BB News No. 91 dtd 31 Dec 2000

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 91 DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY (now issued monthly by G.J. Berghold) December 31, 2000 (all rights reserved) HAPPY NEW YEAR - "GLÜCKLICHES NEU JAHR" (Don't Forget The Annual New Year's Celebration From Vienna on PBS) (Washington, DC area WETA Monday Jan. 1, 2:30 & 8:00 PM Channel 26) THANK YOU FOR THE MANY INDIVIDUAL XMAS GREETINGS RECEIVED NOTE TO RECIPIENTS. If you don't want to receive these Burgenland Bunch newsletters, email with message "remove". ("Cancel" will cancel membership, homepage listings and mail.) Send address and listing changes to the same place. Add your full name to email. To join, see our homepage. We can't help with non-Burgenland family history. Comments and articles are appreciated. Our staff and web site addresses are listed at the end of newsletter section "B". Introductions, notes and articles without a by-line are written by the editor and reflect his views. This first section of the 3-section newsletter contains: * Just A Little Interest In Genealogy * Hazelton, PA Local Center For Slavic Studies * Rental Car Advisory - Vienna * Germanic Regions Often Confused With The Burgenland * Commentary on Austria - 2000 JUST A LITTLE INTEREST IN GENEALOGY (The simplest, but least rewarding, approach to family history) Those of us who have been badly bitten by the genealogy bug can never get enough information. We look everywhere for anything that might add to our family history. The search is never ending. It is a labor of love, but labor it is! Hours and hours of pouring over old documents, microfilm, books, letters, what have you. Family history is a very labor intensive search of infinite patience and perseverance. There is no easy way to a family history. Some people however, see a family history advertisement or read an article or get a computer for the first time and feel they'd like to get involved with family history - but just a little. Computers and the internet seem to have been made for genealogy. Newcomers search the web and stumble on a site like ours and are overwhelmed. Often their interest stops right there. The feeling can be "this is more than I want - I just want to identify my ancestor's village of origin - maybe track a few cousins and leave a little information for my grandchildren." Maybe write something in a family bible. Maybe provide an introduction to a short genealogy with family pictures that I'd like to give as a Xmas present. What can I do that is easy? Others surf the net, read some of the commercial hype that promises a full-blown genealogy if you only buy their product. They buy and are disappointed. They then search some of the "free" sites like ours and are even more unhappy when they can't get a genealogy from us with a click of the mouse. We've even had some tell us we're misleading people and wasting their time because we won't (can't) supply them with such! Well, there is a "simple" approach. In this article we'll provide some guidance. (Note: the family names, villages, etc. listed in the following are only an example. A name like "Mill" could have its origin in many places. If a common name and "the old country" is all you know from oral tradition, the possibilities could be endless and hopeless.) * Start with family tradition - list what you know of the family name, its possible spellings and your ancestors' place of origin. (If you don't know the villages, only that the family came from Austria/Hungary or better yet the Burgenland, don't worry, you may find the villages while checking out other data.) Let's say the family name is now Mill and family tradition tells you it used to be spelled differently, like Muell or Muehl, and you find one of these names as well as the spelling Mühl in the BB Surname List. You also find that some immigrants with this name came from the district of Güssing in the Burgenland and settled in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Since your family also lived in the Lehigh Valley and you have relatives there, these may be your family. You know your grandfather is buried there. (You can now see why we list family name, village and place settled in our membership listing.) * You might just remember your grandfather telling you that the family came from the village of Grossmürbish. He might have said Alsomedves. You look in Albert's list and find Grossmürbish in the district of Güssing. You also find its Hungarian name Alsomedves. You find others searching for your family name in this area. The same list tells you inhabitants went to church in Szt. Nikolaus. Print and save what you find. * You then check the Austrian phone listing available from the BB URL list and find some Mühls in Güssing and also in Kemeten and other villages in south Burgenland. * You check the maps available from the BB Klaus Gerger Map site and you find that the villages mentioned are all near each other. You check the old house listings and find some Mühls. You copy the maps. * You then check the village histories and find Mühls also listed on the Urbar lists as well as the LDS Microfilm numbers of the St. Nicholas and Güssing church records. * You read a little of what our BB site says about the Burgenland and you've concluded your search. What can you tell your descendents based on this simple search? How about something like this: "Family tradition and a brief search for family records indicates that our Mill (Muell) ancestors (beginning with g-grandfather Josef) came from Austria/Hungary in the province of Burgenland (Hungary pre-1921) in the early 1900's. They were Catholics, spoke German and their name was then spelled Mühl. They came from villages in the district of Güssing, which is in southern Burgenland next to the Hungarian border. Mühls have lived in this area at least from 1857 (date of house lists from BB website). Grandfather was probably born in Grossmürbisch (Hungarian name pre-1921 was Alsomedves). They went to church in nearby St. Nicholas or Güssing and their birth records can probably be found there. There are still Mühls living in the area but we don't know if they are related. If we check the available LDS duplicate microfilm of the church records, we can probably find grandfather's baptism record and prove the data mentioned, maybe find some other family members. Grandfather settled and died in Coplay, PA, which is in the Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania. He is probably listed in the 1920 Lehigh or Northampton County US Census." (More, or less, can be included depending on findings and depth of search.) The above does two things. It provides a good introduction for a short genealogy (we should all try for a genealogy of at least five generations - your grandchildren, your children, you, your parents, your grandparents) and it is a superb beginning for any of your descendents who may someday be bitten by the genealogy bug. In addition, you did it all without leaving the BB website or getting deeply involved. It might also have exposed you to the bug and you may now be suffering from a bad case of "genealogyitis". Nonetheless, you did the work and the BB made it possible. LOCAL CENTER FOR SLAVIC STUDIES (Of interest to Croat & Hungarian Members) (Extracted from "Center for Slavic Studies is keeping traditions alive - Cultural organization will hold its annual ball Sunday in Hazleton (eastern PA) 02/18/00" By KATHY RUFF, Special to The (Allentown) Morning Call, see their archives for complete article) Are ethnic traditions, culture and customs of Slavic countries dying? Not if the Hazleton Area Center for Slavic Studies has anything to say about it. Celebrating its 25th year, the center (held) its Silver Anniversary Slavic Heritage Ball on Sunday in the Hall of Presidents at Genetti's Motor Lodge, Route 309, Hazleton. "[The group] was organized in the spirit of friendship to develop, promote and improve the economic, educational, and social opportunities for the Slavic residents of the Greater Hazleton area" ... The organization's members are active in the community. The group has co-sponsored the dedication of the Eckley Miners' Museum and helped raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation, Catholic Charities and the American Cancer Society. It has also donated books on Slavic heritage to the library... The Center for Slavic Studies is a nonprofit organization for people of central and eastern European heritage in the lower anthracite region. The club includes Slovaks, Polish, Ruthenians, Russians, Ukrainians, Croatians, Czechs, Moravians, Lithuanians, Hungarians and others who came to work in the hard coal mines and settled in eastern Pennsylvania from Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries... The group meets the fourth Tuesday of every month. A dinner meeting at the Top of the 80s restaurant near Hazleton offers guest speakers... Most of the hundred members are senior citizens, and the ethnic traditions, culture and customs are treasures they hope to preserve and share with others... To find out more about the group or to join, call Paul Hackash at 570-645-2748 or Margaret Cammisa at 570-455-3830. RENTAL CAR ADVISORY - VIENNA (From: Susan M Peters) (ED. Note: There are many car rental agencies. I've used many in my travels both for pleasure and business and found, like in anything else, some are better than others. I've also found that it is definitely best to make your auto arrangements before leaving on your trip. Where foreign driving is concerned, it is also best to read all of the fine print and be aware of exactly what is required and can be expected. Insurance requirements, border crossings, return arrangements, etc. all can be very different. Next to language problems, driving in a foreign country can be your most traumatic trip experience.) Susan writes: I want to tell you about a problem I had while traveling in Austria last Summer (2000). It can serve as a caution to other BB members. I rented a car through AutoEurope, a car rental consolidator. The rental was to include all insurance, taxes, etc. and came from Avis. I picked up the car at the airport in Vienna. All was well, and we were even given a free upgrade to a Mercedes. They asked me for a credit card. I specifically asked why, as the rental was paid in full through AutoEurope. They said they needed it to "process the reservation". I signed the agreement and we were on our way. After I got home I received my Visa statement with a charge from Avis for nearly $440. I immediately wrote to Visa to dispute the charge. I also wrote to International Customer Service at Avis. Believe me, "Customer Service" is definitely a misnomer. Dealing with Avis was very difficult from the very beginning. I couldn't find an address for them. Even their website shows no addresses. So I had to email them and ask for an address so I could send them copies of the Visa correspondence. I also copied AutoEurope. Avis told me that I had authorized the charges by signing the agreement. Period. The charges included insurance and a Prepaid Fuel Option. After several weeks, Avis agreed to refund the Prepaid Fuel Option of $67. Their Customer Service made it very clear that they considered this a very magnanimous gesture. (The Prepaid Fuel Option allows you to return the car with the gas tank empty - it pays for filling the tank. At $67 they could have easily done twice, or more. We had returned the car with a full tank.) After countless contacts and 3 months of arguing my case, with the two companies literally refusing to discuss the matter with each other, AutoEurope finally conceded that they had given the reservation incorrectly to Avis without the insurance. They agreed to refund the insurance that Avis charged me. Avis steadfastly refused any help and never even acknowledged that part of the problem was caused at the Avis counter in Vienna. For whatever reason, the full amount was not refunded and I will have to accept an additional $40 charge, far better than the $440 originally charged. Lessons learned: I still think AutoEurope is the way to go, cost-wise. However, next time, I will go over the reservation item by item before I sign anything when picking up the car. I will never accept "just to process the reservation" again. And I will never again use Avis. They do not understand the concept of customer service. It does pay to be persistent, even when the frustration level is so high you'd just as soon give up. GERMANIC REGIONS OFTEN CONFUSED WITH THE BURGENLAND There has been much change in European History. It is not easy to locate areas whose names have changed over the centuries. Historical Geography is not often addressed by our schools. European historical geography can be an enigma - even the news media often get confused. So it is with many who are studying family history in Europe for the first time. Just where are those places mentioned in cryptic family records? All too often, they end up getting identified as "Germany", since so many immigrants came from Germanic areas. Notice, I say Germanic, not German. One can write books about all of the places to which German speaking immigrants migrated. Let's look at some that are often confused with the Burgenland. These are not all Germanic areas, some have other ethnicity, but many were part of the Austro/Hungarian Empire and others still exist today (some descriptions have been taken from Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, see for further description). If you feel your ancestors came from any of the non-Burgenland regions, don't contact us - except in a very few instances, we probably can't help. Algäu - southern Germany along the Austrian border, Lake Constance to Bavaria Alsace (Elsass) - eastern France along the SW border of Germany Banat - Tisza River region of Romania, Swabian migration destination Batschka - part of Hungary and Croatia, Swabian migration destination Black Forrest (Schwarzwald) - southwest Germany, west of the Rhine, mostly Bavaria Bohemia (Böhmen) - western part of Czech Republic Bukovina - northern Romania Burgenland - province of Austria bordering Hungary, formed 1921 from Hungarian counties (part of trans-Danubia) of Vas, Moson, Sopron Carinthia (Karinthia, Kärnten) - province of Austria, borders Italy and Slovenia Carniola (Krain) - region of Slovenia, just south of Croatia Egerland - part of Czech Republic along the eastern border of Bavaria Erzgeberge - southeast Saxony, Germany and northwest Bohemia Franconia - northern Bavaria (north-Unterfranken, middle-Mainfranken, south-Oberfranken) Galicia - upper part of the Dneister River, Poland and the Ukraine Gorizia - western Slovenia along the Adriatic Gottschee - northern Slovenia between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia Hauerland - south-central Slovakia bordering Hungary Hegau - southwest Germany near the Danube Hägelland - literally "hill country", but here defined as the eastern foothills of the Alps, which encompasses much of the Burgenland Moravia (Mähren) - Czech Republic between Poland, Slovakia and Austria Nieder-Österreich - Austrian province of Lower Austria, west and north of Burgenland Rosalia - northwest Burgenland region of the Rosalian mountains, including Drassburg, Forchtenstein, and Matterburg. Ruthenia - region of the Ukraine Salzburg - city and province (Land) of Austria Salzkammergut - region of Austria, east of Salzburg (part of Land Salzburg) Seewinkel - Lake Corner, area around the Neusiedler See in northern Burgenland Siebenburgen - Transylvania (now part of Romania) Slavonia - eastern region of Croatia, south of Hungary, west of the Vojvodina, north of Bosnia Slovakia - formerly eastern Czechoslovakia, north of Hungary Styria (Steiermark) - province of Austria, south and west of Burgenland Tirol (Tyrol) - province of Austria, south of Germany Transdanubia - the region in Hungary just west of the Danube Bend (imaginary line drawn from Budapest to Mohacs) Transylvania - see Siebenburgen Upper Austria (Oberösterreich) - province of Austria, mostly north of the Danube COMMENTARY ON AUSTRIA - 2000 (courtesy Bob Unger and "Forbes Magazine") (ED. Note: Bob Unger sent the BB Staff the following as a Christmas greeting. I'd like to share some short excerpts of this good news from the "Heimat.") Bob writes: "Its not often that a major magazine in the USA, "Forbes", publishes a commentary on Austria. The following was obtained from <forbes.com> under the subject of commentary for this 25 December 2000 issue. I thought that the BB staff would find this article interesting. It ends with the following: "Austria's present level of prosperity and its prospects for the near term are strong arguments that Austria is an excellent place in which to invest and an even better place in which to live." Commentary by Caspar W. Weinberger, "Forbes Magazine", 12.25.00 (We have only excerpted short segments, ... indicates more data preceded or followed) AUSTRIA AT THE END OF 2000 * Austria, the linchpin between Eastern and Central Europe and the springboard from which Western trade with the newly democratic countries of the East begins, is in excellent condition. Almost all the standard economic measures are favorable... * The absurd attempt by the EU (led by France) to impose sanctions on Austria, because some members did not like the center-right government voters elected last year, did no damage... * Austria is the third-richest (measuring by per capita GDP) EU country... * Foreign investment, including nearly $4 billion from the U.S., continues apace... (Newsletter continues as no. 91A) THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 91A DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY (now issued monthly by G.J. Berghold) December 31, 2000 (all rights reserved) * READ FIRST - We start New Year 2001 with 613 readers! This second section of the 3-section newsletter contains: * Burgenländische Gemeinschaft Web Site - English Translations * Villages With Similar Names (Many St. Peters) * A Reinstated Member * Allentown Affairs * Question Concerning Adoptions * Older Records - An Old Question BURGENLÄNDISCHE GEMEINSCHAFT WEB SITE ADDS ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Previous issues of the BB News have mentioned this organization so often that I needn't explain its importance again. Suffice it to say you should go to: http://go.to/bg Here you will an introductory page written in both German and English (click on the flags). The contents include (click on the titles): * About Us - Burgenländische Gemeinschaft bylaws and membership information (check it out if you would you like to join) * Latest BG Newsletter cover story * BG Newsletter Archive - selected articles of interest to BB members from back issues * Calendar of Events - what's happening involving the BG in Burgenland, i.e. BG Picnic in Moschendorf July 8, 2001, Burgspiele in Güssing (Dramatic play at Güssing castle), "Der Kampf ums Recht" - Fight for one's rights; June 28, to July 21, 2001, Stadtfest in Güssing - date to be announced. * BG Travel Agency - BG is partially supported by this agency, service available only to Austrians * Contact Us - address, phone, email, board members (Dr. Walter Dujmovits, president; Renate Dolmanits, secretary; Heinz Koller (BB member), deputy secretary, regional chapters (13) * News - what's new at this website? * Guestbook - sign the book * BG Links & Literature - focused on the Burgenland (this is the place to order Dr. Dujmovits classic book "Die Amerikawnderung der Burgenländer"), plus links to Burgenland Bunch, Museum of the Emigrants from Burgenland in Güssing, photos, floor plan, virtual tour; Hianzisch on Heinz Koller's Homepage, etc. In addition to the updated website, The BG Newsletter is now also carrying some articles in English. The web site and English articles in the newsletter are being prepared through the efforts of our own BB members Klaus Gerger, Dr. Albert Schuch, Heinz Koller Inge Schuch (translation) as well as contributions from BG staff and local BG members. Today I received the BG Newsletter for November/December 2000. I was very pleasantly surprised to see my picture on page 2, with a brief biography and best wishes on the occasion of my 70th birthday (22 Sept.) written by Klaus Gerger. Page 5 has a column of BB articles in English by Dr. Albert Schuch. VILLAGES WITH SIMILAR NAMES (MANY ST. PETERS) We know that many locales in the United States have the same names. Some we can easily differentiate by county or state, others are not so easy. So it is with Europe, there they often use river names or other geographical features. Many Austrian or Hungarian villages are named after saints. One of our newer members is interested in Szt. Peterfa (St. Peter), Hungary, a village along the border with the Burgenland. He searches the newsletter archives and finds that a village called Szt. Peter in northern Burgenland has been absorbed and erroneously concludes that it is his Szt. Peterfa. He mentions this to another member and starts a thread, eventually picked up by other members who correct the error. This is a danger to which we must remain alert. It is very easy to be misled when one is not familiar with local geography. Following is a summary of the thread. I think you'll be amazed at the conclusion. * Ed Barret writes: Incidentally, I think it's a crime that they changed the Zsentpeterfa name to "Janossomorja." * John Lavendoski writes: What's that all about? * Others join in the thread. * Gerry Berghold replies: Ed read the following and came to an erroneous conclusion that Sankt Peter and Szt. Peterfa were one and the same. There is more than one "Saint Peter" in Hungary. Szt. Peterfa, Hungary (south-Vas Megye) has not been changed but Szt. Peter, Hungary (north-Moson-Sopron Megye) has been absorbed. * This is what Ed read: MY TRIP TO THE BURGENLAND by Robert G. Hayes (from THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 81A, May 31, 2000) ...I intended to travel into Hungary to see the town of Janossomorja. The towns of Szent Janos and Szent Peter had been combined in 1970 to form Janossomorja. These were formerly known as Sankt Johann and Sankt Peter by their German speaking inhabitants, which included, for hundreds of years, my maternal grandfather's family, named Perlinger. (snip) * Then Frank Teklits helps by writing: The text "Magyar Helysegnev-Azonosito Szotar" lists no less than 22 different Hungarian villages known as Szent Peter, & 5 additional villages if one adds a few typical Hungarian endings. I didn't get too excited when I saw Ed's email. Perhaps one day, I'll type out the complete listing of these villages if someone is really interested. A REINSTATED MEMBER I keep asking members to advise of address changes, but some forget or get caught up in a rash of job and/or server changes; their email comes back "address unknown" and they get removed from the mailing list. Some then contact us and we have to start the whole business over again. That's the down side, the up side is that the correspondence can take some interesting directions such as this (lost in my files since last year). To: Firmus Opitz from Anna Kresh Hello Firmus, Your message brings back a lot of memories, too. Like the Christmas on the farm when my Mom and I were in the kitchen singing carols in the best harmony we could muster. While we were singing Stille Nacht our neighbor ran over and banged on our door yelling "Your house is on fire, your house is on fire!!!". Thank God, it wasn't our house. It was our smokehouse. Seems a slab of bacon slipped off the hook and fell into the embers, flared up, and practically burned down the smokehouse. We didn't have indoor plumbing so we had to haul buckets of water from the outside pump to put out the fire. Everything got smoked really well. I sure wish I had the words to all those old songs so I could sing along with the folks "back home" in the Lehigh Valley or with all my audio tapes, but I have been away so long that I have forgotten all of them except Stille Nacht and Fliege mit Mir in die Heimat. Don't worry about the cut and paste. It will all come in time. Save those instructions I sent you and read them again in a few months and it will make much more sense. In the meantime, if I can be of any help, drop me an email. Thanks for your reply. I enjoyed reading it. Frau Kresh Firmus Opitz had written to Anna after she sent him the usual new member archive instructions. He wrote: Subj: Reborn Member of The BB Hello Anna: I have viewed your name and actions with the BB for quite a long time and I certainly appreciate your words of WELCOME BACK. I never intended to leave the BB in the first place but due to the fact that as my GF used to say (Sohn du bist so dumm vie der nacht) and if I didn't understand that, he would let fly with something in Hungarian. I let it stand at that. Lets see where was I? I noticed in the last BB newsletter that you were doing a lot of singing, like for instance, Muss i denn zum stadtele "naus und du mein schatz bleibst hier. My father used to play that on his violin back in our farm days in SD. Lights lamps and the off key notes I am sure were there but we did not notice as we were so happy to hear it. He also played Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. Anyhow many thanks to Herr Berghold und Herr Schuch & of course Frau oder Fraulein Kresh. I will have to sit down and digest the info you sent me, to me cut and paste means to cut something out and glue it to something! does that tell you something? I am for sure as my GF said sehr dumm. Note: you need not send me notification of recent newsletters as I can hit the web page each or so and pick out what I want. Vielen danke zu alas. Wiedersehen, Firmus John Opitz ALLENTOWN AFFAIRS (from Robert Strauch) A Xmas greeting from Bob Strauch included the latest news on what is happening at the Austrian-Hungarian Veterans Society in Allentown. Their annual "Sautanz" (literally Pig Dance, best defined as a "harvest" or "butchering" festival) was held Oct. 14 at the club and was well attended and a smashing success. Plenty to eat (roast pork, Bratwürst, potatoes, sauerkraut, grammelpogatscherl, pastries and ethnic music. Some of the musical renditions follow (how many do you know and wouldn't it be nice to have a tape?). Musical titles can be hard to translate - I'll give it a try, maybe you can help: Es war ein Mädchen von 18 Jahren (There was a maid of 18 years) Der Fremdenlegionär (The Foreign Legionnaire) In der Heimat, da gibt's ein Wiedersehn (In the homeland we'll meet again?) Du schwarzer Zigeuner (You Black Gypsy) - my grandmother called me that sometimes) Cerny Cigan (Gypsy from Cerny) Rosemarie-Polka (same in English) Mama, get bitte schau oba (Mama please look at Papa?) Geh, mach dei Fensterl auf (Go, open the window) Schön is so a Ringelspiel (I give up on this one - Pretty as a ringdance?) Deutschmeister March (March of the Hoch & Deutschmeister Vienna Regiment) A Fasching Ball (masquerade) is planned for February 24, 2001. Bob also included three new recipes for holiday pastry. One is for miniature pseudo-Sacher Tortes and another is for miniature Linzer Tortes. My wife says, no way - next year maybe! I'll try them before then and bring you the recipe. BB members Phyllis Sauerzopf and Judy and Tim Snyder also attended the A/H Vets annual flag raising ceremony. QUESTION CONCERNING ADOPTIONS (Steiner, Berghold, Schuch) In a message dated 1/23/00, Kellie Steiner writes: My name is Kellie Steiner. I am researching my husband's Burgenland genealogy. I have a major stumbling block that I am hoping you can help me with. My husband's grandfather was illegitimate. His mother then married a man named Steiner who adopted him. I haven't been able to find his birth record even though I have a date and town where he was born. Do you know anything about Austrian adoption records? Answer: Kellie - the illegitimacy rate in the Burgenland was quite high. The main reason was poverty. Young men did not have the money to support a family and they lived at home with many siblings. Another reason involves the late posting of bans. Catholic priests were pretty inflexible when it came to such things. Often, however, the father was known and I've seen church records where the birth was recorded as illegitimate but the father was still mentioned. If I were you, I'd check the LDS records. These fathers frequently married their partners later when they were able to support a family. Another reason involved the high number of servants or laborers in the larger farms and families. As to formal adoption, I'm not informed as to the details and I'm asking Albert Schuch, our Burgenland editor to comment. Albert's Reply: Kellie, I agree with Gerry's answers to your questions. I never heard of any "adoption records". Apart from the cases already mentioned by Gerry, there were probably very few adoptions in former times, and these few were probably restricted to the "upper class". What poor people often did (towards the end of the 19th century) was to take care of orphans from Vienna for an economic reason: they received money for doing so, and the orphans had to be returned to the orphanage when they were six. Many didn't live that long, they really had a most deplorable fate, were totally neglected, just "used" to increase the income of the household, until they were "relieved" by an early death. The church records call these children "Kind in Pflege / Children in Nursing Care". What we call adoption today is a more "modern" phenomenon in Burgenland, and still doesn't happen very often. OLDER RECORDS - AN OLD QUESTION The question "are there records which predate the LDS microfilm (1828)" has been asked quite often. For those who have not read the answer before, I repeat a recent exchange on the WGW Query Site. Burgenland Province Austria Queries A new message, "Pre-1828 records, is there microfilm available?" was posted by Joe Liebezeit on Fri, 22 Dec 2000. The message reads as follows: I've had great success with the LDS microfilm records for the Burgenland in my genealogical research. I've noticed that the LDS film only goes back to 1828 for the villages my relatives are from (Reinersdorf, Grossmürbisch). I'm ready to extend my research further back in time. What is my next step? Are there Burgenland records pre-1828 (for the named villages) available on microfilm or do I have to pay a visit to Austria? Gerry Stifter replies: Joe, At least in the parish we were interested in (Pilgersdorf) older records were available at the church. The baptismal records from Deutsch Gerisdorf, Bubendorf and Salmansdorf were from 1780 to 1855. While the secretary at the church was initially reluctant to provide them to us, after we talked to the parish priest we were allowed to take them into a back room and review them at our leisure. The marriage and death records from that period for the villages listed were already sent to Eisenstadt. Marriage and death records for other villages such as Kogl and Lebenbrunn were available. From several Burgenland members who were in Pilgersdorf prior to our trip, we learned that even earlier records are available in Eisenstadt. Fritz Königshofer replies: The church records filmed by LDS are the so-called duplicates which were introduced since 1826/27/28, and in what is now Burgenland mostly since 1828. From that time onwards, parishes had to record vital events in the original matrikels as well as the duplicates. After the end of each calendar year, the duplicates were sent to the diocesan administration (in case of today's southern Burgenland, the diocesan administration was in Szombathely). Therefore, in most cases, originals exist from much earlier times than 1828. For instance, my guide states that Roman Catholic parish records for Heiligenbrunn (which included Reinersdorf) exist since 1744, and for Grossmürbisch since 1668. Today, these older original records can either still be at the parishes, or may be at the Diocesan Archive in Eisenstadt. You need to call the parish or the Diocesan Archive to find out in each case. I do not think that, as a rule, parishes prohibit access to their original matrikels. In August of 1999, I visited the parish rectory of Pinkafeld entirely unannounced, but was kindly given access to the old original matrikels on the spot. However, there might be a more formal way to apply for access to the original matrikels in advance of an actual trip, or else it may not always work out as well as it did for me. When I tried my luck in Lockenhaus later that same day (after we had watched the incomparable spectacle of the total solar eclipse), I learned that those original matrikels for Lockenhaus are archived in Eisenstadt. By the way, it is always a good idea to look up entries in the original matrikels which you already have found in the duplicates. This is because parish priests often made additional marginal entries in the originals at later times, e.g., when a birth out of wedlock was subsequently legitimized by a marriage, or when the baptized person later applied for a baptismal certificate, married, or died, and other similar future vital events (e.g., name changes due to Magyarization). Since the duplicates had usually gone to the diocesan archive, such marginal entries were only made in them too, in case the events happened before the end of the running calendar year, before the duplicates were sent away to the diocese. EDITOR'S ADDITION - Many of the Hungarian village church records microfilmed by the LDS (villages not ceded to Austria in 1921) do predate 1828. My own experience with Pinkamindszent took me back to 1737. Some others are as early as the late 1600's. Check the LDS microfilm Hungarian index. If you visit Austria and plan to look for pre-1828 records, contact Burgenland Editor Dr. Albert Schuch for requirements and instruction on how to use the Eisenstadt Diocesan Archives. The BB has arranged for individual permission to access these records (those which pre-date the village church records) and we do not wish to jeopardize our welcome (an appointment is absolutely necessary and you must be capable of finding and reading the records yourself. You must be well versed in reading these records and thoroughly familiar with all of the names of the pertinent villages and their parishes. (Newsletter continues as 91B.) THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 91B DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY (now issued monthly by G.J. Berghold) December 31, 2000 (all rights reserved) * WE MUST HAVE NAME, OLD AND NEW ADDRESS FOR ADDRESS CHANGES! This third section of the 3-section newsletter contains: * Those Email Addresses * New Ethnic CD * Record Availability - Again * Philosophy Behind The BB * URL and Member Changes (16 New Members) THOSE E-MAIL ADDRESSES Contributing Editor Dale Knebel sends me the note below. I might also point out that Yahoo, Hotmail and Juno have caused distribution problems for us, since, if 3 newsletters are returned, you'll be dropped from our distribution list. These servers have smaller volume limits. If you forget you have more than one address and don't clear your secondary "mailbox", new incoming mail can be refused. Dale writes: Here is another angle on e-mail, and I don't know how widely it is used. Some people use a Yahoo or Hotmail address in addition to their regular ISP address. A new member used one of these. He has roots in South Dakota, and after I supplied some information, and apparently proved reliable, he transferred me to his regular e-mail address. I suppose it is a way of testing people who reply, and a way of getting rid of someone you don't want. (ED. - but a pill for list providers!) NEW ETHNIC CD (from Robert Strauch) Bob writes: Raabfidisch (Rabafüzes, Hungary) may be a sleepy little Dorf, but the German Ladies Chorus (11 members) just came out with a CD, called Heinzische Lieder. Financed by grants from local government and donations from the A/H Vets. Director is a Mrs. Unger. (Trying to see if they are available.) BURGENLAND GENEALOGICAL RECORD AVAILABILITY - AGAIN This question keeps appearing and it isn't easy to find the complete answer in the archives. There are two main groups of records available to descendants of Burgenland immigrants, those available in the United States and those available in Austria/Hungary. You should really address the first before the second and in the order shown. It's like a series of educational courses, the previous being a prerequisite for the understanding of the next. Suggest you print this and keep it handy. In the US, we have: * Family oral records - the least accurate of all * Family documents - the best source of family names and village of origin * US Census records - those from 1870, 1910 & 1920 are very good * Internet Links to the BB Lists, WGW Query Board. Austrian Phone Directories, Ship Lists etc. * Local church records in cities of settlement - check historical societies * Cemetery Records - ditto * Local city directories of city of settlement * Naturalization records - county courthouse of county of settlement * LDS Microfilm of Burgenland Church & Civil Records - 1828-1921 (but see previous article) * LDS Microfilm of Hungarian Census of 1825 and various tax lists * LDS Library Holdings and Indices to gazetteers, etc. * Village Histories in Individual's Holdings - in German In the Burgenland, and having done most or all of the above, we have: * Village Histories (Chronik) - in German (Croat, etc.) sometimes available from Gemeindeamt or district capitol bookshops * Cemeteries - memorials often limited to last 3 or 4 generations * Village War Memorials - listing dead and missing from WW-I & -II (name, year of birth, death) * Civil records - 1896 to present, some earlier - at village Gemeindeamt (town hall) * Village Grundbuch - list of property owners (following the distribution of land post-1848 * Church records - (normally 1770 to present) - at village churches * Church records - pre-1770, some pre 1828 - at Eisenstadt RC Diocesan Archives * Church records - ditto but AC (Lutheran) - some stored in AC Diocesan Archives Not listed and really not a source for most US researchers are the various holdings of Family Archives (Batthyány, Esterhazy, a few others), holdings in Austrian/Hungarian National and State and Local Libraries and Archives. These normally require working knowledge of German, Latin and Hungarian or Croatian. The BB has published numerous translations of Urbars (aristocratic inventories of land tenants), Canonical Visitations (status of parish members) and local newspaper articles (Budapest National Library). We've also published some translated histories. These have been found and translated by some of our staff who have the required skills. BURGENLAND BUNCH PHILOSOPHY EXPANDED In a message dated some time ago, one of our members wrote something like this: Many of the other ethnic websites are sponsored by an actual (as opposed to ad-hoc) dues-paying organization... like the Polish Genealogy Society, the Slovenian Genealogy group, the Palatines in America or some historical society. This allows connection to those who are not on the web... those who can only use surface mail. Of course this creates new problems (having to charge dues)... and new demands. Have you considered being sponsored by some larger genealogical organization? Just something to consider... My reply: I fully understand what is being said; however, the key issue here is one of micro-genealogy as opposed to macro-genealogy. Most of the sponsoring organizations are very broad in scope - for instance they cover the world, or "Germania" or all of Austria, both past and present. I feel when this occurs little real research is done because the scope is too large and many members find they get a very small number of links or hits for the large amount of material they must read or scan. You often find a few "experts" writing about very "broad" issues or their own personal interests, ad infinitum. You can almost say the same thing for the BB member who is interested in village "A" but must work through the other 400 villages we cover, but here at least you have a better chance of finding something. I belong to some sponsoring organizations, mostly to keep abreast of what is available in the field of genealogy. Sometimes I find something of value but I rarely find family links or explicit Burgenland help. This is one of the reasons why I formed the Burgenland Bunch. I wanted to separate the Burgenland wheat from the "Germanic" chaff. I recently bought a "new" and excellent Hungarian History by the very prestigious pedants, Sugar, Hanak and Frank. There are all of 4 references to the Burgenland or western border region in 432 pages (no index references). In the very prestigious magazine "Heritage Quest" (which I recommend as the best genealogical magazine available anywhere at any price) there have been only five articles about the Burgenland in over one hundred issues, and I wrote four of them, even though there is a very good "Germanic" column every issue. The fifth article was about the availability of records in the entire Austro/Hungarian Empire. See what I mean? My library is cluttered with publications which, at best, list one or two references to the Burgenland. What really turns me away from being "sponsored" by another group is that they wouldn't add to our efforts - we'd be adding to theirs, with the majority of their members having no interest in our material. Besides the BB, the only other source of Burgenland material available in the US has been the LDS, and they don't lend themselves to being a sponsoring organization and, of course, they cover the world. As stated, I view the BB as a very specialized ethnic group. Potential members must come to us with genealogical or family history "basics" acquired elsewhere. Possible European sponsors pose the language barrier. One thought, that Burgenland Editor Dr. Albert Schuch and I had very early, was to tightly link to (but not be sponsored by) that Austrian Burgenland organization known as the "Burgenländische Gemeinschaft". With help from Klaus Gerger, Inge Schuch, Heinz Koller, Dr. Walter Dujmovits and others, this has now been accomplished. The BG have put their surface mail newsletter on line in a partial English language version that also includes some of our material (see lead article Newsletter 91A). We've not been stopped by the language barrier due to a willingness to bear the translation burden. When you merge with others you always lose some identity, but in this case, I don't see that happening to either organization. We both have two divergent groups to satisfy, one whose language is German, the other English. One has one or two generational links with the "Heimat", one has multi-generational links. There would be a great deal of work necessary to open the BB up to surface mail membership. There are accounting and record-keeping ramifications as well as the cost and effort involved in printing and mailing. A 21-24 page newsletter would cost about 72 cents to print, a few pennies to collate and about 50 cents to mail (double for foreign addresses). At 12 issues per year, that's about $15/year to break even. The BG charges $15/yr for a bi-monthly newsletter, postpaid surface mail. I don't fancy mailing to 600+ members or maintaining such a file of mailing labels. If we gave this work to a service bureau I feel we'd have to charge the members about $30-40/year. If we charged for our time, this could easily triple. Members can get our BB involvement for nothing, but in no way could they afford to hire our services. So it is with most website sponsors. I put in about 20 hours per week of volunteer labor, coordinating and editing for the BB, too much of which is spent maintaining membership data. I have reduced it considerably, but each reduction involves the loss of personal contact and I don't wish to lose more. Personal correspondence often triggers new and important data. My own personal family history gain is probably less than one tenth of 1% of time involved. Still like gold, family history data is worth prospecting and refining. Would we have 600 members if we had charged a fee to join? I doubt it. I don't really know how I feel about the philosophy of a "free" internet. A "free" internet is a great idea, but people can be very demanding at times - some feel they have a "right" to free help on the net. At least when it's free, you can just quietly drop them if they antagonize you - fortunately we've only had to do this with a couple of members, like the one who said "send me my genealogy and quit wasting my time!" Another couple sent me a five-page letter telling me it was my "duty" to supply them with whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it, or I was a genealogical failure. When one volunteers time and expertise "for free" to the public at large, one develops a thick skin and a long fuse or gives it up. I didn't want to belabor the issue, but since many have stated an interest in the "philosophy of direction" which drives the Burgenland Bunch, I thought I'd share my views. Most of the other contributing editors have already indicated to me that they share those same views. BURGENLAND BUNCH INTERNET LINKS - ADDITIONS, REVISIONS 12/31/2000 (from Internet/URL Editor Anna Tanczos Kresh) AUSTRIAN, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN INTERNET LINKS o Exulanten http://www.rootsweb.com/~autwgw/agsfrx.htm - Mailing list pertaining to the Protestants that were forced out of Austria (estimated as many as 100,000) during 16th to 18th century (Charles Wardell) o Austria Today Online http://www.austriatoday.at - English language daily newspaper; good way to see the news from the Austrian perspective; a cooperation between the Austrian English language weekly "Austria Today" and the Austrian daily newspaper "Wiener Zeitung" BURGENLAND BUNCH MEMBERS' HOME PAGES o Hardin, Nadine http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/h/a/r/Nadine-Hardin/index.html - Orlando, FL; the Galgoczi-Fejes and Farkas-Benko Descendents o Leitner, Mary K. http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/l/e/i/Mary-K-Leitner-KS/ - Atwood, KS; see Gene and Mary's Genealogy; many Burgenland descendents; Herndon, Rawlins County, Kansas names and cemeteries (Mary K. Leitner) CROATIAN INTERNET LINKS o Croatia based HR message board http://www.hr/webbbs/genealogy/ (Lea Buzby) o Croatia and Bosnia maps http://www.kakarigi.net/maps/ (Lea Buzby) o Genealogical Research in Croatia http://www.appleby.net/genealogy.html (Lea Buzby) o Croatian Heritage http://www.croatians.com/index.html - Croatian genealogy tips (Lea Buzby) o Croatia genealogy newsletter http://www.durham.net/facts/crogen/newsltr.html (Lea Buzby) o Croatia History links http://www.dalmatia.net/croatia/history/links.htm (Lea Buzby) o Croatia online phone books http://imenik.hinet.hr/imenik-asp/index.asp?lang=us (Lea Buzby) o Croatian language help http://www.hr/hrvatska/language/CroLang.html (Lea Buzby) GENEALOGY RESEARCH LINKS (OTHER) o GenForum Message Boards http://genforum.genealogy.com/regional/countries/ (Lea Buzby) o Imperial German Army http://www.users.hunterlink.net.au/~maampo/militaer/armtoc.html - online data relating to units within the pre-1914 peacetime German Army (Phyllis Sauerzopf) LANGUAGE AIDS - TRANSLATORS, DICTIONARIES, etc. o Online German Lessons http://german.about.com - dictionaries, German newsletter, many other links; also free online German lessons with audio clips http://german.about.com/cs/onlinecourses/index.htm (Elizabeth Mandl) MAP SITES ON THE INTERNET o Town and City Locator http://www.calle.com/world/ - Global gazetteer (Lea Buzby) o World Maps and Placename Index http://www.multimap.com/index/ (Lea Buzby) o 1910 Hungarian County Maps http://www.familytree.hu/ - Pre-Burgenland county/megye maps; click on Links, then on 1910 Hungarian County Maps; see especially Vas, Moson, Sopron (Lea Buzby) [Note: these maps were formerly listed in our links as "Hungarian Settlements" and were no longer available. Thanks to Lea who has found an alternate site.] URL CHANGES (revised links/descriptions) o Translation Team http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/translation.html - free translation service via email by Genealogy.net for genealogy-related text only; limit 40 lines per email; fee charged for fax or mail (postal) service; available languages include CZEch, DUTch, ENGlish, FREnch, GERman, POLish [note change in language list; URL remains the same] o WORLD WAR I GERMAN SOLDIERS' WAR GRAVES http://www.volksbund.de/homepage.htm - see article by Robert Lipprandt published in Missing Links genealogy newsletter, Vol. 5, No. 31, 2 August 2000 at RootsWeb E-zines http://www.rootsweb.com/~review/e-zine.html [added URL for Graves site] NEW MEMBERS Dan Bakley; Lake Hiawatha, NJ. MAGDITS, GEOSIT, EBNER; Punitz. Settled: Northampton, PA. New York City. Mark Bischof; Danbury, CT. SCHMALDIENST, STOFFER, ROSENKRANZ, SCHNECKER, ZUMANN. Rohr (Nad), Bocksdorf (Baksafalva). Settled Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA / Chester, PA Germaine (Pratschner) Erbele, LaMoure, ND. SCHERMAN (SHERMAN), SCHLEGEL, PUHR, PRATSCHNER, WURZER. Pilgersdorf, Geresdorf area. Settled in Winsted, MN, homesteaded around Fingal, ND. Michelle Ernst; Boyds, WA. ERNST, WAGNER, FANDL, WEINHOFER, Limbach (Gemeinde Kukmirn). Amanda Haft, Cherry Valley, CA. OSTOVICH (OSTOVITZ, OSTOWITS, OSZTOVITS), Füsthegy (now Rauhriegel-Allersgraben in the district of Oberwart.) Emigrated to Herminie, Westmoreland County, PA, USA, prior to 1927. Thomas Kurz; Pöttelsdorf, Austria. KURZ, PAUSCHENWEIN, JAKOB, LANG, Pöttelsdorf. SCHUBER, SCHANDL, FEILER, in Walbersdorf. SCHREINER, HEFTER in Rust. Richard Limbeck; Scio, OR. LIMBECK, Gols. Settled Lincoln, Nebraska late 1800's, then Oregon near Salem, Silverton, and Scio. Margarete Nada; Shelby Twp., Michigan. Gabriela BENEKER from Ödenburg (Sopron, Hungary) settled in Sarasota, FL. Kathrin KNABEL , from same place settled in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. Anna EITLER, Ödenburg, settled in Philadelphia, PA. Margarete NEMETH, sister of Anna Eitler settled in Daytona Beach, FL. Susann Piccinino; Richwoods, MO. Grandmother, Anna VON GOTT, born 1900 to Maria BAIERL and Johann Von Gott, was orphaned 1904 at the Orphanage, Kloster Neuburg. Anna Von Gott married Joseph WANDERER from the village Breitenbrunn (Hungarian name Fertöszeleskut) in the district of Eisenstadt in 1929. Rosalia Wanderer married an American soldier 1950 and emigrated to the US. Bernard Pratschner; Vista, CA. PRATSCHNER, WURZER, Gerisdorf. SCHLEGEL (SCHLÖGEL), PUHR, Bubendorf. Settled and homesteaded in the Fingal, Barnes county, ND area. Lynne K. Ranieri; Short Hills, NJ. HOLLENDONNER, PUM. Deutsch Ehrensdorf . Settled in Trenton, NJ and Pennsylvania, some near Philadelphia and some near Jeanette, PA. Bonnie Lackner Schantzenbach; Macungie PA. Grandfather John LACKNER, Kukmirn. (grandmother was from Vienna... WIESENEDER.) We believe she married a man with the name of Hafner (not sure of spelling). My grandfather settled in the area of Allentown, PA. Peter Tarnai, Hilpoltstein, Simon FISCHER, born ca. 1715 in Neusiedl am See, Burgenland Joseph N. Weber; Newark, DE; ZOTTER, LANG, MANDL, DEUTSCH (DEUTZ), SCHÜTZ St. Martin a. d. Raab, Neumarkt a. d. Raab, UnterDrosen, Jennersdorf. ZOTTER, LANG, and MANDL immigrated to the Pittsburgh, PA, area. Linda L. Wilson, New Lenox, IL. PAUSZ, Weinberg (Wiesfleck), BUNDSCHUCH, Weinberg & Reidlingsdorf, PRATSCHER, BRUCKNER, PUTZ, SCHONHERRU, Oberschützen, all to Chicago. Darcy Wright; Jamesville, NY . FASSL, HALPER. Litzelsdorf (district of Oberwart-Hungarian Lödös). END OF NEWSLETTER BURGENLAND BUNCH STAFF Coordinator & Editor Newsletter (Gerald J. Berghold; Winchester, VA) Burgenland Editor (Dr. Albert Schuch; Vienna & Kleinpetersdorf, Austria) Home Page Editor (Hap Anderson) Internet/URL Editor (Anna Tanczos Kresh; Butler, PA) Contributing Editors: Austro/Hungarian Research (Fritz Königshofer) Burgenland Co-Editor (Klaus Gerger, Austria) Burgenland Lake Corner Research (Dale Knebel) Chicago Burgenland Enclave (Tom Glatz) Croatian Burgenland (Frank Teklits) Home Page village lists (Bill Rudy) Home Page surname lists (Tom Steichen) Judaic Burgenland (Maureen Tighe-Brown) Western Hungary-Bakony Region (Ernest Chrisbacher) Western US BB Members-Research (Bob Unger) WorldGenWeb-Austria, RootsWeb Liaison-Burgenland (Charles Wardell, Austria) BB ARCHIVES (can be reached from Home Page hyperlinks) BURGENLAND HOME PAGE http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org Burgenland Bunch Newsletter distributed courtesy of (c) 1999 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 Newsletter and List Rights Reserved. Permission to Copy Granted IF CREDIT IS PROVIDED.