BB News No. 188 dtd 23 Jun 2009

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 188 DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY June 23, 2009 (c) 2009 - The Burgenland Bunch - all rights reserved Our 13th Year, Editor: Johannes Graf burgenland.bunch(at)chello..at and Copy Editor Maureen Tighe-Brown The Burgenland Bunch Newsletter, founded by Gerry Berghold, (who retired in Summer, 2008, and died in August, 2008), is issued monthly as email and is available online at http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/Newsletter/NewsletterIndex.htm Current Status Of The BB: * Members: 1723 * Surname Entries: 5566 * Query Board Entries: 4141 * Newsletters Archived: 187 * Number of Staff Members: 14 EMAIL 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 subscribe or unsubscribe, use the change form available from our Home page at http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org . You cannot send email to this newsletter. If you have problems receiving the newsletter as email, it may be read, downloaded, printed or copied from the BB Home page. There is also an archive of previous newsletters. This first section of our 2-section newsletter concerns: 1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen) 2) THE 2009 MIDWEST BURGENLAND BUNCH PICNIC (by Charlie Deutsch) 3) BB BEGINNING TO NOW (by Roman Paul Weber) 4) THE "BUCHGRABLER" 5) LOST GERMAN CHICAGO (by Tom Glatz) 6) WOLFS / BALF DEPORTATION LIST ADDITIONALS 7) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch) 1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen) CORRECTION CONCERNING ATTENDANCE AT THE 92ND COPLAY SÄNGERBUND STIFTUNGSFEST (from special-NL-186-S) This short "Special" BB Newsletter has a single goal: to apologize for and correct false information concerning attendance at the 92nd Stiftungsfest of the Coplay Sängerbund (at 5th Street and Schreiber Avenue in Coplay) on Sunday, June 28th. In "special" Newsletter 186-S, I noted that a majority of the staff members of the Burgenland Bunch would be attending the 92nd Stiftungsfest at the Coplay Sängerbund and invited you to join us. I then supplied incorrect information about admission of non-members on the Sängerbund premises and, given the way I spoke about admission, I placed the club in an awkward position. For that I apologize. In fact, the Sängerbund is a private club and guests must be sponsored by a member for the day. David Scheffy, President of the Sängerbund, asked that I pass along the following message to you. In it, he states the correct way to attend and, indeed, welcomes you to do so. We look forward to seeing you there! From David Scheffy: As President of the Sängerbund I would like to thank the Burgenland Bunch, and in particular Burgenland Bunch member Bob Strauch, for making individuals aware of our annual Stiftungsfest to be held on June 28, 2009. However, I must make you aware that the Sängerbund does not have the ability to relax the membership rule for this event. We are bound legally to require members to sponsor a guest for a day. Let me state that we look forward to Burgenland Bunch members attending our annual Stiftungsfest and are sure that they can legally attend this event. When arriving they should state that they are a nonmember and that a member has volunteered to sponsor them for this event. The Sängerbund will then take necessary action to provide for these guests to legally attend this event. Again, thank you and your members on behalf of the Coplay Sängerbund for helping to promote our Burgenland Heritage. 2) THE 2009 MIDWEST BURGENLAND BUNCH PICNIC (by Charlie Deutsch) The Midwest Burgenland Bunch will hold its annual picnic Sunday, August 9, 2009. We will meet at the Germanic-American Institute, 301 Summit Avenue, St. Paul MN. Hours are 12 Noon to 4:30 PM - Rain or Shine. Bring a picnic lunch. Meet and greet old friends and new. Questions? Contact Charlie Deutsch. 3) BB BEGINNING TO NOW (by Roman Paul Weber) I have been member of the BB since about 1997. I thought that perhaps how my Burgenland interest developed may be of some benefit for our newer BB members and may help them "get started," telling how BB members helped me at the beginning and through the years until where I am now, re: Burgenland. I am Roman Paul Weber, b. 14 Nov 1929, Waite Park, MN. I welcome and enjoy hearing from any and all BB members. I always respond to emails. My father, Frank Weber, b. 2 December 1894. Don't remember when or from whom, but I heard of Burgenland Bunch about 1997. My wife had been researching her ancestors rigorously for about 20 years. I never paid much attention to all of her excitement when she discovered relatives she never had known existed (she is back to 1600s’ ancestors. Original 13 Colonies, and not "out of the US" yet). Wife encouraged me to contact the newly learned of, Burgenland Bunch. I did. Without BB, I today would never would have learned of my many Burgenland ancestors, nor as much as where my father was born and hundreds of pages of Burgenland ancestor Records I have today. When a young boy, all I knew was what my father had "mentioned" at some time, that he came to America in the earlier 1900s, but he didn't know exactly which year. He never mentioned coming by ship or anything how he came here. He mentioned the town of Kirschlag, Austria and I always thought that is where he came from. (The only "story" my dad ever told me of was that when a boy, back where he came from "in Austria", that he and other boys took care of the town's cows and would catch crabs (forgotten "crab" in German, crawfish in English) in a pasture stream while watching the cow, and then boil them in an old can of water and eat the white meat in crab tails. White meat sort of the same as lobster meat. Dad told that story to me when I was 10 or so. He said he remembered it all 'very well,’ taking care of all the gathered village cows). That is about all I ever knew. I knew my grandparents, dad's parents, and visited them when they lived in St Paul, MN, but not very often. Grandpa could speak English, but Grandma as far as I can recall never did learn to speak English. At least not that I could understand very well. Not long after becoming a member of BB, I heard of "LDS libraries". I had never ever heard of "LDS" and no idea that it was some kind of "religion." Had it not been for BB, I probably never would have heard of it and today wouldn't know anything more than what my dad had told me, re: the above paragraph. (I had enlisted in the navy after high school (St. Cloud Tech) and left Waiteark, MN in 1947 when I was17; that was where I had been born and raised. Ended up army retirement and moved to Highlandville, MO and have lived here ever since: 20 miles south of Springfield and 20 miles north of Branson in the Ozark Hills). When I heard of LDS from BB, I found that there was an LDS genealogical library in nearby Springfield, MO. I visited LDS, Springfield. (My dad was the first born and had 10 sisters. One sister, Rose McDonough of St. Paul, MN, was the only one still living in 1998. Some family member had said Rose had mentioned hearing her dad, my grandpa, Paul, talk about a place called "Steinbach" and she thought grandparents and family immigrated from Steinbach, AUSTRIA. LDS worker found "Steinbach" had been part of Hungary before 1920. Since my dad had been born in 1894, he was born in HUNGARY, not Austria! LDS ordered a film from Salt Lake City for me that included Steinbach, HUNGARY. When the film arrived a week or so later, I went to view it at LDS. "1894" being my dad's year of birth, I couldn't find him on the film. A BB member I met (on-line) found my dad for me on same numbered LDS film I had and told me the page and line number on my film where my dad's 2 December 1894 record was on the film. Reason I hadn't found my dad is that the recording priest was a Hungarian and my dad's name, Frank, in Hungarian is Ferenz, plus the priest handwriting (shrift) was the old-day German handwriting. That was the beginning of spending the following almost two years of daily viewing that film number and a second one researching the first one, that led me to other ancestors in dorfs and towns near to Steinbach. As I viewed hundreds of pages, births, deaths and marriages, I would note the page and line number of an ancestor I found each day and had LDS make copies for me of those pages. Only 10 cents per copy. Today I have "hundreds" of pages of filmed copies of Burgenland ancestors. -- My older brother had visited Budapest years earlier, 1980s or ‘90s, and found there was no "Steinbach" in Hungary. There wasn't at the time he visited Hungary! Part of VAS county, Hungary had become Burgenland, AUSTRIA in 1920. In 2003, my brother and two daughters visited my dad's birthplace, Steinbach, Burgenland. Found and met relatives living there today. Found house number my dad was born in. We have a 2nd cousin still living, Josepha (Weber) Puchegger, who lives there now (took photos). Father of Josepha is my great uncle Daniel Weber, born 1867, Steinbach, older brother of my St Paul, MN Grandpa, Paul (Pál in Hungarian), born Steinbach #2, 1870. My Grandma is Katrina (Catherine) Schlogl, born 1874, house #13, Steinbach. I now have "Weber" and "Schlogl" back to earlier 1800s. Most generations of ancestors came from Stelnbach, with some relatives still living there today. Many married and lived in other town near Steinbach. Kogl, Bubendorf, Redlschlag, Lebenbrunn, Gschorholz, and others. They all belonged to the Catholic Church in a bigger city, the Pilgersdorf parish. Welcome and will respond to emails, Roman Paul Weber 4) THE "BUCHGRABLER" From a musical serenade for a departing ORF colleague, the idea was born to form a small folk music band in 1992. Their artistic aim - the instrumentation of a type of small village music in Burgenland - was given by the available instrumentalists on offer: flugelhorn (Alois Loidl), trombone (Sepp Gmasz), clarinet/saxophone (Ewald Ivanschitz), helicon (Karl Kanitsch), drums (Ludwig Treuer) and accordion (at the time Christian Klinger, now Stefan Jagschitz). The six musicians called themselves "Buchgrabler", according to their work place, the ORF Landesstudio Burgenland (the Austrian national public service broadcaster's Burgenland department) on the Buchgraben road in Eisenstadt. Their leader became the department leader for folk culture and music ethnologist, Dr. Sepp Gmasz. Stylistically, they modeled themselves on the legendary "Fidelen Neckenmarkter Weinhauer". This band had represented a practice of music as it had been in many villages of Burgenland until the ’sixties in the last century. Bohemian polkas, the waltz and, above all, the polka francaise ruled the repertoire, where, more important than a sober intonation, was an enthralling rhythm that spontaneously invited one to dance. The drums (with the characteristic drum of a wood block) remain a special characteristic of the "Buchgrabler" to this day. For the old pieces, they also purchased clothes from their grandparents' days. As the musicians all had a solid music education and experience in dance music, they had already dared to do a live TV performance in the programme "Mei liabste Weis" with Franz Posch just 3 months after the creation of the band. This successful start was followed by other engagements in "Klingendes Österreich", at a TV "Fernseh-Frühschoppen" and other successful programmes, as well as concerts in several Austrian provinces, in the Brucknerhaus Linz, or in the Wiener Konzerthaus. However, the most cherished opportunities for playing are the ones in small villages, where a particularly deep rapport with the audience can be established. Soon they produced their first CD with the title "Blech ist Blech" (Tin is Tin). It was followed by "Alte Hüte" (Old Hats) and "Zweiter Frühling" (Second Spring). The title of the fourth CD is programmatic too: "Spätlese" (late picking), because it became more and more difficult to find old and useful pieces from manuscripts of musicians and bequests. Hence, the body of the traditional music was amended by creating new pieces (by Ewald Ivanschitz and Sepp Gmasz), which were based around the traditional style. The so-called "oldies" were joined by "modern" songs as well, - hits from that time - as they belonged to the repertoire of all village dance music. And adapted folk-songs increasingly made it to the repertoire as well. The last CD was published on the occasion of the 15 year anniversary with the title "Letzte Ernte" (last harvest). Buchgrabler music is a commitment to simplicity, it is not artificial but still artfully played. Experimental music, which is so common to hear in New Folk music, was rather denied to this day. They received a recognition award several years ago from the Austrian ministry of agriculture for their efforts to maintain traditional music. contact and CD order, Sepp Gmasz 5) LOST GERMAN CHICAGO (by Tom Glatz) An evening out at Zum Deutschen Eck. A cold beer on a muggy Chicago summer day at The Bismarck or later, Marigold Gardens. Picking up kuchen at Hopfner's bakery for your sister's birthday. Dinner dances at Germania Club. Your cousin's wedding at Math Iglers or Golden Ox. Pictures of your neighborhood block clubs during World War II....... DANK HAUS GERMAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER 4740 NORTH WESTERN AVENUE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60625 773-561-9181 WWW.DANKHAUS.COM May 7, 2009 Dear Friend: DANK Haus is currently developing our first in-house exhibit "Lost German Chicago". The exhibit will feature art, artifacts, and memorabilia that have been lost to the Chicago German community until their recent entrusting to DANK. Highlights in preparation for display include: installation of 30 feet of pristine wood carvings depicting Wagner's operas, formerly installed in the Germania Club and donated by the Oscar Mayer family; Hessen Verein standards, as well as items from dozens of restaurants including the original Red Star Inn. The Archive Committee is asking Chicago Area German Clubs for any old photos or memorabilia which they would be willing to donate or loan to be part of our exhibit. Helpful items may include anything relating to the history of the club such as songs, past events, and member photographs, which would help depict German life on the north and south side of Chicago. Also, if members could relay stories from any events or remember the German restaurants, taverns, and beer gardens in the Chicago area that are no longer in operation but are a memorable reminder of the German Chicago that has been lost, such accounts could be helpful. We would be grateful for any items you wish to donate or loan to be part of our exhibit and would gladly handle any reproductions for you. You can contact DANK Haus at 773-561-9181. Regards, Al Schaefer Chair of the Archive Committee Restaurant Names Address Hapsburg Inn River Rd, Des Plaines Ignatz Grove Inn Milwaukee Ave. & Lake Ave., Chicago Schwaben Stube 3500 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago Math Igler's Casino 1627 W. Melrose St. Chicago Johnnie Held's Brown Bear 6318 N. Clark St., Chicago Café Berlin 2156 W. Montrose Ave., Chicago Belmont Lounge 1638 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago Treffpunkt 4743 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago Kaffeehaus Kleinert Zum Deutschen Eck 2924 N. Southport Ave., Chicago Wishing Well Restaurant Luxembourg Garden's Inc. Morton Grove Muenchenerhof Restaurant & Bierstuben Schulien's Restaurant 2100 W. Irving Park Rd, Chicago Fritzl's Country Inn 900 Ravinia Terrace, Lake Zurich Bill's Buffalo House Buffalo Grove Rd. Schubert Inn 2701 N. Halsted St. Chicago Black Forest 2636 N. Clark St., Chicago Hansa Restaurant 3501 N. Hermitage Ave. (Lincoln & Cornelia) Zum Lieben Augustine 4600 Lincoln Ave, Chicago Hans Bavarian Lodge 931 N. Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling Der Salzburgerhof 4128 Lincoln Ave., Chicago Europe House 2125 W. Roscoe St., Chicago Black Forest Restaurant 8840 Waukegan Ave., Morton Grove Elm Inn 2100 Belmont Ave., Chicago Zum Armen Ritter 4500 Lincoln Ave., Chicago Bavarian Restaurant 1935 Irving Park Rd., Chicago Salzburger Hof 6318 N. Clark St., Chicago Gasthaus Zum Loewen 1958 W. Roscoe St. Chicago German American Restaurant 642 N. Clark St. Chicago Alpine Inn 10211 Milwaukee, Des Plaines Zeller Stuberl 4520 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago Rathskeller 7452 Irving Park Rd., Chicago Otto's Tavern Emma's Inn 1875 N. Bissell St., Chicago Bungalow Restaurant & Tap Room 2835 N. Racine Ave., Chicago Pete Schneider's Larchmont Lounge 3937 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago Heidelberger Fass Restaurant 4300 Lincoln Ave., Chicago Habetler's Tavern 3614 N. Damen Ave. Chicago Holiday Restaurant 1402 Belmont Ave., Chicago Harry's Bavarian Inn 3159 N. Southport Ave., Chicago The Red Star Inn 1528 N. Clark St., Chicago Bernhard's Koenigsberg Inn 3358 Southport Ave., Chicago Old Bavarian Inn 1389 Belmont Ave., Chicago Germania Inn 1540 N. Clark St., Chicago Germania Club 108 Germania Place, Chicago Allgauer's Heidelberg 14 W. Randolph, Chicago Jerry's and Ann American /German Restaurant 655 N. North Ave., Chicago Prost Inn 4038 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago Golden Ox Restaurant 1578-80 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago Old Time Tavern 2101 W. Roscoe St., Chicago Habetler's Tavern was owned by Paul Habetler from Hodis. Later he sold this to Richard Sauhamel from Markt Allhau. (Habetler's niece Ida Haromi is a BG member.) Some of these other restaurants might have been owned by Burgenländer or other Austrians. None of the south side restaurants were included because the letter writer and the members of the DANK North are not familiar with them. Kollaritsch's, Gergits, Ringbauers and Oswalds were two Burgenland establishments, not to mention all of the other businesses such as bakeries and meat markets from the south side which could be included. The Wishing Well Restaurant was owned by Hans Klepitsch. His wife was Emma Horvath. They were from Hannersdorf. Both were long time BG members. Their daughter, Marlene Kules, is also a BG member. 6) WOLFS / BALF DEPORTATION LIST ADDITIONALS See NL-187 article of Marsha Jenakovich: http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/Newsletter/Newsletter187.htm After a correspondence with the owner of the Homepage including the deportation list, Mr. Robert Steiner tells me, there are many more sortings included. The correct index page is: http://www.steinerlh.de/ahnenforschung.htm The lists are sorted by: Surnames, Waggon-Number, House-Number, Birth name of mother, Age. 7) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch) Anna M. Procanyn Anna M. Procanyn, 87, of Coplay, died Monday, June 1, 2009 at the Phoebe Home, Allentown. She was the wife for over 50 years of the late Melvin D. Procanyn, who passed away in 1993. Born in Kroatisch Tschantschendorf, Burgenland, Austria, she was the daughter of the late John and Ida (Ifkovits) Keglovits. She was a long time member of St. Peter's Catholic Church, Coplay. Anna was an avid gardener who enjoyed her plants, both within and outside of her home. Survivors: Son, Melvin J., daughter, Ann Marie; two granddaughters, Susanne Perram and Dr. Melissa Platt; three great-grandsons, Bryce and Cade Perram and Samuel Platt; two nieces. She was predeceased by a brother, John Keglovits. Erma Weisel Erma Weisel, 84, of Allentown died Friday, June 5, 2009 in the Phoebe Home, Allentown. She was the widow of William H. Weisel, Sr. Born in Neustift bei Güssing, Burgenland, Austria, she was the daughter of the late Andrew and Mary (Tapler) Nikles. Erma was employed at the former Zollinger and Harned, Allentown, for several years before retiring. Previously she was employed at K & M Sportswear, Allentown. Survivors: Sons, William H. Weisel, Jr., Gary J. Weisel; grandson, Jason L. Weisel, all of Allentown; nephews; nieces; cousins; brother-in-law; sister-in-law. Newsletter continues as number 188A.
THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 188A DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY June 23, 2009 (c) 2009 - The Burgenland Bunch - all rights reserved The second section of this 2-section newsletter includes: 1) FROM FIRST STEPS TO A TRIP REPORT (by Ronald Markland) The information that follows is intended to give those who search for family history the spirit to continue searching, never give up because just maybe you will uncover a minor fact which ultimately solves a lot of your problems. Just the fact that you are looking sometimes brings together others looking for a similar family. I owe many thanks to the Burgenland Bunch for much of the information that I probably never would have otherwise been able to locate. In the fall of 2005 many of our family gathered for a memorial service in St. Louis Missouri. In the discussions at that service we came to the conclusion that our parents and grandparents had not really given us a lot of information regarding the family's roots. I with my cousin who lives in San Antonio, Texas, along with my daughter and niece, got together the day after the service and looked at the family records, papers, and our memories. We did find that my grandmother, Louise (Aufner) Guenther, immigrated from Austria, and from the information scratched on the back of an envelop we found information indicating "Burgenland, and Eltendorf". Thanks to the internet, I was able to do some quick searching and found the Burgenland was a distinct area of Austria, and Eltendorf a small village. We only knew that my grandmother’s (Louise Guenther) maiden name was Aufner. As I stumbled through the various ancestry web help sites, I first noted that most of them were offering to do some type of research, and usually for a healthy fee. At some point I came across the www.the-burgenland-bunch.org website. Not knowing exactly how my grandmother made it to the USA, or exactly when, was not very helpful in finding any additional information. As I spent more time using the information in the Burgenland Bunch site, I began to learn a little about the area she came from. I tried to determine where a potential husband would meet his wife-to-be. That brought me to what I call the "dorfs". There was Jennersdorf, Königsdorf, Eltendorf, and Dobersdorf. All appeared from a Google Earth search to be close enough for an interested suitor to easily walk between. At that time we were under the belief that my grandmother’s mother’s maiden name was Fuchs, and that my great grandfather was an Aufner. I quickly realized that the Burgenland Bunch had developed an extensive list of home sites, and their occupants based upon census reports. Several emails back and forth with Gerry Berghold were extremely helpful. I knew my grandmother’s birth date, and attempted to guess the age of her parents at that time. This keyed me into a Josef Aufner, who lived at number 84 Eltendorf, based upon the 1858 census. This was as far as I could go. One evening I came up with the crazy idea of writing a letter to a home which was there 150 years previously, and with no idea as to who might be living there, even if the home still existed. In December of 2006 I wrote a letter to the "Occupants" of #84 Eltendorf Austria. I had little expectation that I would receive a response, but at that time I had exhausted all other avenues. On February 14, 2007, Valentine’s Day, I found a large envelop in my mailbox with many Austrian postage stamps. My letter had been forwarded to the Gemeinde in Eltendorf. A Mr. Helmut Pieler responded that my grandmother was born in Königsdorf (Kings Village), according to the records in the rectory in Königsdorf. The old homestead of 124 Königsdorf no longer exists, and he could not find anyone who was in some way related to my grandmother. He also provided my grandmother’s birthday per the church records; we had been celebrating it a day late all those years. Also, to our surprise, her mother’s maiden name was not Fuchs, but Kramer. At last some firm details to search from. I was able to somehow locate a website that had passenger lists. Family legend was very vague on where they had arrived; some thought San Francisco. But after a lot of work I came across an “Aloisa Aufner” who, with her sister Anna and brother Franz arrived in New York on September 21, 1904. They were traveling to St. Louis, MO to meet their father, Franz Aufner. The passenger list indicated their ages, which worked, along with the facts that they had prepaid transportation tickets, and also the sum of $10.00 to cover any expenses incurred in the trip. The passenger list also indicated the address in St. Louis where their father lived. BINGO, we had them identified. Well, now, I had them in St. Louis, but that is where it once again became difficult to find information. I though that my great-grandfather Franz Aufner's name would show up in the 1910 census, but it did not. However, in the 1910 census I managed to find a listing for a Frank Guenther with a wife named Louisa. This turned out to be my grandmother. I tried to follow up on what happened to her sister and brother, but this became another nightmare. Through the census reports and family information I was able to gather most of the data for the family that developed from the Aloisa (now Louise) Aufner-Franz (now Frank) Guenther marriage. Trying to track down all the family members was another exercise in futility, but we managed to eventually locate many details. I have also learned that many of the details that are indicated on death certificates contradict what family legend had passed down. How to handle that information is always a concern. Around November of 2007, I had finally decided that I had all the information that I could readily obtain, and put the documentation into a three ring binder along with some of the photographs that we had acquired. Some of the family were really excited by the information that had been provided, some said thanks, and some I never heard from. I thought that perhaps I had done my best to gather family history for the future generation, and placed the book and research documents in my bookcase. I was proud of what I had done to gather my parents and my memories, and I was happy with what I had found out. However, I knew that there was additional information that I could never readily obtain locally. I was intrigued by the Burgenland Bunch proposing a trip to travel through the area, but unfortunately it was cancelled by a shortage of individuals who could make the trip at that time. All during the year 2008 I thought about a trip to Austria, but knew it was not possible. Then in November of 2008 I received an email. The Burgenland Bunch has a site listing individuals researching certain family lines, and the email was from a Brigitte Aufner Rezac. Brigitte's grandparents family had partially immigrated to "America" and she was interested if I could help her find any details of her family. Her teenage sons are avid football players. Not soccer but real American football. They had identified a college football player who had the Aufner name and wanted to know if there was a relationship. The end result is that yes, there was a relationship. Brigitte's grandfather (Karl) turned out to be my grandmother’s (Aloisa) brother. No one was aware that any family remained in Austria. Brigitte was my cousin. The number of emails that literally flew back and forth was amazing. Both she and I were trying to gather details of the family and now we both had sources at each side of the Atlantic to do that. The information that was available increased many-fold. As we discussed the details, Brigitte offered that if I should ever be interested in visiting, her family had a guest house in Mödling, Austria. It took me about one day to decide that yes I was interested in making the trip. Brigitte indicated that the best time of the year was May. This is a good time of the year weather-wise, but most important of all, she indicated, it is the time when the new wines come out. Kind of an Oktoberfest in May, except it is wine, not beer. I immediately jumped upon the opportunity, and scheduled a flight to arrive May 2, 2009. In the meantime, my cousin Marjory and I discussed my trip, and the possibility of her participating. After a few weeks she also came on board for the trip. The following is a summary of the events that we enjoyed when we made the trip. We took a total of three planes from St. Louis, MO and ending up in Vienna the afternoon of the second day. Unfortunately, Marjory's luggage remained in London, and would arrive the following day. We spent the first two days with Brigitte and her family at their home in Mödling, Austria. She and her husband, Otto, have two wonderful sons, Otto Jr. who is 16, and Stefan who is 14. After my spending two months studying German using the Rosetta Stone program I was delighted to find out that their English was much better than my German, and they welcomed the opportunity to improve their use of English. We decided that the language we would use was English. Also, I was advised that my "dialect" was definitely Burgenland, not that of Vienna. Brigitte lives in a historic home constructed in the early 1800's. Beethoven was a guest of the original owners. Their town of Mödling, Austria, is about 6 miles from downtown Vienna. It is a typical picturesque village; a church whose construction began in the 1500s is less than 100 yards from their home. The streets are narrow, and driving them is a challenge; finding a parking place is even more difficult. After two days in Vienna, Brigitte and her father Siegfried Aufner drove us to the Burgenland. After a 90 mile drive, and a short stop in Dobersdorf, we arrived at Annie Aufner Gratzl's home in Jennersdorf. Shortly after we arrived in Jennersdorf, Pauline Aufner Stumpf and her son Herbert drove in from Ingolstadt, Germany to participate in the reunion. Brigitte had pulled out all the stops in making sure that as many Aufner family as possible could get together. Annie and her family live on a small but wonderful farm about one mile from Jennersdorf. The original home was replaced about 9 years ago and currently an energy-efficient heated by wood structure stands on the site. We had a typical lunch of a clear broth with dumplings, which I enjoyed, but then the real meal arrived. Roasted pork, sauerkraut, potato salad, and of course, wine. After lunch, we went to visit the local cemeteries, They are much better maintained than here in the states, and I was overwhelmed by the number of visitors at the time that we were there, and also with the both fresh, and planted, flowers. Many of the original headstones have been replaced with newer ones, and additional names added; one cannot be certain of some of the dates, which seem to conflict with current family legend. We then did some visiting to the home sites of Karl, Anna, Aloisa, and Franz Aufner. The first night, we had a family gathering of about 20 relatives, with a typical dinner, and a lot of local wines. While only about five spoke English, we had a wonderful time. The second day I had the opportunity to do a little early morning walking. The sun was up by 5:00 AM and I walked up the local farmers’ road. I heard the strangest bird call, it sounded like a cuckoo clock. Discussing this with Annie later I was informed that it was the Kuckuck, and all these years I thought that the Cuckoo bird was just something that lived in a clock. I had the opportunity to go with Annie to drop off her son Dominik and daughter Victoria at the local school. We arrived at the school about 7:30 AM and when walking through the building which was filled with 5 to 8 year old children, I was amazed as to how well behaved they were, unlike my memories of visits to my grandchildren's schools.. After dropping off Dominik and Victoria, we stopped by the local market for fresh bread the first day, and the second day stopped by the dairy, two houses down where the cows were being milked as we picked up the milk for coffee. Austrian coffee I found is very strong, I though that the spoon could be stood up in it, due to the thickness, which is why they use the milk for coffee (we call it half and half) as a thinning agent so you can drink it. Our second day, we visited more family, and even visited a castle, (which was never owned by a member of the Aufner family). Every evening ended up with about 3 hours of discussion regarding relatives and what we and they knew or wanted to know. Both sides looked at old photographs that they and we had questions about and they found old family albums of old tin-types. These conversations usually began about 9 PM and ended quite late. Mysteriously, one or two bottles of local wine always seemed to appear. Josef Aufner and his wife Lisabeth live on a farm in the village of Newmarkt on the Raab. Josef is a security guard, farmer and also has a side job of producing schnapps. He has won quite a few awards at the local competitions for his efforts, as well as has his wife Lisabeth with her preserves. We had to sample both of their products.. They use the local apples for the base of what seemed to me to be a very good moonshine, with the still being kept in one of the out buildings. My comment of moonshine was translated into German as moonlight, which caused a lot of explaining, and a lot more sampling. The third morning Annie took us to visit a tourist area, complete with German bunkers from World War II, that overlooked present-day Hungary, just a few miles from her home. We then stopped at Eltendorf for a typical lunch. After three wonderful days in the Burgenland, we traveled with Pauline and Herbert back to Vienna. Just prior to leaving Josef Aufner brought me a "sampler case" containing eight bottles of his finest schnapps, and a jar of preserves from Lisabeth. I was concerned about what was I going to do with all of the preserves? That evening Brigitte had arranged a meeting with the Bürgermeister of the town of Mödling at which, in addition to having our photos taken for the local newspaper, I was given a 3-foot-tall bottle of "Bergermeister Wine". We were treated like royalty, and the mayor was a real joy to talk with. We discussed their local politics, and also their thoughts about "America". We later did some touring that evening on the way to have dinner at a "haurnigan," which I found was usually a place run by a wine-maker who serves food while soliciting sales of his products. In a way it is like a cafeteria; many different local favorites are available, and you just order the amount that you want, which is then served family style. We were able to taste many of the local foods in this manner. Of course, they kept bringing out different wines. The cheeses were exceptional, and upon my return to St. Louis I went looking for similar ones, but was told that USA requirements called for most of the foreign cheeses to be pasteurized and due to that, the flavor and consistency of the local fresh products was lost. Later that evening (about 10:00 PM), Otto, Herbert, and I went to the grand opening of a restaurant. Otto's electrical contracting firm had done the lighting design for the restaurant, and he was also a good friend of the owner Pino. We ran into the Mayor again and managed to close the facility at 2:00 AM. The following day, we arose a little later than normal (think 10:00 AM), and we all drove about one hour to the Neusiedl area and the Neusiedl Sea (lake in English). After a long Hungarian-style lunch, we went on an excursion ride on the lake, Neusiedl Sea, which is part of a nature preserve. The lake is quite large, but very shallow. We were told that a tall man could walk across it, it must be 20 miles long and 3 to 4 miles wide, and averages 5 to 6 feet in depth. The lake Neusiedl sports the largest campground in Europe and even though it was the first of May, several hundreds of campers were already set up. Many leave their campers set up all year long and use them just for weekend visits to the lake Neusiedl. The lake Neusiedl is also the nesting area of the famous Gray goose, a protected bird that lives in the marsh areas. Also, there is a local herd of wild swine that live in a segregated area. They have very long hair running down the center of their backs, and are definitely not cute. On Friday, Pauline and Herbert drove back home to Germany. Brigitte, Marjory, Otto, and I went for another tour of Vienna. This one was of the famous farmers’ market area. You name it, they had a stand selling it; all of the stands were permanent structures that were passed down through the family for hundreds of years. Spices, vegetables, cheeses, meats of all kinds, and fish were fresh and on display. The perimeter of the market was surrounded by small restaurants, which served products freshly purchased in the market. We had a wonderful lunch and then went to the main shopping district. When walking the streets, I noticed that while most of the buildings were of an older seventeenth-century design, there was an occasional grouping of more contemporary design. This I was told by Otto was due to the bombing of World War II destroying buildings which were replaced with a newer, modern design. The real highlight of the day was not the touring, but the fact that it was "pizza night". Otto could become a professional chef in the USA if he wanted, and is known in the Mödling area for being the best pizza maker in town. He starts from scratch with the flour, and keeps his recipe a secret. After about two hours, the 10 to 12 loafs of pizza dough had risen and were ready for preparation. He even has a small pizza oven built into the kitchen. The tomato sauce for the pizza was just made from scratch, and he adds 4 different kinds of cheese. But the main special ingredient is prosciutto ham that has just been thinly sliced from the entire ham that he recently purchased in Italy. Watch out, Domino's and Pizza Hut, this stuff is really good. The last pizza that he made that evening was his specialty, I named it a breakfast pizza. When asked why, I responded that the sunny side up egg on top of fresh prosciutto ham qualified it for that title. After resting for a while, at 10:00 PM we went out for a walk and then stopped by Pino's restaurant for a drink. People were filling all the tables, even at that late an hour. The food supply was about exhausted, due to the overwhelming acceptance of the new restaurant. We did not close the restaurant that evening, but I did run into my new friend the Mayor, this time with his wife. On Saturday, Otto, the boys, Marjory, and I went to tour Castle Schonbrunn. This was the main castle of the emperor, and is in the center of Vienna. We walked the grounds, and saw every corner. We must have walked 5 miles, uphill all the way out and back. And this was just the morning. Then back to Mödling for a late lunch. After a few hours’ rest, Otto junior talked me into taking the dog for a walk. We ended up climbing what I called Mount Mödling. This is just behind their house, and while there is a paved route, Otto felt that I should use the one that the locals use. At the very top is the site of an old watch tower originally constructed in 587 AD.. Upon returning to the house I was totally exhausted. Marjory and I spent about 4 hours talking about the wonderful experiences that we had shared on this trip, and tried our best to understand why our family that had left Austria in 1904 and never went back for a visit, nor in our memories ever communicated with or discussed the family that remained behind. We both promised ourselves that we would attempt to find out any more details that we could, now knowing more about the country, and the trying times that probably existed in the early 1900s. Sunday was Mother’s Day. While Brigitte, Marjory, and Otto Junior went to Mass, Otto senior prepared for an Austrian Bar-B-Q. While he indicated that he had a gas grill, he preferred using what we would call an electric griddle. Being an avid American Bar-B-Q fan, I knew that this would never work. But then Otto brought out trays of chicken legs, pork chops, ribs, and sausages. While in America we slow cook at 250 degrees, he did the same, but his temperature was Centigrade not Fahrenheit. After sampling all of his Bar-B-Q several times, I had to concede that the Austrian way is quicker, and possibly better. I admitted that the reason we slow cook is that it gives us an excuse to drink more beer during the cooking process.. The mounds of meat quickly disappeared. Brigitte was interested in our doing more touring. However, Marjory and I told her that since it was Mother’s Day, she should do what she wanted to do. Well, guess what she wanted to do: go touring. We went on a ride to a high overlook that gave a fantastic view of all of Vienna, and also the Danube River. While only a few miles outside of downtown Vienna, we had an awesome view of the countryside. We then drove to a wonderful town just a mile of so away and found more cathedrals, and vineyards, and wonderful villages. Otto pointed out a castle on a hilltop several miles away. This is where King Richard was held hostage for ransom, which is a part of the Robin Hood story. Then on to the Danube River. Being very familiar with the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, it was a pleasure to see a river of its size that contained only clear water, unlike the muddy waters that we have. We then slowly made our way back to Mödling, knowing that early the next morning we had to catch an early morning flight back to the USA. Since I had done most of my packing earlier (having had to purchase an additional suitcase to take back all the gifts we were given) we spent the evening discussing the new family that we had discovered. It was amazing that while never having met prior to that time, we melded together like we had known each other for generations, but then we had been together for generations, hadn't we? We just didn't know it. Sadly, the next morning we left for the airport at 6 AM, and I am currently looking forward to the next opportunity of once again getting together with my new Austrian relatives. We have invited them to come visit and hope that they will be able to do this. When this happens I intend to make sure that everyone knows, and that we show our Austrian family a wonderful time in the USA. Another thing that I learned in Austria is the use of the computer-based communications system called SKYPE. It is a free computer program, and using a video camera (mine cost $54.00) you have both audio and video communications and there are no charges. In the one month since I have returned, I have talked to my new Austrian relatives at least one time per week, continuing to relive the memories, and also answer any new questions that arise. I owe all of this to the Burgenland Bunch. Thanks so much for being there. I hope that many others will have similar experiences, in my case the chance of a lifetime. Sincerely, Ronald Markland END OF NEWSLETTER -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE (Terms and Conditions): The Burgenland Bunch (BB) was formed and exists to assist Burgenland descendants in their research into their heritage and, toward that end, reserves the right to use any communication you have with us (email, letter, phone conversation, etc.) as part of our information exchange and educational research efforts. . If you do not want your communication to be used for this purpose, indicate that it is "confidential" and we will abide by that request. . Correspondents who communicate with the BB without requesting confidentiality retain their copyright but give a non-exclusive license to the BB allowing us to forward to BB members, publish in our monthly newsletter or on our website, and/or subsequently and permanently archive all or parts of such communications. 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