BB News No. 143 dtd 31 Jan 2005

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 143 DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY (Our 10th Year - Issued monthly as email by G. J. Berghold) September 30, 2005 (c) 2005 G. J. Berghold - all rights reserved) * Current Status Of The BB: Members-1246*Surname Entries- 4430*Query Board Entries-3318*Newsletters Archived-143-Number of Staff Members-17 RECIPIENTS PLEASE READ: You are receiving this email newsletter because you are a BB member or have asked to be added to our distribution list. To unsubscribe, send email with message "remove". ("Cancel" will cancel membership, website listings and newsletter.) Send address and listing changes to the same place. Sign email with your full name and include BB in the subject line. Send no attachments or graphics. To join the BB, see our homepage. If you join, your email address will be available from our websites. We are not responsible for Spam or Virus that may result. You can opt for your address to be unlisted but members will not be able to contact you. We can't help with non-Burgenland family history. Email comments are appreciated, but may be published unless we are requested not to do so. Articles without a by-line are written by the editor and reflect his views. If you join, please exchange data in a courteous and cooperative manner. This first section of our 2-section newsletter concerns: 1. Post WW-II Forced Migration From Hungary - Village Of Holling 2. Membership Editor Address Change 3. Peter Sattler's New "Bankerlsitzer" Edition - Village Of Rudersdorf 4. Burgenland Immigrant Name Change Solved - Tallian 5. Where BB Members Live 6. Flooding In Austria 1. POST WW-II FORCED MIGRATION FROM HUNGARY - VILLAGE OF HOLLING (ED. Note: We have touched on this subject in previous newsletters but have not reported a case concerning one individual family. We had the following recent exchange of email with a descendant of a family involved. Evi Burr is a recent BB member, now living on the English Channel island of Guernsey [a first by the way]. Data concerning the village of Holling is also mentioned in the correspondence. Evi has furnished enough data that we can use it as framework for other similar migrations. Her story unfolds below.) In a message dated 8/17/05 Evi writes: I found your web-page while I was doing some family research on the internet. I was specifically looking for the name "Theiner" from a small village called Holling in Hungary (very close to the Austrian boarder). In the Burgenland Newsletter from 2001 you mentioned a Toppell, geb. Theiner, Zezilia, from Holling, Hungary. My mothers maiden name is Theiner, born in Holling, Hungary, so I wonder if anybody would know something about her and her family? Evi Burr. Reply: You might try searching our surname and village databases by going to our Homepage. If you've already searched our newsletter archives, you've found whatever we have concerning your families. Read below to see what else we can do for you. Evi then replies: Evi-Anja Burr, Guernsey/GB-Channel Islands, THEINER, Fertöboz (Holling-Ungarn), Schwäbisch Gmünd/Germany, Altbach/Germany I would be honored to become a member of the Burgenland Bunch. I have a lot of documentation about Holling including history and family names, which we could provide if there is any interest. Evi-Anja Burr Reply: Holling is indeed within the contiguous border area of Hungary qualifying for BB research as it lies just a few kms east of the border in Györ-Moson-Sopron Megye. We would appreciate receiving what data you have concerning its history and a list of family names. Perhaps we can use it as an article for our newsletter. Holling (Fertöboz) is just below the southern part of the Neusiedler See and is rather unique in being closer to the southern Austrian border of that lake than it is to the western border. First mentioned in documents in 1261 as Terra Bozyas, it was inhabited by German settlers during the 17th & 18th centuries, which is when your people may have arrived. Unfortunately, your German villages (to which the family was relocated) are not within our research area, so we can't help you there. Would they be where your people settled when moved from Holling after WW-II or are they places from which your people came to Holling? We would be very interested in this. I might point out that, while we have members from all over the world, you are the first from the Channel Islands. Please read our Welcome Letter below (cut). Evi responds: Thank you for putting my entry on the BB webpage. In spring 1946, the German-speaking population of Fertöboz (Holling) was deported to the south of Germany. They were brought by railway carriages to Germany. The first transport ended in Bavaria, the second in Baden-Württemberg. My grandmother and my mother were on the second transport, that's why they ended up near Stuttgart, where they settled. My grandfather was a prisoner of war in Russia at that time and thanks to the Red Cross he could trace where his family had been relocated after he was released from Russia. I had a look at my book about Holling and it mentions that, between 1904 and 1907, 29 young people emigrated to the US. After the First World War, more people emigrated but the numbers are unknown. According to this book, the names of the 10 families who founded Holling were first mentioned in 1772. The names are Hottmayer, Maschler, Paar, Unger, Pieller, Mattasitz, Reisenhofer, Payrits, Dasgotschi, Formann. The register from 1786 - 1795 covers also the names König, Schuster, Csiszar, Csernits, Wölfl, Lasicz, Schleichtner, Paar, Ungar, Novak, Hermann, Perstel, Gegenbauer, Molitor, Pieller, Pellovits, Samwald, Sinkovits, Lipp, Flaschin, Fridrich, Reinprecht, Steinricht, Weber, Erdödy, Schmierl, Schneider, Neubauer, Schitz, Rasipovits, Friedrich, Flaschitz, Fundukin, Jandokin, Mischkolitsch, Szücs, Csik, Mater, Miskolits, Tauschmann, Gubics, Dasgotschi, Matterbucher, Miskolcz, Timar, Stier and Rugli. The population was mainly German, but a few families from Croatia and Hungary moved to Holling. 2. MEMBERSHIP EDITOR ADDRESS CHANGE Hannes Graf sends the following: I changed my Burgenland Bunch Staff email address. The old one will be available for a while. I will delete the old in a few months. (ED. Note: Listing and address changes should still be sent to me where they are subsequently forwarded to the other editors.) 3. PETER SATTLER'S NEW "BANKERLSITZER" EDITION - VILLAGE OF RUDERSDORF Peter's newsy and interesting Rudersdorf website is one of my favorites, full of excellent pictures and coverage of village events, lore and personalities. He revises it often and, if your immigrant family came from Rudersdorf or vicinity (district of Jennersdorf), you shouldn't miss it. It's in German but the pictures are almost self-explanatory and you can always copy the text and get someone to translate for you. I have a distant Berghold-related cousin whose family has had a Gasthaus in Rudersdorf for many years (started by a daughter of my great-grandfather). The recent Bankerlsitzer (gossip bench) tells me that their Gasthaus may close or open under new management - the end of an era. Peter writes: Dear Gerry, I have a new issue of the "bankerlsitzer", special news about your relation, Hermann Schabhüttl and his Gasthaus. It's now in htm and pdf format to print better. The "bankerlsitzer" can reached from the BB homepage (URL Links) or by going directly to: http://members.aon.at/bankerlsitzer/ 4. BURGENLAND IMMIGRANT NAME CHANGE SOLVED - TALLIAN (ED. Note: As host of the Roots-L Burgenland Query Board, I don't have all that much to do since others do a fine job of answering queries. Three people who always do an outstanding job are Fritz Königshofer [BB Austrian Editor], Robert Jerin [Croatian Heritage Museum] and Lajos Reich [from Budapest]. All three collaborated on the following excellent piece of research [edited] taken from the Burgenland Board.) Stacey Merlo queries: Hi I started looking for info on my Great-Grandfather, Steve Tallian, I was getting some help from RootsWeb Message Boards and was told that his first name would be Istvan. I found him on the US 1910 Census; he came over in 1909. The person helping me at RootsWeb found an Istvan Tallian who arrived in 1909 and who was 27 (born the same year as my Great-Grandfather). He told me that this man was from Harmasfalu, which until 1921 was in western Vas county, Hungary. He went on to say that now it is a part of the Austrian state of Burgenland and has the name of Podgoria. He also told me that the interesting part is that a lot of its inhabitants are/were ethnic Croats (on the Census, my great-grandfather listed Hungary-Croatian as his nationality, and he spoke Croatian). Can someone tell me if there is a way to confirm if this man is him or not? Fritz Königshofer replies: Stacey: My apologies for catching up with you on this board. I am glad you posted here. One thing you could do is look through the civil marriage records of Weiden bei Rechnitz for the marriage of István Tallian or Talian in the USA. Many émigrés reported vital events back to their home countries because they were likely required to do so, and it was also needed for establishing inheritance rights. It would be very easy to browse through the civil marriage records of Weiden for years 1909-1912 or so. The couple may even have reported the birth of little István for the civil birth records of Weiden. If you find the right marriage there, you would be certain that your ancestor hailed from there. He also writes: Have a look at the Austrian on-line phone directory here. Enter "Burgenland" in the category "Wo?" (where), and Tallian in the category "Wer, Was" (who or what). You will find that, indeed, many Tallians live in the region of Weiden bei Rechnitz and a few even have an address in Podgoria. Do the same search for the names Dobrovich and Dobrovits (with Burgenland in the Wo? field. Once again, you will see that most of the bearers of this name live in or around Weiden and, again, a few even in Podgoria. Dobrovits is a spelling variation of Dobrovich or other spellings of the same name. Since they married in the old country in about 1904, try to look through the civil marriage records of Weiden as filmed by LDS (the Mormons). These films are not on-line. But you can find the right film numbers on-line and then order the films for viewing at an LDS Family History Library near you. Since your aunt gave you a precise birth date for Stefan (István), you should also order the film with the Roman Catholic parish records of Weiden. Check it for the birth of an István Talian on or around July 4 in year 1882, plus/minus three years. In those former times, people sometimes forgot their precise birth year, but rarely the month and day. For the film numbers, go to http://www.familysearch.org/Search/searchcatalog.asp, and enter Bandol as the place name, then select the Bándol in Hungary. Bándol was the Hungarian name for what is today Weiden bei Rechnitz. You will find both parish and civil record film indexes. There are only a few films. The term születtek means births, and the term házasultak means marriages, halottak means death records. This looks like a very promising trail for you. Lajos Reich then adds: Well, it is a great result and may I add something to the research. The word talian, correctly written talján in Ungarian, means Italian. Even the Italians have an "own" name in Hungarian (olasz), provincially the "talján" is used too. (Look at the lengyel - Polish - and by provincial polyák from the word Polska). I can imagine, that man was originally Hungarian, especially if he used a first name like István. Same, in Hungary are living Dobrovits' - one of the bosses of my younger son was named Peter Dobrovits. BUT! BUT! BUT! The thing is, he was Hungarian, that (his ancestors were) Croatian or Eskimo or something other, is absolutely not pertinent. In that area the nationalities were mixed absolutely. Many people had Hungarian names, but were Austrian, or had Croatian name but were Hungarian, and so on. Sometimes the names of the town are written by three languages on road signs..........:-) Now, first find a good trail. The nation can wait... if I can help, eg, to translate from Hungarian, will be glad to do so. Lajos Reich, Budapest, Hungary Robert Jerin enters the picture and wrotes: Stacey, there is a man who was around these message forums a few years ago, Ferdo TALIAN, who was from Croatia. I believe that the TALIAN name originated north of Zagreb. Many of the Croatians who settled the Burgenland region fled the Ottoman Turkish occupation sometime after the 1500s and many were linked to Croatian nobility. There is a record at Ellis Island for a Luiza Talian arrived May 10, 1910, destination Pittsburg PA to (meet) husband Istvan. Robert Jerin, Croatian Heritage Museum, Cleveland Ohio To which Fritz responds: Robert: It seems you made a superb find for Stacey, as her great-grandmother's maiden name was Dobrovich, which is the same as the name of the father of Luiza, given as Ferenc (Frank) Dobrovits in the Ellis Island record of Luiza. This Luiza was from "Bendoly", which is likely a misspelling for Bándoly, which was one of the names for today's Weiden bei Rechnitz. Luiza appears to have traveled with a group from Harmasfalu, which was the village from where the István we already identified traveled to the USA in 1909. For recording purposes, Harmasfalu (Podgoria) belonged to Bándol (Weiden). There are a few question related to a believed marriage date of 1904. If true, Luiza would only have been 17 years old at marriage. It would also be odd that no children traveled with her. However, there are plenty of possible explanations for these situations. The records of Weiden will likely clarify these questions. Stacey writes: Hello, I can't believe this. I am going to call the (LDS FHC) library here tomorrow (they are closed today) and have the films ordered. I can't wait to look and see if I find their marriage record. But, again, thank you so much. I would never have been able to figure any of this out without you. 5. WHERE BB MEMBERS LIVE Membership editor Hannes Graf writes: For some weeks I wait for Minnesota to add its 100th member, but now Illinois has become the second state with one hundred or more BB members after Pennsylvania. As of today MN still has only 99 members. 6. FLOODING IN AUSTRIA (from Hannes Graf) You may have seen in the Austrian news that half the country is under water. Not too bad in Burgenland. Today I visited the Vienna Danube Island to see all of the water coming down from Bavaria, Tyrol and Salzburg. The Danube is very high, so the roads next to it are under water. Big troubles in the Wachau (Durnstein, Melk, etc.), no shipping allowed. Tonight and tomorrow the water will rise, then it goes back, but nobody knows how high it will be. In Vienna there is no danger, but the Danube areas around Vienna are flooded. (Newsletter continues as number 143A.)

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 143A DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY (Our 10th Year-10 Pages/2 Email Sections Issued monthly by G. J. Berghold) September 30, 2005 (c) 2005 G. J. Berghold - all rights reserved) This second section of our 2-section newsletter concerns: 1. Interesting Links 2. Recent Obituaries 3. Ethnic Book Discovered 4. Father Leopold Writes New Book (In German) 5. Cabbage Strudel Request 6. Lutheran Origins In Southern Burgenland 1. INTERESTING LINKS * Dean Wagner writes: I thought I'd let you know of a story about Mosonmagyarovar in USA Today. On page 1D of the Friday, July 29, 2005 issue, is a story about Westerners traveling to Eastern Europe for cheap dental procedures. The bulk of the story is about Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-07-28-dental-tourism_x.htm * Margaret Kaiser sends: This announcement may be of interest to some BB members. Additionally, some passenger information for the same years is also indexed at Ancestry.com, which is accessible at no cost at many libraries and at most Family History Centers. CastleGarden.org. On August 1, the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Castle Garden immigration station, The Battery Conservancy will launch www.CastleGarden.org, giving you access to a database created from the Port of New York passenger lists from 1820 (when the lists begin) to 1892 (when the Ellis Island lists start). Some 10 million immigrants entered the Port during these years, and the database currently covers 80% of them, with work continuing. A basic search for a name will be free, and more advanced searches will be available for a fee. * Adding to our Taste of Burgenland data, Bob Strauch sends the following link for a collection of recipes from the Prekmurje region of NE Slovenia (part of Hungary until 1921), the homeland of most of the Lehigh Valley's Windish/Slovenian immigrants: www.park-goricko.org/en/kultura_4_7.asp 2. RECENT OBITUARIES (courtesy Bob Strauch) * Joseph N. Berghold, 99, a resident of Phoebe Home, died August 10, 2005 in Phoebe Home. He was the husband of the late Cecelia (Boandl) Berghold. Born in Allentown, he was the son of the late Joseph and Julia (Muhr) Berghold. Mr. Berghold was the owner of Berghold and Eder Coal Co., Allentown, from 1920-60. - Published in the Morning Call on 8/11/2005. * Helen C. Rutz, 89, of Allentown, formerly of Whitehall, passed away on Saturday, August 12 in Phoebe Home, Allentown. She was the widow of the late Bernard P. Frank and Theresa (Berghold) Deutsch. 3. ETHNIC BOOK DISCOVERED Dale Kneble, Lake Country editor writes: I picked up a book entitled Ethnic Heritage in North Dakota, published in 1983. It is a collection of stories of the various ethnic groups and where they settled, plus interviews with people. There is an article on Germans from Hungary. I will scan it to pdf files tomorrow and send it tomorrow evening. I was reading the section on the Bohemians and one resident lamented that the wedding dances "lasted longer than they do now. It used to be they danced till the bride's dress wore out." 4. FATHER LEOPOLD WRITES NEW BOOK (IN GERMAN) - from Bob Strauch (ED. Note: Previous articles mention Father Leopold, who has become a legend in the Burgenland. A survivor of the battle of Stalingrad [where he served as a medical corpsman] and a Russian prisoner of war camp, a priest of long-standing, very active in local pilgrimages and a recent visitor to the United States [to see the Burgenlanders of America!], he is now serving in the Franciscan Cloister in Güssing, where he has just authored his biography. We wonder what he will accomplish next! BB Member Gerhard Lang translated Father Leopold's manuscript "Burgenland In Former Days," which we published in serial form beginning with newsletter 109C, dated July 31, 2002. While we can't bring you a translation, you may wish to contact BB member Heinz Koller [address available from homepage membership list] and ask how to place orders for this book.) Bob Strauch writes: Just heard from Heinz Koller. I had e-mailed him asking if anything folksy was going on in the Güssing area during Sep and Oct. One of my singers is going over for several weeks. It seems that Father Leopold has written a book, a biography called "Mein Leben" (My Life) and the book presentation took place in Güssing on August 12, two days before Father Leopold's 92nd birthday. Heinz had written Bob Strauch and sent the following press notice: Eine Buchpräsentation der besonderen Art gibt es am Freitag, 12. August 2005, um 18.00 Uhr im Pfarrsaal des Franziskanerklosters in Güssing (a book presentation will take place on Aug. 12 in the Franciscan Cloister in Güssing). Pater Leopold Prizelitz hat sein Leben dokumentiert (Father Leopold Prizelitz has documented his life), das ihn - seit seiner Geburt am 14. August 1913 in Wien - schließlich nach Güssing geführt hat, wo er nach wie vor als Priester tätig ist. In seiner unverkennbar humorvollen Art schildert er die Stationen seines Wirkens, sei es der Weg in den Franziskaner Orden, seine Erlebnisse als Militärpfarrer in den Wirren des 2.Weltkrieges (u.a. in Stalingrad, und später in 2 1/2 Jahren Gefangenschaft), als Pfarrer und Leiter der Passionsspiele in St. Margarethen, bis zur nun seit 1990 dauernden Tätigkeit in der Klosterkirche in Güssing. Pater Leopold - ein Zeitzeuge aus der Monarchie. 5. CABBAGE STRUDEL REQUEST (Frank Teklits, Bob Strauch et al) Croatian editor Frank Teklits writes: Bob, my better half is "itching" to make a good Burgenland cabbage strudel and we were wondering if you have access to a recipe for a nicely spiced (pepper) strudel such as her mom used to make? Bob replies: Frank, There are recipes all over, but I don't know which one is any better than the others. Let me put out a call to the others to see what they can suggest. Suggestions, anybody? I reply: As usual I can offer an article (recipe) from our newsletter archives, in this case no. 47A from October 1998. Hope this is as tasty as you remember. FROM BB Newsletter No. 47A - CABBAGE STRUDEL Continuing the Taste of Hungary (and the Burgenland - see "Paprika", newsletter 46), I'm going to set myself up as a target by providing a recipe for Cabbage Strudel. I doubt if there is any dish (other than goulasch) that is as memorable as cabbage strudel among Burgenland descendants (see newsletter archives for the rest of the article). 6. LUTHERAN ORIGINS IN SOUTHERN BURGENLAND (from Fritz Königshofer) (ED. Note: While we have found very little concerning the movement of Germanic people into the Burgenland area, one idea that emerged from discussions was the fact that many came for religious reasons. Fritz Königshofer decided to look into that the next time he visited Graz. The results of his research follow.) Fritz writes: In this e-mail I would like to summarize what I found in Graz in May when browsing literature about the counter-reformation in Austria and Styria. My aim was to hunt for any hints regarding movement of persecuted Lutherans from Styria to then West Hungary (today's southern Burgenland). I was able to look, albeit only cursorily, through most of the books listed in the e-mail I had sent you four years ago. I am attaching this e-mail and the reaction you had provided at the time. (ED Note: we will publish in this next newsletter.) Most of my time I spent reading the book by Dr. Leopold Schuster (who himself was archbishop of the Diocese Graz-Seckau and, coincidentally, a contemporary of Father Alexander Berghold) about "Fürstbischof Martin Brenner," the Roman Catholic bishop who had been in charge of the most ruthless stage of the counter-reformation in Styria. The book is, of course, one-sided, but contains a lot of information about the precise sequence of events in Styria. Apparently, it took the Roman Catholic Church a lot of effort to get the Habsburg family to insist on a return of their countries to Roman Catholicism, and then to actually put the foot down on Lutherans. As in Hungary, many of the aristocrats and nobles had converted to the new religion. The real clamp-down in Styria started in 1598 in Graz. Protestants unwilling to convert had to flee. Schuster cites an earlier book by "Resolenz," relaying that exiled Protestants from Graz at first moved over the then Hungarian border where they found a friendly welcome by counts Ladislaus and Thomas Nadasdy, Franz Batthyány, Thomas von Zetschy, and in the towns of Pinkafeld, Varasdin and Petanitza. Apparently, the people of Radkersburg refused to convert back to Catholicism. This town was taken by force in December 1599 and re-catholizised. Some citizens had fled to Hungary. They were offered amnesty if they were to return. The same thing then happened in the (Eastern Styrian) towns of Klöch and Halbenrain. The powerful, ruthless and evidently vicious commission in charge of the counter-reformation continued its path to Windenau (near Marburg), Pettau, Windischfeistritz, Gonobitz, Cilli, Windischgrätz, Drauburg, Mahrenberg (most of these places were in Lower Styria, today in Slovenia), then to Arnfels, Leutschach, Soboth, Schloss Krottenhof bei Leibnitz, Leibnitz itself, Eibiswald, Wildon, i.e., places south of Graz. In the next stage, the commission visited and converted towns north of Graz, among them Peggau, Frohnleiten, Trofaiach, Vordernberg, Knittelfeld, St. Michael, lastly Voitsberg in Western Styria, etc. Then the commission returned to Eastern Styria, namely the so-called Vorau quarter, then again Radkersburg, Fürstenfeld, Burgau, Neudau, Ebersdorf, Wörth, St. Bartholomä, St. Wolfgang, Kalsdorf bei Ilz (where the new and beautiful Reformed church was destroyed), Hartberg, Stubenberg, Weiz, Anger, Birkfeld, and St. Ruprecht. The book says that everywhere the commission arrived, the praedicants (Lutheran priests) fled away onto Hungarian territory. In the last stage of this intensive forced counter-reformation, the commission visited towns in Upper Styria, namely the Enns and Mürz valleys. Apparently, after this tour which, I believe, lasted until about 1602 (though I forgot to note down the date), some inhabitants of Graz had returned to Lutheranism and were promptly exiled. The book says that there were still many Lutherans in Styria in 1607, among others in Mureck and Weiz. From the book by Franz Ilwof (Protestantism in Styria, Carinthia and Carniola), I noted that the exodus of Lutheran citizens from Graz started in 1583. The book also reports of forced migrations of protestants to Hungary and Transylvania in the 18th century, among others 1752-55 from Himmelberg in Carinthia, and in 1774 from the upper Mur valley. These migrations do not seem to have been to the area of today's Burgenland, though. The picture that emerges from this literature is that most of the movement of Styrian Lutherans to Hungary happened in the short timeframe of 1598 till 1602, plus perhaps some trickling in the years after 1602. Most of the Hungarian magnates in the area converted back to Catholicism. The Batthyánys did so in 1629 or 1630, and in 1634 they threw out the Protestant praedicants from all areas under their control. Only the castle in Neuhaus am Klausenbach (the home of Adam Batthyány's mother Eva nee Poppel von Lobkowitz) served as a refuge for Protestants in Hungary and Eastern Styria till Eva's death in 1640. Before the clampdown in Western Hungary, there had been another wave of Lutheran emigres to Western Hungary, arriving in 1627 from Lower Austria. Between about 1670 and 1680, Protestants were persecuted in Western Hungary, and their religious activities had to be carried out entirely clandestinely. One can, therefore, surmise that if the Bergholds had not been a family living in the Poppendorf area since the original German settlement hundreds of years earlier, if they indeed rather came as Lutheran refuges from Styria, their most likely arrival in Heiligenkreuz or Poppendorf would have been around year 1600. There is an interesting web site of the "Ungarisches Medien- und Informationszentrum" in Oberwart (http://www.umiz.at). Among others, it offers a write-up of the history of Western Hungary within the overall history of Austria and Hungary. This history mentions the arrival of Styrian Lutherans, nobles and commoners, from year 1598 onwards. Some family names are also provided, though there is no direct reference to Eltendorf or Zahling. The write-up states that the refugees were able to purchase free houses and even rent entire towns. Some historical material can also be found in, e.g., the Festschrift of the "Marktgemeinde Kukmirn" of 1982. Page 109 reports the "well-known trickling-in of Lutheran refuges from 1598 onwards." Since the first mentioning of a Lutheran parish in Kukmirn dates from year 1600, it seems possible that it was founded due to the increase in flock from the refugees. The author of the general history chapter was Alfred Ratz, while Gustav Reingrabner wrote the chapter on the history of the Lutheran parish. Perhaps these two authors might know whether there are sources with names of the Lutheran refugees of the close-in area. I also checked the three-volume set by Fritz Posch on the history of the (Eastern-Styrian) district of Hartberg (published 1978, 1990). About the period of the counterreformation, the book states that the nobles in the area long kept to Protestantism. After the clampdown in Styria (as described above), the nobles let their subjects travel to Neuhaus am Klausenbach to attend Protestant services under the aegis of countess Poppel. Nevertheless, the Lutheran praedicants (pastors), teachers and scribes had all been expelled in 1601. The related decree was re-issued in 1602, with the death penalty as sanction for non-compliance. The book further states that some of the nobles of the district emigrated, but it does not state whereto. It reports that in 1651 a Lutheran preacher from Allhau visited the town of St. Johann in der Haide and took the confession of a soldier's wife. This concludes what I was able to gather about this subject. END OF NEWSLETTER BURGENLAND BUNCH Coordinator & Editor Newsletter (Gerald Berghold) A Staff Photo may be found at BB-Staff.html BB ARCHIVES & STAFF can be reached via Home Page hyperlinks BURGENLAND HOME PAGE (WEB SITE): http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org The BB is in contact with the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft, Hauptplatz 7, A-7540 Güssing, Burgenland, Austria. Burgenland Bunch Newsletter distributed by RootsWeb.com, Inc. P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 Newsletter and List Rights Reserved. Permission to Copy Granted; Provide Credit and Mention Source.