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THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 202 August 31, 2010, © 2010 by The Burgenland Bunch All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided. Our 14th Year, Interim Editor: Thomas Steichen, Copy Editor: Maureen Tighe-Brown The Burgenland Bunch Newsletter is issued monthly online. It was founded by Gerald Berghold (who retired in Summer 2008 and died in August 2008). |
Current Status Of The BB: * Members: 1862 * Surname Entries: 6440 * Query Board Entries: 4434 * Number of Staff Members: 14 |
This newsletter concerns: 1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER 2) RECORD LOCATIONS FOR NEUDAUBERG, BURGAUBERG, WÖRTHERBERG, HACKERBERG AND GAAS (BB Staff) 3) "DIE AMERIKA WANDERUNG DER BURGENLÄNDER" (by Gerald Berghold) 4) PLANS FOR THE URL / LINKS PAGE (by Alan Varga) 5) BURGENLÄNDERS IN AMERICA HELP REPLACE CHURCH BELLS (by Anna Kresh) 6) AUSTRIAN ETHNIC MUSIC STILL ALIVE IN THE LEHIGH VALLEY 7) LEHIGH VALLEY ETHNIC EVENTS (courtesy of Bob Strauch) 8) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch) |
1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen)  I'm
pleased to announce that Alan Varga of Bloomingdale, IL, has volunteered to be the new BB
URL/Links Editor. Sadly, though, I must also announce that Hannes Graf, longtime member, staff member, VP, and Newsletter Editor, has resigned. Hannes remains a member (more below). In addition, I'll note that technical issues have forced us to change our domain name (the web address by which you find us) to www.the-burgenland-bunch.org (an address we now control). Since you are reading this, it seems clear you already know that... but please change any saved links so you'll know where to find us in the future. The old site will remain active for some time, with an automated redirect to the new domain. I'll begin with a few words about Alan Varga then let him tell you about himself directly. Alan is a long-standing member of the BB and has been researching Varga / Vargo in Dürnbach (Vincjet) and Fleischaker / Fleischacker / Fleishaker in Schandorf (Ciemba). His grandparents emigrated to Chicago in 1923-1929. He is webmaster for two sites for parents with children in school music programs. And, he is kind enough to volunteer to fill our need. Sounds like a great guy, right? I asked Alan to provide a bio (see below) so you can get to know him better. Please welcome Alan to the BB staff and, if you see a website that should be added to the BB links page, you can contact Alan at his email address, aevarga@mc.net.  Alan
writes: I live in Bloomingdale, Illinois (a western suburb of Chicago), with my wife
and three children. I joined the Burgenland Bunch in July 2000 and have enjoyed reading about
my grandparents' homeland and trying to piece together a motivation for why they decided to
emigrate. My interest was sparked by a family visit to Burgenland when I graduated from
grammar school, and I paid a follow-up solo visit when I graduated from college. I spent many
hours recently digitizing my slides from that second trip, and I hope to be able to take my
own family there someday to meet the wonderful relatives I still correspond with.I am a software quality assurance analyst for a major transportation company by day, but I run two parent websites for school music booster programs in the evening. My personal mission has been to make information available to all interested parents and students (especially those important notices that don't always find their way home to parents). My outside interests range from computers to music to travel and photography and, of course, genealogy. I am expanding my love of eating ethnic food to cooking it, and the recipes in the various BB newsletters are a good starting point. I want to thank everyone for all of the warm wishes so far, and I hope to serve you well in the coming years. Servus! Outgoing Links Editor Anna Kresh welcomed Alan (in part): Hello Alan. A most appreciative welcome to you as the new BB URL/Links Editor!! I was concerned that the position was remaining vacant, as I still have a few link issues that are pending. I am so very grateful that you have agreed to take over the web page. It was a very difficult decision for me to make because of my love for the BB and no longer being able to work with the wonderful volunteers of the BB Staff, but I am grateful that the Links page will be in very capable hands. If you don't mind, in the next few days I will forward all the pending items on to you. And, if I can be of any help, please let me know. When I had difficulty, due to language problems, in determining if a new site would be of use to us, I took advantage of asking one of our other editors to help check out the site for suitability. You will find they are all most kind in that regard. This may be of help: Before he retired, Gerry Berghold was concerned that we were adding too many general sites that are already available through other resources like Cindi's List, Ancestry, etc. He wanted our site to be primarily Burgenland-related and much leaner; therefore, some time ago he asked me to prune the list considerably, which I did. He also suggested we prune it even more, which you may wish to do, but that is entirely up to you. Revalidating the links can get messy at times because of all the redirects. I used XENU Link Checker, but you may have something better. Again, if I can be of any help, let me know. I envy your starting to work with this wonderful crew. It was a joy for me. My best wishes to you, Alan. Anna Kresh, former URL Editor Editor's note: Anna remains on our BB Staff email distribution list as an Emeritus member. And, even though she has retired from routine duties, she still pops up with occasional -- but welcomed -- comments and advice. She also keeps us updated on the health issues that caused her to retire. In a postscript to the welcome to Alan, she wrote: For those of you who may wish to know, Rudy (Ed: Anna's husband) had a knee replacement on May 25, with severe complications that required emergency re-admittance to the hospital, but he is now doing fine, walking with light use of a cane, with much better mobility than he has had in many years. I, too, am doing very well. Editor: And now some words about Hannes Graf.  Hannes
joined the BB in January of 2001. By July, 2001, he had already contributed the
Songbook, somehow cajoling me into creating midi
files of the melodies and talking myself and others into providing English translations of the
words, and also a picture album entitled "The
Gerry Berghold Award," about Gerry's trip to Burgenland to receive the "Ehrenzeichen
des Landes Burgenland" ("Honor Award of the State of Burgenland") from the Burgenland
Parliament.Not having enough tasks to dent his unbounded energy, he volunteered as Members Page editor in July 2001. He continued to provide new features for the website and absorbed additional responsibilities over the next few years. In early 2006, as co-webmaster with me, he helped move the BB to the next level, personally providing the server space for the complete BB site and the dedicated domain name that had been our moniker these last four years. In April 2007, Gerry Berghold, recognizing both his own failing health and the many key contributions by Hannes, named him as a Vice President in the team intended to take the BB beyond his own death. In June of 2008, Hannes stepped forward yet again to fill a BB need: he volunteered to be the new BB Newsletter Editor to replace the now-deceased Gerry Berghold, and he has provided excellence in that role for over two years.  Hannes did it all... and when no one else would do it, he'd find a way to make it fun. But now he wishes to turn his attention to other things. He will remain a BB member but will direct his Internet energies toward other goals; goals that he says will complement but not compete with what the BB offers. We look forward to seeing what he comes up with. We will miss this big guy who could fill Santa's hat like no other! So I offer three cheers for Hannes and heartfelt thanks for giving us so many years of himself. May we all be so giving. |
2) RECORD LOCATIONS FOR NEUDAUBERG, BURGAUBERG, WÖRTHERBERG, HACKERBERG AND GAAS A recent new membership application, in which the villages of Burgau and Burgauberg were mentioned as villages of origin, prompted an informative exchange among the BB staff. I'll share parts of it here. VP & Newsletter Editor Hannes Graf first replied: Burgau and Burgauberg are 2 different villages; Burgau is in Styria and Burgauberg is in Burgenland. Also [they are] in the same area, only parted by the Lafnitz-creek. Staff member Margaret Kaiser then noted: The FHL catalog lists Roman Catholic films for Burgauberg. I have forwarded these to our new member. However, it looks like the BB Village List and Albert's List needs adjusting as they list Burgau, Styria as the source. An inconsistency. Hannes then followed up with: There are 3 similar villages, as I wrote. Neudau - Neudauberg Burgau - Burgauberg Wörth - Wörtherberg The towns are all in Styria, the -berg [Hungarian: -hegy] are all in Burgenland. So all RC [Roman Catholic records] are in Styria (nearest parish) but Government [civil records] are in Burgenland towns. Staff member Fritz Königshofer then provided the logic of why this is so:  Wörterberg
[Vörthegy], Neudauberg [Neudóhegy / Magashegy] and Burgauberg [Burgóhegy]
were anomalies in that they were clearly located in Hungary (now Burgenland) but their
parishes were across the river Lafnitz, the long-time Hungarian border, in Styria. According
to the Bezirksbuch Güssing, these areas of scattered houses originally developed
from the nearby Styrian towns, by people of these towns starting to till land in the hills
across the river and, subsequently, tending vineyards there. Over the centuries, the situation
sometimes escalated to arguments and feuds between the Hungarian and Styrian domains about who
owned the people and had the right to tax them. For the Hungarian areas, tax sometimes had to
be paid to both domains.Births, marriages and deaths for the Hungarian areas (i.e., the "-bergs") were recorded in the nearby Styrian parishes. Therefore, it does not look wrong at all to see both Burgau and Burgauberg mentioned for the same recording, as any official certificate for a vital event in Burgauberg would likely also mention the parish, which would be Burgau. As for Wörterberg, its parish was sometimes in Hungary, but since 1819 it remained Wört [Wörth] in Styria. Starting with the year 1828, parishes belonging to the diocese of Szombathely had to submit, on an annual basis, duplicates of their vital recordings. For South Burgenland, these were the records LDS was able to microfilm. Margaret's find that LDS has a film with the recordings of Burgauberg indicates that the Styrian parishes cooperated by submitting duplicates (to Szombathely) of the records for the Hungarian areas. A check confirmed that LDS also has films of the records of Neudauberg and Wörterberg. In Styria, the writing of duplicates for the diocese Graz-Seckau started later, in the 1830s. The original parish records of Burgau are either still at the parish, or they are at the Diocesan Archive in Graz. These records likely include recordings for Burgauberg. The originals also cover times before 1828, till well into the mid 1600s. For the genealogist it is usually profitable to look at the originals, even if one has ferreted every bit of information from the duplicates, because parish priests often wrote marginal comments into the original records, such as on a subsequent marriage or death, name change, emigration, etc. Starting October 1895, Hungary switched the official recording of vital events from the churches to civil recording. For the people of Burgauberg, civil recording was in Stegersbach (Szentelek). LDS has filmed the duplicate civil records of Burgenland including Stegersbach for the period of October 1895 till all of 1920. By the way, for Neudauberg and Wörterberg, civil recording was in Stinatz. In Austria, churches continued to record vital events on behalf of the state until 1938. When Burgenland came into existence in late 1921 as a new state of what remained of Austria, official recording of vital events was one of many issues that needed to be addressed. As far as I know, Burgenland kept the civil recording system. As a conclusion, I believe that there is no error in the entries for the three -berg villages in Albert's list. However, some information could be added there. I also believe that there is a minor error in the LDS labeling of the pertinent microfilms. The three -berg villages never were parishes. The source of their records were the Styrian parishes. Fritz later added a follow-up: Hackerberg [Vághegy] should be added to the list of areas in Hungary, which had their RC parish in Styria. The Bezirksbuch on Güssing (as well as Albert's list) state that the parish for Hackerberg was Burgau but, mapwise, Neudau seems closer. Maybe Burgau and Neudau were a double parish. LDS does not list a film for Hackerberg. Perhaps, the duplicates were recorded with Neudauberg or Burgauberg. Civil recording for Hackerberg was in Stinatz [Stinác / Pásztorháza]. Just a day later, a related discussion on (discrepant) record locations for Gaas was addressed by Fritz:  Gaas
seems to be a tricky case because, in its Hungarian times (pre-1921), three political
districts intersected there, i.e., Güssing, Szombathely and Körmend. Gaas [Pinkakertes]
was in the district of Körmend. However, its parish also served two villages of the Güssing
district, namely Steinfurt [Lipóc] and Deutsch-Ehrensdorf [Némethásos].
Therefore, the entry for Gaas in Albert's village list appears to be correct as it indicates
that Gaas was a parish which also served the two other villages. The LDS index corroborates
the fact that Gaas indeed was a parish. However, Albert does not indicate the location of the
Lutheran recording, nor does his list comment on the location of civil (or government)
recording.I don't know the source or sources used by Albert when he compiled his list. As for parishes of all religions, I usually consult the Dvorzsak gazetteer of Hungary, which dates from about 1875 and is available on microfiche at LDS. Its data have also been computerized and commercialized in the form of a CD titled "Hungarian Village Finder." Though I have this CD, I usually go to http://kt.lib.pte.hu/cgi-bin/kt.cgi?konyvtar/kt03110501/tartalom.html, which provides scans of the original Dvorzsak. If you want to follow me, click the link to Vas and you'll get the first page for the county. Under the right bottom of the page you can click to the next page etc. and, conversely, under the left bottom of the page you can page backward. When you arrive at the pages for the Körmend district, you will see that Kertes (Pinkakertes/Gaas) indeed was its own parish with its diocese in Szombathely, and that there were no Lutherans in the town. This situation apparently did not change until the census of 1910, of which, I have only the number of Roman-Catholics. If there were any Lutherans in Gaas, one could likely count them on the fingers of one hand. Körmend may well be formally correct as the place of recording for Lutherans in Gaas. It would be interesting, though, to know the source for this information. As for civil recording, the geographically closest recording place was Eberau (Monyorókerék), which was located in the district of Szombathely. Interestingly, nearby Szentpéterfa—which was the closest neighbor town of Gaas—had its civil recording in Eberau until 1910 when it became its own civil recording sub-district. That would suggest that recordings for Gaas also happened in Eberau. Unfortunately, an old newspaper announcement of the civil recording sub-districts in the Szombathely district does not include Gaas under the entry for Eberau, while it does include Szentpéterfa there. This makes it likely, I believe, that civil recording for Gaas happened in Pinkamindszent (Allerheiligen), which was also in the Körmend district. Strem might yet be another candidate. However, the same old newspaper source I have for Eberau also lists the planned civil recording sub-district for Strem, which does not include Pinkakertes/Gaas. I don't have the list of planned civil recording sub-districts of the Körmend district. Civil recording may well have precisely followed the boundaries of the political districts. Since Eberau and Szentpéterfa were in the Szombathely district, and Strem was in the Güssing district, Pinkamindszent looks like a probable candidate for finding civil recordings for Gaas. In practice, some of the civil recording sub-districts were adjusted. Since Szentpéterfa was so close to Gaas, I am copying Frank Teklits and John Lavendoski in case they would know about the civil recording location(s) for Gaas. Editorial Note: For those of you with ancestral involvement in these villages, we hope these discussions help in finding appropriate records (and also explain the occasional difficulty in accurately providing information of this type). My thanks to all the staff who participated and especially to Fritz for his research into and comprehensive and clear discussions of these issues. |
HISTORICAL BB NEWSLETTER ARTICLES Editor: This is part of our occasional series designed to recycle interesting articles from the BB Newsletters of 10 years ago. Of interest this month (or more precisely, this month 10 years ago), is an article written by Gerry Berghold that explains a key motivation for founding the Burgenland Bunch. THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS No. 86B August 15, 2000 3) "DIE AMERIKA WANDERUNG DER BURGENLÄNDER" (The Emigration of Burgenlanders to America) (by Gerry Berghold) Sometimes I feel like I'm meeting myself coming around the corner. I must occasionally repeat myself in order to make a point, provide credit for the work of others or explain why we have a Burgenland Bunch. In 1993, I purchased a copy of the book "Die Amerika Wanderung Der Burgenländer" on a trip to Güssing. When I found my grandfather mentioned on page 213, I was hooked.  Later
in talking to the author, I found that he was very interested in identifying the first
emigrant from each village. Since much of his individual immigrant material came from family
sources, I told him of the possibilities inherent in the US 1910 & 1920 censuses and the LSD
microfilm records. My original idea was to search those sources and develop a database of
Burgenland emigrants. Frank Teklits and I originally set out to do just that. We soon found we
had a tiger by the tail. Two people alone couldn't possibly do the job and the idea of a
Burgenland group began to glimmer and take form as other correspondents joined us.Thus, "Die Amerika Wanderung Der Burgenländer" more than any other work, prompted me to establish the Burgenland Bunch (BB). The book, written in German, authored by Hofrat Dr. Walter Dujmovits, president of the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft (BG), and published in 1975 was reissued in paper back by Desch-Drexler in 1992. It is the first, and to my knowledge, the only book which addresses this subject in its entirety (portions are repeated in "nach Amerika" - the 1992 Burg Güssing "emigration festival" publication and a few other local publications). Prior to 1975, no one had previously written the complete story of Burgenland emigration, although it is mentioned in Professor Andrew Burghardt's English language book "Borderland", 1962. Dr. Dujmovits summarized not only what was available at the time, but also what he had uncovered through research and correspondence. While it is unfortunate that it has not been published in English, it is the starting point for what I hope may some day be a complete history of this emigration. I don't know how many immigrants the BB have identified to date. I do know we have over 3000 surnames listed in our surname list and, obviously, many belong to multiple emigrants (three or more on average might give us nine to twelve thousand individuals?) We know there were at least forty thousand Burgenlanders who entered the US in the period 1880-1924 alone. If one fourth returned (an educated but published guess), we may still have perhaps twenty thousand to find! A treasured dream would be an English language version of Dr. Dujmovits' book complete with BB surname and village lists and appropriate archive articles. Perhaps someday, the BB and BG membership may be such that the combined membership would support the printing of such a publication in both German and English. A magnificent tribute to our ancestors! The BB with 550 members and the 2000 page archive of the 86 BB newsletters, as well as the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft with 4000 members and their newsletter archives (now at number 366 with approximately 5800 pages) is indicative of the current interest and depth of this subject. |
4) PLANS FOR THE URL / LINKS PAGE (by Alan Varga) Our links page is a treasure trove of information accumulated over a number of years. Now that I am the caretaker, I am just beginning to appreciate how broad a range of material it covers. New links are always welcome, as this keeps the resources relevant. However, old links expire or change from time to time, so I want to explain how I plan to approach the task of maintenance. At the moment I am reviewing the entire list by clicking each link to see where it leads. 1) If a link is valid and the page still has the expected content, it will remain in the list. 2) If I find a link has changed, or someone else reports a change, I will add it under the URL's Added or Changed heading near the top of the list, as well as updating it under its category further down the list. 3) If a link is valid but the page no longer has the specific information expected and I can't find a good alternate, it will be treated as a broken link. 4) If a link leads to the dead letter office with no forwarding address, I will move it under the Links Broken heading, where it will remain for about a month. 5) If no one is able to provide an alternate URL, I will move the link under the URL's Dropped heading, where it will remain for another month. 6) Finally, the link will be removed altogether. Of course, if a new URL is found, it will be treated as an addition or change. Feel free to send me suggestions or questions anytime. Alan |
5) BURGENLÄNDERS IN AMERICA HELP REPLACE CHURCH BELLS (by Anna Kresh)  As
a child growing up during WW-II, I can remember the many times my immigrant parents received
requests from their relatives in the homeland for assistance in purchasing various items they
could not afford -- a wedding dress, the purchase of a farm, money to pay for installation of
plumbing, the building of churches, and church bells. While living in Kroatisch Ehrensdorf, my
mother, Maria Schuch Tanczos, who emigrated to Northampton, PA, in 1910, attended church in
Skt. Kathrein because Kroatisch Ehrensdorf did not have a church of its own.Among her belongings are the following items: a newspaper clipping showing the new Church of the Sacred Heart in Kroatisch Ehrensdorf, built in 1928, and a letter written in 1949 from the citizens of her hometown thanking the people of the Lehigh Valley for their help in obtaining new church bells to replace those lost during the war. I believe the letter was translated into English by Northampton High School's German teacher.  The letter reads: Gemeinde Kroatisch-Ehrensdorf Betrifft: Dankschreiben October 9, 1949 Not too long ago our dear Homeland was over-run by the most terrible war. Among the many losses we sustained during this heartless time, were our church bells. For many years there was deep silence over our entire congregation. No noon time and no evening bells called us back from the fields. No sound of a bell accompanying our dear departed ones to their last resting place. We are now partly recovered from the recessions of the war and we started to secure new bells, but our small congregation was not in a position to pay the amount by themselves. So we sent our pleas across the ocean to our dear countrymen to support us in this matter. It was with great pleasure that we learned of your unstinging (unstinting?) support, indicating with how much love you are still tied to the homeland. With this letter, we are sending you our most heartfelt thanks. Especially, do we say thanks to Mr. Franz Loipersbeck and Mr. Ignaz Sipits, who never shyed away to carry on the entire collection. These words of thanks to our dear brothers and sisters in America will be forever in our hearts and we, also, will inscribe them in the chronicle of our village. May God see to it that these new bells will only toll for everlasting peace and that they will not be subjected to the same misfortune as the earlier bells had. With greetings from home, we are Yours Thankfully Kroatisch-Ehrensdorfer (signed) Palkovits (?), Csencsits Alois, Palkovits Franz, Stubits Stefan, Palkovits Stefan ======================================+++++++++++++=========================== Ignaz Sipits (mentioned above) and his wife, my aunt Katherine Schuch, emigrated to Northampton from Kroatisch Ehrensdorf. |
6) AUSTRIAN ETHNIC MUSIC STILL ALIVE IN THE LEHIGH VALLEY The Coplay (PA) Sängerbund had a party on July 4th this year... no surprise, right? But in addition to the obvious patriotic nature of the date, it was also a celebration of their 93rd year as an Austrian ethnic music club. The day featured concerts by the Sängerbund Chorus and the Hianz'schor (led by BB staff member, Bob Strauch), as well as two choirs from neighboring towns. Yes, they worked in a few patriotic songs, but the day was really all about celebrating the Austrian heritage of the membership. Traditional Austrian foods were featured and a polka band entertained by the dance floor into the evening.  Recognising
the importance of these celebrations among the local population, the Whitehall-Coplay Press,
under Al Recker's by-line, did a half-page spread on the event, complete with pictures of the
featured choirs. The upper picture shows the Sängerbund Chorus doing "Stars and Stripes,"
while the lower picture features Bob Strauch on the button accordian accompanying the
Hianz'schor on an Austrian folk song.Two years ago, when the Burgenland Bunch staff met in the Lehigh Valley, many of us, along with spouses, attended this Stiftungfest event. When the evening was over, my wife and I went away feeling nostalgic, since the ethnic nature of our own upbringings have long since gone the way of the dinasaur. I was raised in central Minnesota, an area populated predominantly by Catholic Germans. While I grew up in the early rock 'n' roll era, polka music still played on the radio stations (at least when my Dad controlled the tuner!) and the Saturday-night dance was as likely to be polka music as it was rock 'n' roll. I learned to polka and waltz before I ever became comfortable with the twist... then again, I never did really become comfortable with the twist! But it was really my parent's generation that was really the last to be raised in German ethnic ways. My generation did not speak the language and it seems most of us married outside our ethnic group (I married a Finn). In contrast, Mom and Dad had similar ethnicity and religion, met at a polka dance, and had a polka band at their wedding dance. While they were not fluent in German, they could converse when they did not want their kids to know what they were talking about. But all that is gone. I spent a few weeks in central Minnesota this summer... I heard no polka music (even on the small town stations) and I doubt that anyone still young enough to dance could do a polka, even if the music were to be found. When we traveled north into my wife's childhood Finnish community, we saw a similar loss of ethnicity. She was raised in an area of small farms, but one where the men made most of their living working in the iron ore ranges of northeastern Minnesota. She can't recall anyone in her early school years that was not an ethnic Finn. Yes, some had "americanized" their names, but they were Finn through and through. Yet so few years later, most of the Finnish farms lie abandoned, dying or in other ethnic hands. The local "Sisu" Heritage group, a group intended to celebrate Finnish heritage, is now led by a non-Finn. Finnish ethnicity is no longer a way of life; it is a once-a-year summer event and a tour of old buildings. So Lehigh Valley, please do not let your ethnic heritage die. Those of us who have lost our ethnicity take great comfort and joy in what you have. I'm already planning to be there for the Sängerbund's 100th anniversity celebration... is seven years out to long to make plans? I hope not. |
7) LEHIGH VALLEY ETHNIC EVENTS (courtesy of Bob Strauch) Sunday, Sep. 5: Parish Festival at St. John the Baptist R.C. Church on Ruch St. in Whitehall (Stiles) Sunday, Sep. 29: Oktoberfest at the Coplay Sängerbund 5th St. and Schreiber Ave. in Coplay. 2 - 8 PM. Music by the Josef Kroboth Orchestra and the Emil Schanta Band. Members and their guests welcome (guests must be accompanied by a member). |
8) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch) Sigmund J. Ehritz 
Sigmund J. Ehritz, 85, formerly of Easton and Allentown, passed away Tuesday, August 3, 2010,
at the home of his son and daughter-in-law in Barto, PA.Born June 7, 1925, in Easton, he was a son of the late Sigmund and Maria (Fiedler) Ehritz. Sigmund was raised in Krobotek, Burgenland, Austria and returned to the U.S. at the age of twenty-one. His first wife of 46 years, the former Mary Bolash, died May 15, 1998. His second wife, Rita Hessinger, died February 7, 2010. Sigmund retired in 1990 from Victaulic, where he worked for over 40 years. He enjoyed listening to music, especially German music and played the accordion and harmonica. He also enjoyed dancing and bowling. Sigmund was a member of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Allentown and a former member of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, formerly St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Easton. He was a life member of the Order of Fleas, Liberty Hose Company, Easton Lodge #45, Order of Moose and Citizens Hose Company, and a member of the Coplay Sängerbund. Survivors: two sons, Sigmund E. and his wife Jeannette, of Palmer Township and John O. and his wife Arleen, with whom he resided; a daughter, Paula A. Howard and her husband Charles, of Lehighton, PA; four grandchildren, Crystal, Heidi, Andrea and Johnathan. He was predeceased by a granddaughter, Katherine and a brother, Otto F.  Services:
9:30 a.m Friday from the Strunk Funeral Home, Inc., 602 W. Berwick St., Easton, followed by a
Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m in Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, Davis and St. Joseph
Sts., Easton. Call Friday 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the funeral home. Burial will be in St.
Joseph's New Cemetery.Contributions: May be made to Sacred Heart Hospice, 2268 South 12th St., Allentown, PA, 18103. |
END OF NEWSLETTER |
REMINDER: Be sure to switch your links to the new Burgenland Bunch website: www.the-burgenland-bunch.org |
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. The Burgenland Bunch homepage (website) can be found at: http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/ Use our website to access our lists and web pages. Burgenland Bunch Newsletter, copyright © 2010 by The Burgenland Bunch All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided. |
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