inhabitants in America. R. has always been a part of Deutsch Kaltenbrunn parish. Teachers: Josef KIRMANN (1851-99), Franz HOLPER (1899-1925), Rudolf SCHUH (1925-30), second teacher Pauline SCHUH nee HAIDER (since 1922). (source: V+H Nr. 12-13/1958) 41) Deutsch Kaltenbrunn Consists of the "core" village and the "Berghuser" (houses in the hills). Old village names: Hydegseg (1428-51), Hidegkut (1524), called (Deutsch) Kaltenbrunn since 1654. Given to Franz Batthyány in 1524 as a part of the Güssing domain. In 1599 Franz B. owned 42 houses, Thomas ZECHY 7 and Andreas WKY 4. Almost completly destroyed by BOCSKAY's troops in 1605. The houses were rebuilt, only to be burned down again in 1622 by BETHLEN's army (30 houses). Granted the status of an "oppidum" (market town) in 1647 by King Ferdinand III. In 1687 Count Adam Batthyány gave the land for a (half-)house to Michael HERMSTREIT for faithful services. The1693-Urbarium names the following families: SCHMALDIENST (6), BOGNER, ZACH, TAUSCH (5 each), SCHMIDT (4), STABER, HAFFNER, ERKINGER, SZIGOLT, PUMMER (3 each), WAGNER, STROBL, DEUTSCH, SIMANDL, GELECZ, PAUKER, FEYERTAG, FRISCH, KRACHER (2 each), HIMLER, SCHABHTL, KOGLMANN, KRAIHAUFF, FASCHING, STEFANICS, HERMSTREIT, SZAT, MANDL, SRETTER, SAUHER, SZAIHER, RGLER, WEBER, BRAUN, PUNTSCHUH, NOIBICS, WOLF anders [= otherwise] RATT, KADNER, HASNPATZER, PERL, KOCH, HEDL, POTZMANN, SEDLI, VOLLMANN (1 each). Other inhabitants: GUSICH (free), Stefan KISFALUDI (Dreiigst (= customs) official), POSTAKOVICS (free), Sigmund DES (Lieutenant). Söllner (small-holders) in their own houses: PUMMER, KRACHER, SIMANDL, STABER, FEYERTAG, SCHNEIDER, MOTTER, THOMA, KRAISZAUFF, WOLF, HAFNER (some of them on area owned by the church). Söllner in their own houses in the vineyard hills: ZACH (3), SEDL (2), FRISCH, LEDERER, FASZBINDER, WEBER, MANDL, SCHNECKER, VOLLMANN, NIKISCHER, KRACHER, LOIBERSBECK, STROBL, STABER, FAICS, KROBOTH, SCHMIDT, PUNTSCHUH, TRINKL, HAFFNER, FASCHING, STABER, SIMANDL, HAFFNER, KRIXLER. The Urbarium remarks that the inhabitants have suffered through many quarterings of Germans (soldiers), so the landlord (Batthyány) has granted them a 50 % tax reduction "until God will improve the situation". A fire destroyed many houses in 1880. 63 casualties in WW I. Number of inhabitants: 1802: 230 Catholics, 1152 Lutherans; 1812: 255 C, 1206 L; 1856: 448 C, 1030 L; 1930: 548 C, 1160 L, 2 Jewish, together 1710. Church (St. Nicholas) built due to a report from 1698 "by the ancient Catholics" [i.e. in times prior to the Reformation]. A chapel in front of the Catholic cemetery built in 1868, donated by Lorenz LAGLER (# 24). A chapel in the Catholic cemetery donated by the Rev. Michael RATHNER (his mother is buried in this chapel). Catholic priests: Alexius Xaverius VODENIGG (1693), Josef BLASKOVICS (1773-1802), Franz GABRIELYI (1803-15), Josef SZAKATSITS (1815-30), Andreas KORAUSZ (1830-68), Franz SCHMIDT (1868-75), Michael RATHNER (1875-83), Franz Xaver BIRICZ (1884-1903), Franz STAMPF (1903-); Lutherans in Deutsch-Kaltenbrunn: Ca. 1528-31 first Lutheran period, second period started ca. 1560. When the Catholic counter-reformation started in Styria (ca. 1600), many Lutheran preachers fled to the Batthyány estates, so that by 1610 all parishes of the Güssing domain were administered by them. In 1618 Balthasar TILLESIUS was Lutheran pastor in Kaltenbrunn, later Jakob GRUMER (1624) and Johann KECZIUS (1627). After KECZIUS had left K. in 1627, the Lutheran Styrians who had come here because of him went away. ["entfernten sich"; note: it is not clear as to whether this means they had settled in K. or just came here to attend church]. In 1665 Christian ECKHART was Lutheran pastor in K. In 1862 K. becomes a Lutheran parish, having been a part of Kukmirn parish since 1783. Lutheran pastors: Theodor HUBER (1862-1906), Stephan SZABO (1907-13), Alexius SPARAS (1913-22), Kornelius Wilhelm Emil Eduard GUTTENBERGER (1923-28), Karl CIENCIALI (1929-30). Lutheran elementary school - teachers: Michael ZACH (ca. 1822), Jeremias MAHR (ca. 1830), Georg HAFNER (ca. 1832), Georg KNBEL (1833-37), Johann JANISCH (1837-42), Johann MCKE (1842-66), Alexander KNBEL (1866-96), Joseph FLECK (1896-1921), Karl KAPPEL (1921-), second teacher Karl JANY (since 1897). 168 pupils in 1930. (source: V+H Nr. 13-14/1958) (Next issue-Gerersdorf and Steingraben) TRANSLATIONS OF GERMAN TEXT CONCERNING WALLERN (Albert Schuch to Tom Steichen) Question from Tom: The following sentence appears in a German text about Wallern that I am trying to translate: "Das sind die Huser der altern Holden, die man auch die Sechsunddreiiger genannt hat." ...the time period would be 1767-1825. Does anyone know what this means? Albert answers: That's a tricky one. Short question, long answer: For one thing, "altern" seems to be a typo, I guess that would have to be "alten" or "ältern". But this is of little importance, since the meaning can only be "old" or "older". Not much difference. Secondly, the word "Holden" is old German. This is a landowner category. Somehow related to English "(small) holder". Difficult to translate. Let us first turn to the term "Sechsunddreiiger": You have to know that each village had a "Hutweide", which was a pasture used by the whole community. There were certain regulations on who could bring how many cows to this pasture. The "Landestopographie des Burgenlandes", Volume 1, District Neusiedl am See, includes an article on Wallern. This article tells me that the usage of the Wallern pasture was regulated as follows: Owners of 3/2-farms were allowed to bring 36 cows on the pasture, owners of 2/2-farms were allowed to bring 24, owners of 1/2 (half) farms were allowed to bring 12, owners of 3/8-farms 9, owners of 1/4 farms 6 and owners of 1/8-farms 3 cows. So the only explanation that I can offer for "Sechsunddreiiger" (36er) is: These were owners of 3/2-farms (= one and a half farms, whereby farm refers to the size of the territory, not to buildings), because only they were allowed to bring 36 cows to the village pasture ("Hutweide"). Because of this, I would translate "Holden" as "farmers". Hence my suggested translation of the whole sentence is: "These are the houses of the older farmers, who were also called 36ers (because they were allowed to bring 36 cows to the village pasture)." Tom replies: Thank you for your replies. Albert - you are correct. I mis-typed "alten." This is very interesting... I knew there had to be some historical significance but I could not imagine what it was. The sentence comes from a recently completed work by Father Josef Graisy of Vienna. In the preface he describes the old house-numbering system and indicates that there were four building periods. The first 109 house numbers are from the first period and are in the core of the town. The 25 houses mentioned in the quoted sentence are from the second period. Your translation and explanation raises additional questions. Why would the house of these "older farmers" all be built in the 1767-1825 time period? Is it possible that they already existed and were just incorporated into the town during this time? Or did some feudal system end at that time? But if this were true, why didn't the smaller farmers build homes at this time? I have one additional question. Wallern has a lane called "Salidergasse" on which the house of the Saliter-Brenner and Vieh-Hüter stood. The second of these would be the house of the cattle guardian. What is the translation of "Salider" and "Saliter-Brenner" -- if any? Would this be a person's name? Your help is greatly appreciated. Albert again answers: Since I now know that the word is "alten", I have to change my suggested translation, in particular, change "older farmers" to "old farmers". Now I don't know anything about these four building periods. The "36er" explanation I gave you is the only one I can think of. The feudal system ended in 1848. As for 1767 and 1825, these are probably years in which the houses have been counted. In 1767 an "Urbarium" may have been set up according to the new laws introduced by Emperess Maria Theresia. The "Urbarium" is a list of all house owners, it shows what they own and what they have to give to their landlord (in Wallern that would have been Prince Esterhazy) each year. The 1825 data may come from a "Conscriptio". This is a similar list, set up for the purpose of collecting taxes for the state and the county, and also for recruiting soldiers. (Ed. list is available from LDS holdings). Something doesn't make sense here. Usually the "old" inhabitants of a village, those whose ancestors were there first, have the largest farms. I fail to understand why the 36-ers as I have interpreted them would be in the second period of settlement. Could you e-mail me a larger part of this text? It is very difficult to translate a sentence without its context. > Wallern has a lane called "Salidergasse" on which the house of the Saliter-Brenner and Vieh-Hüter stood. The second of these would be the house of the cattle guardian. What is the translation of "Salider" and "Saliter-Brenner" -- if any? Would this be a person's name?< You could also use shepherd for Vieh-Hüter. "Saliter" is an old word for what is presently called "Salpeter", somehow related to the Latin "sal nitri". My dictionary says the English word is also "salpeter", and "niter" in American English. This was needed to make gunpowder. (Ed. potassium nitrate = saltpeter = niter; adding charcoal and sulphur in correct proportions produces black gun powder - a low explosive. It is also an important component of fertilizer. Found in some soils, it is also a by-product of human and animal (particularly sheep) waste. An old process was to leach waste or soil with water, filter the liquid and boil or distill. The remaining crystals were saltpeter of varying purity. Hence a "Saliter-Brenner" was a saltpeter burner in the same way that a brandy distiller was (is) a "Schnapps-Brenner). The "Saliter-Brenner" was the man who produced the "Saliter". Also called "Saliter-Sieder". So "Saliter-Brenner" is not a person's name, but it is a person's profession. I'd be interested in some more information about this Wallern book, like publishing date and place, pages and price. TRIP TO GOLS, BURGENLAND (from Gary Portsche) To the Burgenland Bunch: This was my third trip to Gols, Burgenland in the past five years for the purpose of further tracing the Portschy and associate families that migrated to Nebraska and Kansas in the 1870's and 80's. My paternal great grandparents, Georg and Rosina Portschy migrated with their three month old son, Matthias, from Gols to Lancaster County, Nebraska in the spring of 1875. They settled near Kramer, Nebraska and attended St. John Lutheran Church. Georg's father, Matthias Portschy, who came over in 1876 and died in 1880 is buried in the church cemetery. Georg and Rosina had a family of thirteen children and around 1900, moved into Lincoln and settled there. Rosina died in 1922 and Georg in 1938 and both are buried in Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln, Nebraska. My cousin Richard Mann, II and son Doug departed on July 12th and arrived Munich July 13th. We rented a car and drove straight away for Gols, stopping for lunch at beautiful Mondsee. We arrived Gols mid-afternoon and checked into the pension operated by the Brunner family. We were sadden to find that Herr Werner Brunner had died of a heart attack in 1996 and the family business was being carried on by Frau Brunner and children. We stayed in Gols until the following Saturday. During our five days in Gols we were able to copy about 300 pages of church records. The LDS has copied the Gols Evangelical records from 1826 to 1895. Our group copied the records from 1783 to 1826 and I have those records in my possession. We physically copied each page of the book on a Xerox type copier. I believe it is A5 sized, they're quite large. We copied every page of the birth, deaths and marriages, 1783 to 1830, as I am researching just about everyone in Gols from that era since I'm pretty much blood line to all of them. We also gathered records from Johann Schrammel and Frau Margaretha Heinrich. The town genealogist, Frau Karolina Allacher presented us with some new information that traces the Portschy family back to one Hanns Portschy, born 1695. We made several day trips into Hungary and the Slovak Republic, walking cemeteries and taking hundreds of pictures. On one of these trips, we were accompanied by Hans Allacher, who is married to cousin Klara Gyorik. Hans was born in Ragendorf, now Rajka, Hungary and speaks Hungarian. He showed us his parents graves as well as the graves of old friends and neighbors. He provided us with a most interesting day. On Saturday, we headed west and arrived Nurnburg, Germany in the early evening. We day tripped to Prague, Czech Republic on Sunday and took an escorted tour of Nurnburg on Monday, seeing the court where the trials were held and Zepplinfeld, where Hitler held some of his biggest rallies. On Tuesday, we drove down to Dachau and took the tour of the concentration camp. Wednesday, July 22, it was back to the U. S., all arriving safely at our homes that evening. Since arriving back, I have spent many hours going through the church records and at this point, have the computer file fairly well organized. You can see the Hanns Portschy lineage on my home page at http://www.kc.net/~garyport. In the next few weeks should have the entire file posted in the Gendex server, a hyperlink being on my home page. I also have a 24 picture slide show of the on the page.Gary L. Portsche, Olathe, KS MORE ON NAME WALDBURGA (from Bob Heiling) The newsletter (44) discussed this name (Waldburga). For whatever it's worth, here is a recent posting from a German regarding the female given name Walburga. I also found the following information through Alta Vista: St. Walburga, Virgin (Feast day - February 25) Walburga was born in Devonshire England, around 710. She was the daughter of a West Saxon chieftain and the sister of Sts. Willibald and Winebald. Walburga was educated at Wimborne Monastery in Dorset, where she became a nun. In 748, she was sent with St. Lioba to Germany to help St. Boniface in his missionary work. She spent two years at Bishofsheim, after which she became Abbess of the double monastery at Heidenheim founded by her brother Winebald. At the death of Winebald, St. Walburga was appointed Abbess of both monasteries by her brother Willibald, who was then Bishop of Eichstadt. She remains superior of both men and women until her death in 779. She was buried first at Heidenheim, but later her body was interred next to that of her brother, St. Winebald, at Eichstadt. I very much doubt that it (Waldburga) was a given name solely for illegitimate births! (although the fact that St Walburga was a virgin may have led people to hint at a "virgin birth"<vbg>). Who knows! (Ed. Note:the previous article implied that some priests would give Saints' names to illegitimate children for whatever reason -death of mother, as a penance, as a mark of dishonor, etc. The name given in these cases would probably have been that of the saint whose name day was close to the baptism. Saints' names were popular during the Counter Reformation.) Part of the above may be based on a misunderstanding of the Catholic Church's rule that the child must be baptized with a saint's name. The priest does not assign the name, but will insist that it be that of a saint. One of my relatives wanted to name her daughter "Vicki Lynn" but as "Vicki" was not a saint's  name she was forced to baptize the child as "Victoria Lynn" as there was a St Victoria and that was a close enough compromise. My experience for this particular child-naming topic is limited to a number of RC parishes in Mittelburgenland, a parish in Westfalen, Germanyand another in Minnesota. I have seen no evidence whatsoever that children were named by the priest and illegitimate children (of which in Burgenland it's only a slight exaggeration to say that there is usually one on each page) had the same general names as all the others. As far as I can tell, the parents and family were always the one to name the child! I can imagine that in rare cases they might have picked a name from the saint's name day, but I guess one would have to look for clusters on the various saint days to see if there was any pattern at all. One very common pattern is for the child to be given the name of one of the godparents. The other common pattern is for a name to pass down through the generations. Therefore, in one branch of my family there is a Simon in every generation, but no Johann. In another branch there is a Johann in every generation, but no Simon until the lines merged - then there was John & Simon as second names. In the case of the Westfalen family, the name Bernard was passed down from grandfather to son to grandchild. That some children received uncommon names like Walburga should not be surprising as some people give their children unusual names today and some people always have. One of my uncles was named Rufinus. Why, I don't know as the others had names like Paul, Peter, Maria and it was not the godfather's name and the name had never previously appeared in the family lines. I'm looking for a calendar with saints' names to see if St Rufinus day is around Mar 25. It's true that stillbirths did not have godparents as there was no need for the normal religious duties of a godparent since there was no child. Some notations that I've seen indicate that these children were given a post mortem baptism by the priest. As far as the illegitimate children, they were quite common (as stated above) and they had godparents and were often given a godparents name or a traditional family name. Quite often you will find a marriage for the parents some time afterwards. In some other cases the length of time between the marriage and the birth was considerably less than the gestation period - about a week in one case in my lines. The RC church has always frowned upon illegitimacy, but the practice of the people clearly was at variance with that. I do know that in Sweden it was common practice to bear a child or be pregnant prior to marriage to guarantee that children were possible. This was to insure future workers for the farm. HIANZISCH & LANGUAGE CHANGES Ed. Note: I struck some sparks in my use of the word "corrupted" when referring to dialects. First Yvonne Lockwood took me to task for Croatian and Hianzisch and now Bob Schatz has some remarks concerning Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania German or "pennsylvänisch deitsch"). The best I can say is that I used Webster's fourth definition of corrupted "to alter from the original or correct form or version" as opposed to "change from good to bad". None the less, both members have a point and I admit to a poor, albeit descriptive, choice of words. Bob writes: Just wanted to add some thoughts and general ramblings to your questions about Hianzisch in the current newsletter, and to defend the language of my Pennyslvania German forebears! You asked if Hianzisch "is an early form of German dialect which was corrupted like Pennsylvania Dutch." For Shame! Pennyslvania Dutch is not a "corruption" at all - it is from the Rhineland dialect family with a few variations coming in via the Swiss and even fewer from English. Rhinelanders can understand Pennsylvania German and vice versa. Several Pennsylvania German plays have been performed with great success in the Rhineland within the last 20 years. It is a rich and expressive language and contains an extensive technical vocabulary which belies the myth that it is a "corrupted" form of language or a language of unsophisticated people. I grew up with the language at home and later studied it with a very erudite man who eventually wrote a Pennsylvania German grammar book. Many contemporary speakers know that it is a much older language than the standard or literary German (Schriftdeutsch) in use today. A professor of mine taught that standard German is actually a child of Martin Luther, and evolved from his translation of the Bible. This professor claimed that Luther went around asking various groups "would you understand it if I wrote it such and such a way?", and then arrived at an idiomatic consensus. Linguists divide German dialects into three main bodies: High, Middle and Low. High German (Hochdeutsch) is so called because it is the family of languages spoken in the Alpine region in the south, and would include Hianzisch, Viennese and Styrian. The Middle German group is actually the family from which English evolved [Ed: Current belief is that English evolved from the Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon dialects of invaders from the north and northwest coastal areas of present-day Germany, thus from Low German], and (I suspect but am not sure) the German dialects in the Zips and Transylvania. Low German (Plattdeutsch) is the language family from the North, on the littoral plain. It is a common but unfortunate attitude that standard German is "high" and therefore right and proper, and that dialects are "low" and therefore unacceptable or low-class. This is simply another sad expression of that human tendancy to regard some people and cultures as better than others. In point of fact, most standard versions of European languages are simply the dialects of the royal houses which eventually gained hegemony - modern standard English, for example, is a version of the language which evolved in the royal court in London; it would be a very different language today if a royal house in York had gained the upper hand. We live in a culture which puts a heavy premium on the written word, but we must remember that language is primarily oral and dynamic, and that "standard" languages also only evolved once writing became popular and standardized. Our sense of "proper" English is the result of being taught grammar - "this is the right way!" But the reality is quite different: there are many ways, and all too often the "right" way is simply the way of those in power. Remember too that for centuries in Europe the language of the educated person was Latin; human snobbery referred to local native speech at any class level as "the vulgar" (hence the "Vulgate" version of the Bible). Regarding Hianzisch, I regret that I did not have the opportunity to hear and speak it growing up. My grandparents from Urbersdorf died long before I was born, and no one spoke Hianzisch in our family; I would have liked to have had that experience as well as the Pennsylvania German one. The beauty of language really intrigues me, I love words, and I take a great deal of delight in the infinite variation of human speech. Like Nature, language is always evolving and taking on new forms of expression. I feel that we should not use words like "corruption" when discussing languages because this implies a kind of fall from a state of purity, which, after all, never existed. Otherwise, even our English would be considered "corrupt" because it is no longer German, or Latin or French, and yet it is all of these. Incidentally the "Dutch" in Pennsylvania Dutch is not the misnomer that many people think it is. Frequently someone will claim that it is an English corruption of "Deutsch" or "Deitsch", but in actuality "Dutch" was at one time the legitimate English word for "German". Eventually it was limited in its meaning to the people and Germanic language of the Netherlands. Sorry if this is a little incohesive. I wish I could also add more on Hianzisch. Fritz mentions the theory of Count Heinz, which I have read in several books on Burgenland. PA-GERMAN DICTIONARY (Schiffer Ltd.1977) - A DEFENSE OF DIALECT (by G. Berghold) Marcus B. Lambert author of the above dictionary opens with a preface that may cast more light on the subject of dialect. After defining the PA-German area (a good piece of PA east of the Susquehanna River) and defining the early German and Swiss settlement in that area, he has much to say about the dialect. He explains that the German-speaking immigrants came almost exclusively from southwestern Germany (the Palatinate, Baden, Alsace, Wrtemberg, Hesse) and Saxony, Silesia and Switzerland. The majority were from the Palatinate and next in number were the Swiss. The germanic element in their speech was thus strongly pfalzisch and schweizerisch. It resembled the Westricher dialect more than any other. Constant intermingling then resulted in a smoothing out and leveling effect. This homogeneity was further advanced by (locally produced) German publications and exposure to printed religious tracts and sermons. In discussing the influence of English on the German in the formation of the dialect, he points to an "analogy between debased (sic) German with English intermixture, and Chaucer's debased (sic) Anglo-Saxon with Normon intermixture." He mentions that the characterization of "debased" is likely to be misunderstood. (As it was when I used it.) He explains that the dialect as it is spoken today (1920's) is largely German as it was spoken by the peasants two centuries or more ago and is in no sense debased, EXCEPT (sic) as it has been influenced and changed by English (as little as 12%). This of course is Bob Schatz's point mentioned previously. He concludes with more comparisons and then mentions that there has been no written standardization, which has led to much confusion and the need for a dictionary. I would like to add one further point. Hearing this dialect for many years as a native of the Lehigh Valley, I can vouch that many of the speakers frequently had an incomplete knowledge of the vocabulary and often interjected English or worse, German-hybridized English, when they weren't sure of the more commonly used dialect words that had developed or become more or less standard. It's this sort of thing that was in my mind when I chose the words "corrupted" and "debased". If I went to Austria today and said "Ich wishen das meinen descriptionen auf Pennsylphonische Deutsch war besser oder mayglich klarliche verstehen", I'm sure that my remark would be understood but considered corrupt speech by both Burgenländers and Pennsylvania Germans. If you reread my Xmas story from the Dec. 15 issue of the Burgenland Bunch News, you'll find more of the same. While I had very few comments re that story (perhaps it was a humorous balloon that didn't float), Albert Schuch did ask if I knew anyone who spoke German like that. I assured him that some people did, mostly second and later generation descendants of emigrants with no formal schooling in German. I also have a PA-Deitsch brother-in-law (Zimmerman by name) who is addicted to hiking. He once hiked into a remote valley in Switzerland, spoke PA Deitsch and was well understood except for some of his Americanisms! (continued as Newsletter No. 45A)

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 45A DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND GENEALOGY (issued biweekly by Gerald Berghold) October 31, 1998 (all rights reserved) This second section of the 3-section newsletter features: - More on the Death of Emil Langasch, - Mail From Riedlingsdorf, - US Immigrant Busy Work, - Plea for Genealogy Aids, - New Austrian Genealogy Lists, - Report From Chicago, - Multiple Marriages, - Village of Rosenberg (Güssing), - Hannersdorf - Burg Castle Ruins, and - A Report from the Villages of Eltendorf and Rudersdorf. A SHORT GERMAN LESSON - "BERG" MEANS "MOUNTAIN OR HILL"; - "BURG" MEANS "CASTLE OR FORTRESS"; - SO "BURGENLAND" IS DEFINED AS "CASTLE COUNTRY". (We receive much email addressed "Bergenland Bunch") MORE ON THE DEATH OF EMIL LANGASCH - TEACHER FROM POPPENDORF (from Fritz Königshofer) Ed. Note: In a previous newsletter we gave the solution to the mysterious death of my great grandfather Emil Langasch, retired Catholic school teacher from Poppendorf (Patafalva). Now Fritz has found another obituary. He writes: Gerry, During my brief stay in Budapest last Friday/Saturday, I managed to spend a few hours at the library. Among others, I called up the film of the weekly "Szent-Gotthrd" of year 1903 to see whether it had carried an article about the death of your great-grandfather Emil Langasch. Indeed, there was a short article. Like most of the newspaper, it was in Hungarian, but a Hungarian colleague provided me with a translation. This is the translated excerpt from the issue of Szent-Gotthrd dated January 11, 1903. As you will see, it adds some detail that did not come out in the article by my great-grandfather Adolf Königshofer in the Volksfreund: "Accident. The retired teacher of Patafalva, Emil Langasch, disappeared from home a few days ago. People were looking for him for a long time, to no avail. Finally, on the 9th of this month, his body was picked out from the river Raba [Raab]. It is likely that he had walked home from Szent-Gotthrd, and on his way fell into the Lapincs [Lafnitz]. This is a reasonable assumption, because a night guard of the silk-factory on one of those days/nights had heard distant horrible cries for help, but was unable to determine the direction from where the cries came from. Furthermore, the guard could not leave his post, therefore was unable to come to the help of the man. It is, therefore, most likely that it had been no other than Langasch-bacsi ("uncle Langasch") who had then fallen into the water." It appears the place of Emil's slip into the river was later found. What a truly sad story! MAIL FROM RIEDLINGSDORF, AUSTRIA (courtesy Barry Keippel) From: BUNDSCHUH Heinz - KSI Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998. Dear Mr.Keippel! A man from our village (Riedlingsdorf/AUSTRIA) read your homepage a few days ago. He made copies and gave them to our family. My name is Heinz BUNDSCHUH and Mrs. Karoline Kaipel Tunkl, the sister of your grandfather Tobias Keippel, was my great grand mother, so we have the same roots. My grandmother collected documents from her ancestors, so I am able to provide you some new information about your family history: Your great grand father Samuel Kaipel was born on 7-11-1851. His father was Matthias Kaipel jun. (born on 11-14-1825). His mother was Elisabeth Schaden (born on 6-25-1826). The parents of Matthias Kaipel jun. were Matthias Kaipel sen. and Anna Steger. The parents of Elisbeth Schaden were Johann Schaden and Sussana Unger.Your great grand mother Theresia Bruckner was born on 6-3-1855. Her father was Johann Bruckner jun.. Her mother was Elisabeth Arthofer (born on 3-8-1823). The parents of Johann Bruckner jun. were Johann Bruckner sen. and Elisabeth (?). The parents of Elisabeth Arthofer were Michael Arthofer and Anna Kaipel. My great grand mother Karoline Kaipel Tunkl was born 1900. She died in 1982. She and her husband Franz, who died in 1991, had eight children: Hermine, my grandmother (died 1978 in Riedlingsdorf). Theresia (lives in Salzburg/AUSTRIA). Franz (lives in Riedlingsdorf). Johann (died 1996 in Riedlingsdorf). Berta (lives in Hanover/CANADA). Adolf (lives in Hanover/CANADA). Helga (lives in Friedberg/ AUSTRIA). Paula (lives in Riedlingsdorf Number 20, in the Kaipel residence). I was born in 1965 in Riedlingsdorf. My family, that is my wife Martina and my one year old son Stefan, lives in Vienna. We will go back near Riedlingsdorf to Pinkafeld in the next year. Our new home will be finished at that time, then my son will grow up in the neighbourhood of his grandparents. I hope this mail includes some new information for you. If you need more information about our country or our family, please send me a mail. Many greetings from Austria Heinz Bundschuh. Mit freundlichen Gren US IMMIGRANT BUSY WORK (email Cameron to De Blasio) Ed. Note: In newsletter number 44, Gertrude Schlener shared some Burgenland memories with us. These included a description of social busy work. Now we find that immigrants continued this work when they emigrated to the US. Therese Cameron writes to Audrey DeBlasio: Hello Audrey. I just read the Burgenland Bunch latest and was excited to read my e mail to you in it. Have you read it? On the Knaus farm in Newington, Conn. I have a few more memories to share that I remember as a kid. First, I remember the fall corn husking in one of the barns. Family and friends came and had a great time. If you got a red ear of corn, you could kiss anyone you wanted to kiss. For fall harvest, many friends came, men and women, to harvest the grapes, apples, corn, etc. It was like a big party and friends were eager to attend. When Grossmama Knaus received a package from Austria, they were so happy to receive a bottle of pumpkin seed oil to use in making a salad. It was green and had a delicate flavor. Also a package of dried mushrooms to make soup. I remember hearing about the "fedder schlichen" after dinner on cold winter nights. Grossmama would bring a big bag of goose feathers to the kitchen table for all her children to strip to make goose down quilts. The younger boys would fake a sneeze and the feathers would go flying and the kids would laugh. Grossmama would glare and continue Bible reading to them. I remember a quilt on every bed in the five bedrooms. As a kid myself, I remember the annual picnic we would have on the top of the hill near the apple orchard. It would start after church and family and friends came to enjoy Uncle Ewald's huge vat of clam chowder. We had hot dogs to roast over a fire. The corn was in season and we roasted that too. Tony Zavez was the accordian player and there was dancing until dark and everyone went home with very dusty shoes. By copy of this e mail I want to say how much I enjoy the newsletter. A PLEA FOR MORE GENEALOGY AIDS (LISTS) (from Anna Kresh) Ed. Note: Much material which can be of continuous value to others gets buried in newsletter articles and email between contacts. The way to save it and make it available to other members is to prepare lists and have someone maintain them. Neither I nor the staff can do it all. Volunteers are necessary. Some of the Burgenland Bunch lists already being maintained by staff are BB Membership, BB Archives, Burgenland Villages, Burgenland Village German-Hungarian Names, Village Districts, Moson Megye Villages, Burgenland Emigrant Enclaves, Neusiedlersee Emigrants and Internet URL Addresses. Some of this material is found and maintained in more than one place like the homepage, staff FTP's and staff files. Now the staff has identified two more; "list of occupations" and "list of causes of death". Any volunteers? From: A R KRESH; To: G Berghold I want to thank you all for your assistance in defining these occupations. Obviously, these meanings can change considerably over several generations. I found the carnifex discussions particularly insteresting. How is the compilation of a BB dictionary or glossary coming along? Has someone accepted the task? I have now been asked for a translated list of causes of death as listed on the various church death records. Such a list would help me also, as I am just getting to that part of my research. Thanks, Anna OTHER AUSTRIAN GENEALOGY LISTS & SITES Member Charles Wardell, host of WorldGenWeb's Austrian Page reports the formation of a web site for Vienna. He writes: Franz Hrazdira who will be setting up a site for Vienna. Franz lives in Canada but he grew up in Vienna and emigrated in 1968 at the age of 23. Also, I would like to let you know that Meinrad Pichler's Vorarlberg web site: >http://bg-gallus.vol.at/vlbg-gen/index.htm<; is online. Try the following if you are researching non-Burgenland Austrian villages. http://www.rootsweb.com/~autwgw/ for Austrian Genealogy and http://www.rootsweb.com/~autwgw/agsfrm.htm for Austria Mailing List REPORT FROM CHICAGO (Tom Glatz) I just thought I would write to give you an update on what is going on around here. I rec'd a message from new member Bill Gigler with Heiligenkreuz, Grossmuerbisch, & Pennsylvania roots. He lives in Du Page Co. of course. I looked up these towns in the "Im Wandel Der Zeit" book and gave him some of the details. I also sent Mr. Gigler information about the LDS. He is fortunate to have a good LDS library where he lives. Emma Wenzel invited me to the Austrian Day Celebration event last evening. It was given by the Austrian Consulate by special invitation only. Austrian Ambassador Helmut Tuerk from Washington DC & Julianna Belczak of the Austrian American Council were there. Mrs. Belczak is also closely connected with Rot Weiss Rot & the Oesterreicher im Ausland that I told you about previously. They both gave very nice speeches. Emma was very kind enough to ask the consul if she could bring me as a guest. The latest consul is of a completely different sort than that of the previous ones. This consul also greeted everyone at the door as they arrived. Emma right away told him about the Burgenland Bunch & my connection to it. He seemed genuinely interested. He asked me to send him some of the newsletters which I will do. The best part of the evening was when I spotted Frank Schmitz from the Klub Oesterreich in Milwaukee. You might remember me telling about how he was was very interested in promoting more genealogy in their organization. I wrote to him last spring offering to bring the newsletters to his home so that their organization could display them at their table in the culture tent at Germanfest in Milwaukee. Then he immediately proceeded to ask me if I would be interested in manning the culture table for them! I said yes of course. This would be wonderful for us & for the other provinces in Austria. I haven't looked on that international web site in a while, so I don't know if any of the other provinces are yet organized. I am certain I want to do this, but I have to see how things go in the next year before I make a definite commitment. It will take a lot of preparation. I will have to stay in Milwaukee for 3 days. Thousands of people view the various organization's tables in the culture tent. The other organizations have wonderful things about their German speaking areas in Europe: eg, Germans from Russia, Donau Schwaben. Klub Oesterreich's table for Austria was pitiful. Germanfest in Milwaukee is the oldest & largest fest of this type in the world outside of Germany. MULTIPLE MARRIAGES (suggested by Theresa-Betty Jean Horrum) Ed. Note: Burgenland researchers should remain alert to multiple marriges. The incidence of death at childbirth was very high. Most births during the period we are researching (pre 1921) took place at home, accompanied at best by a midwife. Sanitary conditions were not good and much puerperal fever resulted. My own Sorger great-grandfather married three times-the first two wives died in childbirth (as did the chlid) after previous successful births. With small children to care for, it was imperative that a new mother be found and he soon remarried. The following question could well be one of those cases. Betty Jean writes: "Gerry, Ron Baxter and I are trying to straighten out a record on people that are connected to Larry Zierhut's people. We have done this, but have found a glitsch that we need expert help on. Larry had a number of children born to Mathias Gruidl and Barbara Unger (Monsonszentpeter), who are the same people belonging to Ron's family and indirectly to mine. I found all the records Larry had on his family group sheet. About 3 of the 10 children list the mother as Barbara Sadtler instead of Barbara Unger. All the dates of their births fit. I had a chance to go over all this with Ron a few days ago, but, we are trying to find out if "Sadtler" is another spelling for Unger, or perhaps it stands for "mother"? What would the reason be for writing the mother's name on these three births differently from the other 7 births? Ron bought a dictionary in Hungarian but wasn't satisfied.Your help is greatly appreciated." My Reply: Betty Jean, I'm sure that Sadtler differs from Unger. No similarity in either German or Hungarian. Unger means "Hungarian". Sadtler comes from Sattler (Saddler)-one who makes saddles. What comes to mind is that Mathias may have had two wives, Barbara Sadtler dying in childbirth and Mathias remarrying Barbara Unger. Look for the death of Sadtler around the birth of her third child. Also look for a new marriage. Not at all uncommon. Lots of childbirth deaths. Another possibility is that Barbara was married before and that her husband's name was Sadtler (look for the word "witwe" or widow), but I doubt it if Unger is shown as the father. ROSENBERG (GÜSSING) - by G. Berghold This is one of the smaller villages; too small to be listed, it has been considered part of Güssing (ausser-Stadt) for many years. Called Rosahegy (rose hill) in Hungarian, it is located on a hill southwest of Güssing (across the "fischteich" or fish farm). Mentioned as early as the 17th century (Urbar of 1635), it is described as "ausserhalb der Mauer-outside the walls". A small road leads from Rosenberg north to the Steingraben -Krottendorf road and south to old route 57 at Langzeil (another Güssing appendage). A well-traveled path once descended the hill and entered Güssing on the south side of the castle near the fish pond. In 1750, the inhabitants were Jacob ETLER, Leutenant, Georg DES, Stallungen und Meirhoff, Georg WEINHOFER, Hans WEBER, Hans TASCHNER, Hans NIKISCHER, Georg DRAXLER, Hans JANDRISEVICS, Georg KUPONICS, Georg RAMWALTER, Michael WEBER, Georg SCHREINER, Georg WALDHOFER. The "Landesaufname" (military census) of 1853 lists 28 houses and 20 barns; providing 26 men and 24 horses. The inhabitants were "Söllner," or people without land (farms). Mostly Germans, they were mainly craftsmen or day laborers. Some had vinyards in what is known as the "Langzeiler Weingebirge," which stretches east to the fields of Kleinmürbisch and west to Neustift. The Batthyány Herrschaft Weingärten was also in this region. My own maternal grandfather's family (SORGER) had a vinyard at Langzeil. They were also potters for at least four generations, making roofing tiles, jugs, etc. and having a pottery which worked into the 1920's. It has been replaced with a millwork business. Not mentioned as 1750 inhabitants, the SORGERs moved there shortly thereafter from Langzeil. Stephan and Georg SORGER (my 4g-grandfather) were inhabitants of Langzeil in 1750. Their home at 225 Rosenberg was a former Gasthaus and the pottery was in a separate building. Rosenberg has only a small chapel, built in recent years, for worship and the inhabitants go to church in Güssing. The first US emigrant from Rosenberg was a PÖLTL (POELTL), a cousin to the Sorgers by marriage. A large family, there were many PÖLTLS. Mid-1800's inhabitants & house number (taken from LDS church and civil records): REICHL-175, PFEIFER-178, OSEL-214, WIENHOFER-214, PÖLTL (POELTL)-215, 217, KOLLER-218, MUIK-218, OSEL-219, SCHUSTER-221, HORVATH-222, TRAUCH-222, DEUTSCH-224, WOLF-224, SORGER-225, WEBER-226, BEITL-227, DAX-228, WEINHOFFER-229, MÜHL (MUEHL)-230, ROTTENSTUMER-230, WIENHOFER-230, VUKITS-231, GERGER-232, PÖLTL-232, VUKITS-233, PÖLTL-234, BERKOVITZ-235, PÖLTL-236, BAUER-270, KROBOTH, NIKLES, NIKISCHER, SCHLEDER, TRETTER.(source- Stadterhebung Güssing-1973, Festschrift; LDS microfilm 0700699-701, 0700420-430) HANNERSDORF - BURG CASTLE RUINS (question from John Kornfeind) << You mention the ruins of a castle in Hannersdorf vicinity in your response to Gary Saurer of Fort Francis, Ontario. Do you have more information? Where located? >> Reply: Translating from "Der Bezirk Oberwart im Wandel der Zeit" (Kersner & Peternell): "first mention of the village is in an Urkunde (census of property) from the year 1406 as 'Samfolua' (Hungarian). German name Hannersdorf comes from von 'Heinrichsdorf'... "the Catholic parish church dates from the 13th Century, part of the building walls mixed with Roman building stones and later Gothic from the 15th Century. About 1522 there was much damage by the Turks. During the Reformation the church was used by Lutherans. From this period are two grave stones of the Lutheran Counts von Rindtsmaul from the years 1649 and 1654. On the north side of the church one finds the remains of the walls of a fortress castle incorporating marble lions from the second Christian century (des zweiten nach-christlichen Jahrhunderts)." Roman ruins were frequently used for later building purposes. Much easier than quarrying stone. I assume this "fortress castle" was a defensive work other than the one mentioned for the village of Burg which information follows. The village of Burg, which along with Woppendorf is part of Katastralgemeinde Hannersdorf obviously takes its name from fortress or castle. Burg is first mentioned in 1244. The text used in Burgenland high school history classes shows Burg as an "old" defensive work during the Mongol invasion. Called "Óvár" (old fortress). The history of this village is tied in with a fortress. Not known when they were built. There was even a late Bronze age (1000 BC) earthen wall fort. During Roman times there was a watch tower. In the 10th and 11th centuries a wood-earth defensive wall was built in which remains of a settlement have been found. Various owners (Counts of Chem, Andreas Baumkirchner, Batthyány) added to the defensive nature of the village. Much destruction in 1489. Today only a few ground works remain. I would guess from this that all three villages were part of a defensive border network, although my source is silent re any "burg" in Woppendorf, speaking only of a an earlier "villa corradi". What I'm saying is that you won't find a castle like Güssing or some of the other prominent buildings, merely traces of walls, etc. This region is very rich in ruins which really haven't been studied from an archeological perspective. REPORT FROM ELTENDORF-RUDERSDORF (by Bob Unger) Sorry about the delay in writing. About three days before our stay in Europe ended I came down with the flu. That, coupled with that long return flight, plus the jet lag, made my recovery period a little longer than normal. While in Eltendorf I did more genealogical research at the church. This time we had a retired pastor, who could understand the old Hungarian script, help us. During this research I found that my great, great-grandfather, Johann Unger (1797-1857) married Theresia Winter (1794-1855). Theresia's father was Adam Winter, and her mother was Maria Berghold (1769-?). I just knew that we were related. It just took a little time to find the connection. We had such a wonderful time in Burgenland. The high point was meeting 12 newly-found relatives. During September, Burgenland celebrates the coming of the new wine, "Heurigen," a short period when the farmers can sell wine and food without any taxes being imposed. They call this new wine "Stürm." Stürm tastes like grape juice when it goes down, but shortly thereafter it's alcohol content gives you a real wake-up call! We celebrated our family reunion by going to a Heurigen; a grand time was had by all. We were truly blessed during this visit by the presence of one of my relatives, Christine, who married one of my blood relatives. Christine was born in New Zealand, so English is her native language. She is such a loving, caring person. She was by our side practically all the time we were in the Rudersdorf area. She was so proficient at translating, the conversations just flowed. It was almost like the United Nations, immediate translations. As a consequence we each talked freely while Christine did the translations. That made for very friendly, free flowing conversations. What a difference from last year, when at times we tried to communicate by stopping after each spoken sentence, and using the dictionary for some measure of understanding. Things are changing in Burgenland. They now have a stop light in Rudersdorf. They said the light was necessary because of the increased traffic to and from Hungary. Many in the area are very much concerned about current discussions about extending the autobahn to the Hungarian border. The new autobahn would either go through, or be at the outskirts of Rudersdorf and Eltendorf. Therefore if you want to see the true "old country," you had better get there before all the pending changes. There is also much concern about the European Union. It appears that by Austria's participation in that group a number of new regulations are being imposed. One consequence already is that the butcher shop in Rudersdorf recently closed, because they either could not, or did not want to implement new regulations. Also, the Mirth's (Rudy Mirth-prop. Gasthaus Kirchenwirt, Eltendorf - also Eltendorf Bürgemeister) are now in the process of adding a new larger dining section to the north side of their Gasthaus. We were told that they needed a larger area to accommodate bigger crowds for weddings etc. We spent five days in the Eltendorf and Rudersdorf area. Then we were off to Munich, then on to the coast of France. My brother, who was traveling with us, served much of his US Army military duty in La Rochelle, France, and therefore wanted to revisit that area. Thanks for all the BB email. Wiedersehen Cousin (continued as Newsletter No. 45B)

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 45B DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND GENEALOGY (issued biweekly by Gerald Berghold) October 31, 1998 (all rights reserved) This third section of the 3 section newsletter features" - Some Procedural Matters, - Query From Non-Burgenland Researcher, and - Notes From Albert Schuch, Anna Kresh, and Your Editor. PROCEDURAL MATTERS Ed. Note: The following email received from a new member is self explanatory and indicates that there is some confusion as to how we operate. Let me repeat that our internet homepage and archives are available for use and that it is a courtesy to the staff to use those sources before requesting basic help. I'm sorry to restrict personal contact but it's necessary with an enlarged membership. Our new member writes: "Thank you for the info about the county of Moson and the history of that region. The reason that we ask these questions is that if you already know the info, we thought that it would not be necessary for us to learn it by looking it up in the records. Are we wrong in our thinking? And the same thing applies to obtaining family history from other persons who have already researched the family. Can we expect them to share whatever they have researched with others who are also interested in the same or related families? .... My Reply: The entire idea of the BB is sharing and research. We furnish much more genealogical information than we receive and have done so through the BB for over two years and via "e" and surface mail for many years prior to that. There is rarely "quid pro quo" as it were. The fact that the BB has grown from 8 email correspondents to over 250 in this short period is indicative that we're doing something right. We differ however, about "How to Share". With over 250 members, it becomes a personal task to answer basic questions posed by each new member, repeating such data endlessly. We had hoped that this was explained in our welcome message where we direct one to our homepage on the net. We hope new members will avail themselves of the material we make availble via our homepage and archives, just like going to a library, prior to asking basic questions. We go to a lot of trouble to maintain these internet sources for this very purpose and for those outside our group who might have occasional reference. We're only too happy to entertain questions if you have trouble with this approach. When someone asks for selected member addresses it's necessary to scan multi-page lists, cut and paste and prepare email. This can soon become old hat. The alternative is for the inquirer to do a little work, go to our homepage and do a little clicking looking for the data we've placed there. Members who are researching the same areas are also copied as indicated on the "welcome" email furnished initially. New members were formerly furnished a member list but now that it comprises three maximum-size emails, it's mailed twice a year. This precludes overwhelming new members and cluttering band width and archive files. It also reduces new member signup time which still averages one hour per query. A member list was mailed to you yesterday and you'll see the problem as you wait for it to download. I'm puzzled by your not having access to the internet. If you're connected to Juno as a server I believe you have automatic access to the net (albeit by downloading software) and it's then a simple matter to query the sites in the signature attached to the index you received. Here you can scan or download things like member addresses, village data, etc. or read archived material. Perhaps you do not know how to use your internet access, which is almost as simple as using email. Try it, most of our other members do. I understand there are those who do not wish to use the net for other than email and we do try to accomodate them within reason as has been done for you. Perhaps you should reserve further judgement until you've had some membership experience and the opportunity to peruse some of our newsletters and archived material. By the way, we differ from some genealogical sites in that we do not and will not maintain a genealogical database of names (family history). We will only list Burgenland family names and origins, where known. It is up to our members to contact those researching similar family names and establish communication. It is strictly up to the person contacted to determine the family history response. I hope this clarifies our procedures. Regards, G. Berghold QUERY FROM NON-BURGENLAND RESEARCHER Ed. Note: I get a number of requests from researchers who think their villages may be in or near the Burgenland and thus hope to join our group. I always hate to turn them away but when I do, I try to help. This one is particularly interesting. QUERY: From: Mike Kostiz; Subject: Request to Join. << I have been doing genealogy work on my grandfather and namesake for the last couple of years. From what I have gathered to date, I believe his mother and father came from Austria. He and his family emigrated to this country from Hungary, but on passenger lists they indicate that they were German and from Austria. The spellings of the surname I have seen on passenger lists are as follows: Kostica, Kosztica and Kosticza. The spelling of the surname today is Kostiz. I don't know how or when it was Americanized. The family left Barcs, Hungary in 1912 and arrived in New York. From there they went to Easton, Pa. >> REPLY: Barcs, Hungary is located southwest of Szigetvar which is sw of Pecs, Hungary. It is located on the former Yugoslavian border (now Serbia) just north of Virovitica. It's a good distance east of the Burgenland, which means joining us wouldn't help you. Your area is too far from our members' areas of research. Sorry. I wouldn't worry about the family name changes. The "C", "Z" substitutions occur all the time. Your name may even be a variation of Kostits (son of Kos) which is Croatian. Barcs was part of the Austro/Hungarian Empire which is why your data (census?) says Austrian. If your ancestors spoke German they were colonists from Styria, Bavaria, Franconia, Schwabia or Lower Austria. Many German-speakers came to this region in the 17th and 18th centuries. Could have been part of the large Donau-Schwabian migration started by Maria Theresia and son Josef II to populate the border regions following the Turkish Wars. These people rafted down the Danube and settled along the Yugoslav border (the Banat). Your ancestor may also have spoken German as well as Hungarian or Croatian. I'd look under Hungary-Barcs in the LDS (Mormon) geographical index, it will give you the county name (Megye) for Barcs. You can then look under Hungary-County Name-Barcs-Church Records and you'll find the microfilm numbers for the Barcs baptism, marriage and death records to find your ancestors. Barcs today has over 12000 inhabitants and a RK church built in 1814. I have no further information. If you have trouble reading the church records, let me know, I can help. Look in the year of your ancestor's birth for the family name and find his parents. You can then follow from there. Easton, PA, was home to many immigrants from this area. They worked in the cement mills. Hope this helps and good luck. Gerry Berghold A THANK YOU FOLLOWED: Thanks for all the info! Your precise information will give me some new leads to follow. I forwarded this info to another individual who shares the same surname as I do. We both thank you for the time you spent on our behalf. I have really enjoyed reading your newsletters on the internet. NOTE FROM BURGENLAND EDITOR ALBERT SCHUCH Hi all! Just a short note to let you know how I am doing: 3 out of 7 weeks of basic training are behind me, including several days "out in the countryside" (with nice rainy weather) and some shooting. A large part of next week will be dedicated to the preparations for the "Angelobung" (oath of allegiance; Gerry: thanks for the translation!), which will take place on 26th October (Austrian National Holiday) on the Heldenplatz in Vienna. I am in an infantry unit and hope to be out of it after the basic training ends (on 13th November), for if I have to stay, I will have to leave Vienna and serve as a border guard for two 5-week terms (Dec-Jan and Feb-March). But this decision is not up to me, so I'll have to wait and see. Best wishes, Albert. NOTE FROM INTERNET EDITOR ANNA KRESH Hi All, We got back from our 16 days in Ireland on Sunday night 10/18. It was our 3rd trip there and as usual Rudy did a great job. He specializes in setting up custom trips to Ireland and Scotland (he's a S.C.O.T.S. agent), but does it as a retirement hobby - he certainly doesn't make any money at it.:-) The trip was primarily to take good friends of ours who had never been there before. This time we spent several days in Northern Ireland, and since Rudy reads the Irish Times online every morning and also gets several Irish magazines, etc., he knew what areas to avoid. We saw the Giant's Causeway, and visited the Moravian settlement in Gracehill (several of our family members and our traveling companion graduated from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA). We breathed a sigh of relief when we crossed the border back into the Republic of Ireland, though. It was a little disconcerting to see the barbed wire on top of the walls around some buildings, such as the R.U.C. (Royal Ulster Constabulary) police stations. Actually, the people were very nice there and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. We also took a ferry out to the Aran Islands for the first time. Mostly, we stayed at bed and breakfast homes, but splurged with 2 days at Renvyle House Hotel, a converted manor home, which was really a treat. I would highly recommend it. So now I'm sorting through about 250 email messages. I've sent out the URL listings to the new members that joined since we left (Wow, are we growing!!), but in 3 weeks I'll bet lots are no longer valid. Oh well... My laptop (for genealogy) is now successfully networked to my desktop. It was a real chore, but will be worth it. We got a Gateway Solo Pentium II 266 Mhz, with 129 Mb memory, and 8 Gb hard drive, a DVD drive, 56K modem, and infra-red color printer. So now we'll be eating hot dogs for a while... Back to work... NOTE FROM YOUR EDITOR Vacation is over! Time to return to work! Had a great time in Tuscany, but 22 hours portal to portal is just too much of a trip for an old retiree like me. My body doesn't know what time it is. No lost luggage however and the 767 is a little more comfortable than the 747. The hotel in Pienza was a little jewel, family owned and operated with a kitchen serving Tuscan specialties. Located a short walk from the 15th Century town gate. The 1998 Tuscan vintage is supposed to be the best of the century. Big powerful wines. Will need five years or more to be drinkable, many more to mature. The Brunello from the Pienza area and the Vino Nobile from Montepulciano are wines to look for. Dry summer with recent rain. Olives are small. Italy is doing just fine, albeit the government fell again. Florence is wall to wall people and Rome is auto gridlock. Perugia, Sienna and Assisi are little gems sitting on their Etruscan ruins. I'm full of good wine, peccorino cheese, bread, pastry, expresso, pasta, grappa, truffles, chocolate, olives, pears, grapes, gellato and other, but we walked enough to keep the weight down. Saw some genealogical murals in churches going back to Adam. Also a palace library (Piccolomini-Pope Pio II) with leather bound genealogical family histories that covered a whole wall! Some churches had lists of parishioners dating to the 1700's framed and hung. Nice to be home and much email to be answered. The BB office is open for business. END OF NEWSLETTER-EDITED & DISTRIBUTED BY GERALD J. BERGHOLD