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THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 203 September 30, 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). |
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Current Status Of The BB: * Members: 1867 * Surname Entries: 6444 * Query Board Entries: 4443 * Number of Staff Members: 14 |
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This newsletter concerns: 1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER 2) AN OPEN LETTER (from Earl Barret) 3) WHY FAMILY HISTORY? - A BED TIME STORY FOR LITTLE ONES (by Gerald Berghold) 4) "SPECIAL" HOUSE LISTS for GRAFENSCHACHEN and KROISEGG 5) A BURGENLAND STORY FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN (by Tom Steichen) 6) ROOTSWEB BURGENLAND QUERY BOARD 7) DIGITIZATION PROJECT of BURGENLAND ROMAN-CATHOLIC PARISH RECORDS (by Klaus Gerger) 8) ETHNIC EVENTS (courtesy of Bob Strauch & Margaret Kaiser) 9) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch) |
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1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen)  THE
NEW SITE: Last month, I announced that "technical issues 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)." I'm pleased to note that the change went quite smoothly, largely due to the many hours the staff put in to load the new site, to test the thousands of links therein to determine if they worked correctly, to review the written text to discover references to the old site, and then to fix the problems that the testing and review exposed. This effort took place over one extended weekend, with the domain name and web space purchased late Friday evening (August 20), the loading beginning on Saturday morning, and most of the testing, review and corrections being completed by Monday evening. A few areas extended into Tuesday but we announced the new site shortly after 6 pm on the 24th. Since that time, we have not experienced any outages nor have any problems become apparent. For this I give my personal "round of applause" to all whose efforts made this possible! Shown below are usage statistics for the 12 days the new site was open in August and then the first 12 days of September:
I want to point out only a few items in this table. First, the number of "Unique visitors"
is just what you think it is... different people (or, more accurately, different IP
addresses... which means different computers). So, in the 12 days of August, we had 853
visitors (just over 70 per day) but that fell to 613 in a equal period in September (just over
50 per day). This is not surprising since we announced the new site on August 24th and a lot
of you likely came to peek because of that announcement (in fact, the daily usage stats show a
big jump on the 24th and 25th). Early September visits were buoyed by the newsletter... usage
was highest on the 1st and tapered down as the month went on (this is a normal usage pattern
for us, suggesting that the newsletter -- or at least the announcement of the newsletter --
generates visits). |
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2) AN OPEN LETTER (from Earl Barret) This is a belated 'thank you' to BB members, both known and unknown, regarding a review of my book Eden Was On a Hollywood Hill by John D. Lavendoski,  which
appeared in Burgenland Bunch News No. 200.I'll start with the knowns. First, there is John D. Lavendoski because, without John D. Lavendoski, there would be no book. A few years ago I made a simple online inquiry to the Burgenland Bunch, a group I'd never heard of, about my grandfather and got a response saying that if I could supply a date of birth there was a possibility information might be provided. At best, I was hoping for something like confirmation Grandpa had been born somewhere in the vicinity of Vienna. I waited patiently, then impatiently, and finally just when I was on the verge of giving up, I got an e-mail from one John D. Lavendoski. Now, for those of you who know John, this will come as no surprise because John is not a guy who does things by half measures, but I had trouble believing my eyes! That e-mail contained not only the village where my Grandpa was born, Szentpeterfa, Vas, Hungary, but 8 generations of ancestors!! Names, dates, births, deaths, marriages, house numbers -- everything except their favorite flavors of ice cream!!! All of this information supported by church records! I had hit the mother lode. Or rather a perfect stranger had! When I replied to John, he refused any sort of compensation -- cash, credit card, my first born child. I figured any organization with members like that was one I wanted to be a part of, so I joined the BB. Yet, through the years, that list of ancestors began to trouble me: all those names, all those dates of births and deaths, and I would never know anything more about any of those people. I finally decided I couldn't let that happen to my parents. I would honor them by telling their story. But I knew finding a major publisher would be a problem. Simon & Schuster told me my book was beautifully written but... I knew what it was lacking. A memoir requires a Celebrity Author (a Lindsey Lohan) or a Celebrity Subject (a Lindsey Lohan) or a Celebrity Reader (an Osama Bin Lohan). So I self-published. And that brings me to my second 'thank you,' which goes to our new President, Tom Steichen, who exercised his editorial judgment and chose to run John's splendid review of Eden Was On a Hollywood Hill. In spite of the fact that less than half of American adults read a book last year, more than 700,000 titles were published. And that number is certain to grow this year. For a book to find any sort of an audience, it has to have publicity and only the major publishing houses can afford to compete in that world. That takes care of the knowns. Now my 'thanks' to all of you unknown BB members who bought my book! I hope you found it filled with stories that made you laugh and some that made you cry and reminded you of similar events that happened in your own lives. If you haven't read the book it's now available in Kindle form as well as Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Was-Hollywood-Hill-ebook/dp/B00408AN7I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1282614409&sr=8-3-catcorr The Kindle version can be read on the Kindle Reader, the iPad, the Sony Reader, and some other devices. Also, if you have a Mac, there is a free download (at Amazon) called Kindle for Mac, and you can read Kindle books on your computer. Unlike the paperback version, I was able to set the price for the Kindle version and I put it at $2.99. Amazon also offers you 100 free books to download, most of them classics like War and Peace, Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, etc. I hope I haven't been too longwinded with this. Sincerely, Earl Barret |
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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 about making family history accessible to grandchildren. THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS No. 86B August 15, 2000 3) WHY FAMILY HISTORY? - A BED TIME STORY FOR LITTLE ONES and maybe some who are not so little (by Gerry Berghold) I've devoted much of my last fifteen years to pursuing family history. At times my interest in the past takes me away from the future for too long a period of time. I'm then often asked why. I frequently give various reasons depending on who is asking the question. One answer that I cherish more than any other is one I once gave to one of my granddaughters. I then incorporated it as an epilogue in a family history called "Berghold-Neubauer Descendants" which I privately published in 1995. Sometimes when I find I need a little encouragement to keep me going, I take it out and read it. I'd like to share it with you. You may wish to adapt it for your own use. A BEDTIME STORY FOR LITTLE ONES Once upon a time there were three brothers named Johann, Josef and Franz and four sisters named Julianna, Theresia, Cecilia, and Anna. Their family name was Berghold and they lived in a little village called Poppendorf in a place called the Burgenland (which means castle country) in the old Kingdom of Austria - Hungary, far away across the ocean in southern Europe. Their father and mother had a Gasthaus, or small inn, and the father had been a blacksmith. He shoed so many horses that he made enough money to build the Gasthaus in 1875. It is still standing today, 120 years later, on a road which goes from the village of Heiligenkreuz, on the Austrian border with Hungary, to the big city of Furstenfeld, Austria. There were many mouths to feed and there was not enough work for the brothers and so, beginning in 1901, they joined many other Burgenlanders who could find no work at home and they went to the ocean and sailed to America. After a long voyage their ship landed at New York and they took a train to the prosperous city of Allentown, Pennsylvania where they settled, because there was lots of work available in the breweries and mills. Some people they knew were living there and their own German language was spoken, because other Burgenlanders had come there before them. They were welcome and happy in the new land, but they never forgot their homeland and they often thought of their family and friends back home. They worked hard, learned English, married three Burgenland girls (Fannie, Julia, and Julia) who knew the brothers back home. They became American citizens, and they had many children, who also had many children. It is because they came and stayed in America that we were born Americans and live in this fine country. The sisters stayed in Poppendorf and helped their parents with the Gasthaus, but some of them also married and the children of one of them named Mirth also came to America and they settled in Allentown, New York and St. Louis. Other children eventually went to Rudersdorf, another town in the Burgenland, and to Vienna and Munich and Greece and today we have cousins living in many places both in this country and in Europe. There are even some left in the Burgenland. This  is
a true story and not a fairy tale, but a hundred years after the brothers came to America, the
story was almost forgotten and no one knew all the pieces. Along came a grandchild of one of
these brothers. He had been to Poppendorf, had seen the Gasthaus and visited the cousins and
learned more of the story and he thought "wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if this story was
put in a book", so he collected all the bits and pieces and put them in this book. You can
read it some day when you grow up and wonder where the Bergholds came from. I'll bet the
brothers would be glad that their story wasn't forgotten and so will you and your children,
and your children's children. |
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4) "SPECIAL" HOUSE LISTS for GRAFENSCHACHEN and KROISEGG New member David Hofer of Alvarado, TX, introduced himself in an unusual way: he came offering gifts of data!  David
is researching the villages of Grafenschachen, Kroisegg, Neustift an der Lafnitz and the
surrounding farmers, and is interested in the Hofer surname in the Oberwart and Güssing
districts. The data he provided concerns the villages of Grafenschachen, Kroisegg and
Oberwart.David first contacted Links Editor, Alan Varga, just when we first became aware of the issues with the old domain name, saying: "I have been using the site for the last few weeks but now I cannot access the village and surname pages. Has something changed?" Alan first replied: "We have been experiencing server problems since the weekend. Please be patient while we work through them; I'll update you when I get more information." Alan replied again a few days later (while we were still testing the new site), saying: "We seem to have things under control again. Would you mind trying the Village and Surname pages and report back if you are still experiencing problems?" I got involved, saying: "David will need to use the new domain name to do so: www.the-burgenland-bunch.org rather than www.burgenland-bunch.org. A formal announcement of this change of domain name will be issued in a few days, once all the remaining bugs are worked out. I don't think that the old domain has a forwarding message yet." David replied: "Thank you. Everything works great here in Texas. Welcome and thanks for your service to BB. I am not a member/researcher yet but I plan on doing so soon. I have been gathering data from my grandfather's town and found I have more relatives there than I thought. Long story short - I will be doing research on the whole town of Grafenschachen (ie: surnames, house nos, everything I can get). *** BB has been a great help! ***." Editorial side note: I find it interesting that, even though we (the BB staff) were deeply involved in getting the new site operational, we took time to communicate with (at that time) a non-member in such a productive way. Without knowing it, David became part of our testing process (Thanks David!) yet was also able to continue his research. David later followed up with Maps/House Lists Editor, Klaus Gerger, saying: Would you be interested in a complete house list for Grafenschachen? Or is someone working on this? And if not, what information would you like to see and in what file format? (For example, and I don't know why, but I noticed most house lists are abt.1857 - Is this what I would provide for Grafenschachen?) Please advise. Klaus replied, saying: I'd be definitely interested in a Grafenschachen House List. The problem is that there are no originals from that village in the Archive. So, to get a list, one would need to go through church records. If you could do this, any format any year would be fine. with a preference to MS Excel and the 1850's." Editorial side note: Klaus did not address David's quizzical comment that: "I don't know why, but I noticed most house lists are abt. 1857." Since Klaus did not respond, I will... The primary reason for this is that the data for these House Lists are usually taken from the 1857-58 Tax Lists found in the Austrian Government Office Record Archives. Other sources for Head of Household names are available -- census records, "Grundbuch" (village land register), Ubariums (tax record), etc. -- but surviving and available records from further back in time become quite sparse. If you look on page http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/HouseList/VillageAge.htm, you will see that Klaus provides a table whose columns represent time intervals and whose rows are the villages. If you check the left-most column (for pre-1550 records) you will see only one village has data from that era. Not surprisingly, the number of villages with data grows as you move from left to right into more modern times. The second reason for the concentration of data around 1857 is that this represents the period just prior to the start of the earliest major emigration. So these Heads of Households are the generation of the parents or grandparents of many emigrants. As such, listing them is particularly useful in hinting about where a family line came from. Further editorial comment: There were a number of additional messages while Klaus and David figured out what was useful to record and how to do it. I'll jump now to the penultimate and final messages in this sequence, where David explains what he is submitting and Klaus reports where it was published... David writes: Attached are the house lists for both villages - the original and xls formats. The data was centered on 1857. However, the church birth records did not always list those date events. So I added the nearest date available, which is highlighted in yellow. I also included the spouse's [maiden] name since there were so many similar [head of household] names during that time period. Of course, this is my first pass as I continue to research the marriage/death records. Please Note: This data is from church records and is based on random events - birth, marriage, deaths - and not based on government census records or land registers during the time period in question. I still hope this helps the BB membership. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments in this matter. Klaus replies: As you can see here, I did publish your lists in the House List section. This is the perfect place for them. http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/HouseList/HouseLists2.htm#Oberwart http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/HouseList/OW/Kroisegg.htm http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/HouseList/OW/Grafenschachen.htm I had to do a little reformatting to have all family names in one column, which I need for overview and search lists to follow. Hope this is OK for you. Just let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. Thanks again and best regards. Editor: The first link above is for the Oberwart section of the House List index. If you look closely on that page, you will see that Grafenschachen and Kroisegg are tagged with a "New" symbol. Clicking on those village names will take you to the actual village pages at the links shown above. For those of you with ancestors from these villages, this is yet one more tool to help you in your research. My thanks to David for his efforts in putting this data together and to Klaus for formatting and installing it on the BB pages. Well done gentlemen! |
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5) A BURGENLAND STORY FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN (by Tom Steichen) Once upon a time in a far distant land, in a world of kings and queens, castles and empires, your story began. Yes, your story.  It
was in a land—now called Burgenland—on the border joining the Austrian Empire and the
Kingdom of Hungary. These lands were ruled by one man, Franz Joseph I, who called himself both
Emperor & King! Back in those days, Burgenland was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Later, after our people moved to America, it became part of the country of Austria. Burgenland was called Burgenland,  if
you wish to believe the most common story, because of the many castles there. You see, "Burg"
is the German word for castle, so the name makes a lot of sense. The truth is, though, that it
was named after the German names of the four Hungarian counties that it was to be created
from: Wieselburg, Ödenburg, Eisenburg, and Pressburg. The plan was to call it Vierburgenland
(because vier means four in German), but when Pressburg went to the Czech Republic
instead, the simpler name, "Burgenland," was selected, and so it remains named today.
 It was a beautiful land, and your people lived in villages near a large, shallow inland lake called the Neusiedler See, in the north of this land. We are going to talk about two families, the Halbauer family and the Weiss family. The Halbauer family had lived for many  generations
in a village called Valla that is now known as Wallern. In fact, they were there as far back
as the written records exist. But we will start your story with Theresia Halbauer, who was your great-great-great-grandmother! 
Just like I am your grandfather, Theresia was the grandmother to my mother. She was born in
1863, almost 150 years ago, and was the second of seven children born to her parents. Valla
was a poor village and Theresia parents, Stefan and Maria, were poor farmers. They lived there
in a very difficult time. It was a time of numerous crop failures, Lake Neusiedl was drying
up, and the tax burden was crushing. Then there was a mice plague in 1873-74. To top it all, a
devastating hail storm destroyed the crops on July 9, 1875, resulting in an unheard-of famine.
Theresa's one-year-old sister died in 1873, and a brother died in 1879, before he reached his
second birthday. Two more siblings were weakened by starvation and later died at ages 11 and
12. Stefan could not feed his family by working his own land, so  they
moved to the village of Féltorony (now called Halbturn), where work could be had in the
vineyards on the estate founded by Duke Albert Casimir, who had married into the royal family.
It was there that Theresia met and, in 1885, married Joseph Weiss. Joseph was born in 1863, just eight days before Theresia. Like Theresia's family in Valla, Joseph's family had lived in Féltorony for many generations, at least as far back as his great-great-grandfather! Joseph worked in the vineyards, moving his family from place to place 
on the estate as the job required. But he was not earning enough money working for the estate.
So, in 1888, he left behind his young family (of two children and one on the way) and moved to
the United States of America, traveling by trains and ships, to find land that could support
them.Joseph went to central Minnesota, where inexpensive land could be found. Theresa's younger sister, Maria, had moved to St. Paul, MN, in 1886, and both she and Joseph found life to be better in Minnesota. So, in 1889, after Theresa's third child was born, Theresa packed up her family and took the long trip to America. This brings us to the first of your "Burgenland" ancestors born in Minnesota. My  grandmother,
your great-great-grandmother, Barbara Weiss, was born in 1891, likely on a rented farm in
Roseville Twp, Kandiyohi County, just across the county line with Stearns County. The family
was still there in 1895 but by 1900 lived on the shores of Big Fish Lake in Collegeville Twp
in central Stearns County. You can see her in this picture as a 3- or 4-year-old (in the lower
center). Her father, Joseph, is in the upper middle and her mother, Theresa, on the right. The
older children were all born in Austria-Hungary. The family was joined in this picture by
Theresa's brother, Johann, who came to the United States in 1894 but would later move to
Canada to live the rest of his days there. The family stayed by Big Fish Lake until sometime after 1900, when then moved 
to Munson Township. That was a good thing, you see, because Barbara would meet her
husband-to-be, John Schaefer, there... and if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't exist! A bad
thing, though, was that Barbara's father, Joseph, died in 1910, and the family starting moving
apart. Barbara's oldest sister, Mary, would move to California and brother Frank to St. Paul,
MN. When Barbara's younger siblings became old enough, they moved to Milwaukee, WI. Only her
mother and her oldest brother, Joseph, would stay on the farm. Barbara, herself, married John
Schaefer in 1912 and started her own family in Munson Township. I never met Barbara's parents
(or even her husband, John, as he died many years before I was born), but I did visit her
older sister Mary in California more than 40 years ago! Barbara lived with my parents for the
last 15 years of her life, and she taught us children, even the boys, many interesting
things... like embroidery!And now we come to your first "Burgenland" ancestor that you have actually known: your great-grandmother 
Clara, my mother, was born to John and Barbara in 1923 on their farm near Roscoe, MN. She was
one of nine children, but now only the three youngest are still alive. My mother married
Bernard Steichen in 1949 and proceeded to have a big family of her own. I'm one of her nine
children. Her husband died in 2005 but, as you know, great-granny is still around!So we move the story ahead one more generation... and we come to me! I'm the one who wanted to know where we came from, so I started doing research in the 1990s. Everyone before me thought we came from Germany (and some parts of the family did come from there). And everyone knew that the Weiss' spoke "funny" German, but we really did not know why. After much effort I learned that they came from Burgenland and that they spoke Austrian-dialect 
German that was spiced with Hungarian words. Eventually, I took my family on a trip to visit
the many towns and areas involved in our family history. We visited Wallern and Halbturn,
where the Halbauers and Weiss' came from, and we looked at the fields, farms and vineyards
that were important in their lives. And we met distant relatives there. Perhaps someday I will
take you there too, so you can see it for yourself.It's 
now time for this story to come to an end, but I will include one more picture... a picture of
your daddy's family, taken when he was a young child like you are now. As you can see, he was a blond-headed child, but in his blood runs the blood of his Burgenland ancestors. They were people who had dreams and told bedtime stories to their children just like we do. But they also lived a grand adventure, traveling across the wide ocean to start a new life in a distant country. And, because of that, we have lived happily ever after! -- the end -- |
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6) ROOTSWEB BURGENLAND QUERY BOARD You likely are aware of the Rootsweb Burgenland Query Board at http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.ceeurope.austria.Prov.burgenland/mb.ashx, however, you may not know of its association with the Burgenland Bunch. If you look at the header to this newsletter, you will see a reference to "Query Board Entries," with a number following it. That number is the current count of messages posted to this Board. However, if you go to the Board and check the Administrator's e-mail address, you will find that it is not one associated with the Burgenland Bunch. It belongs to Allen Wayne Lawrence, and Allen is not nor ever has been a member of the BB. So why do we report the number of entries thereon? The answer is three-fold: first, it is about Burgenland so is of interest to the Bunch; second, it is "trolled" regularly by BB members and staff members (who provide exceptional advice and information to people who post queries there); and third, the early Administrators were, in fact, associated with the Burgenland Bunch. For these reasons, we feel "possessive" about the Board and think of it as our own. I'm one of the BB staff who cannot claim to be a regular on the Board (but, as I noted above, we have plenty of staff members who are regulars). Nonetheless, I occasionally peek at the Board to see what is new.  This
month, a message concerning Father Joseph Graisy's book about Wallern (formerly Valla,
Hungary) caught my eye. I am quite familiar with Father Graisy's book, largely because some of
my ancestors had roots in Wallern (see my bedtime story, above). Graisy's book was a critical resource that allowed me to extend my Burgenland history into the past beyond the end of the microfilmed church records. I was blessed to have access to an early draft version. Since then, of course, a final version was completed and printed in a large-format, paperback version. However, the draft contained most of the information in the final version and, for anyone with ancestors from Wallern, either version is priceless! Father Graisy graciously gave the BB permission to scan the final version and post it on our website in pdf form in 2005. Since then, it has been one of the little gems for those whose ancestry includes Wallern. The message that caught my eye on the Query Board was posted by Mary Rushing, a BB member. Mary was interested in the Leeb family and she was aware of Graisy's book, as she asked whether it was available online. The first response was from Barbara Raabe, another BB member, but one who possesses a paper copy of the book. Barbara transcribed the text in the book concerning the Leeb family and posted it to the Board... but she did not mention that the book was on the BB site (likely because she did not know). My follow-up post, was to note that the book was, in fact, available on the BB site (at http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/Father-Graisy/Book.html). This led me to look at what we provided and to make some modifications. Back in 1999, when I first obtained access to the draft of the book, I created an index identifying which house numbers were associated with each head-of-house surname. The index allowed me to follow all of the names of interest to me, which made tracing ancestry much easier. One of the somewhat confusing facets of the book is that all references are to House Numbers, not book pages... and these two numbering systems are not in synch over the extent of the book. Father Graisy documents 250 House Numbers over 255 pages. However, the "smaller" House Numbers represent the oldest houses, and these often take more than one page to report all their history. In addition, 6 House Numbers were never used and only earn a note, on the bottom of the page for the prior House Number, that that they were never used. So keeping track of which page is associated with the House Number you wish to go next can be awkward. I incorrectly searched many pages because I went to the page number rather than the House Number I wanted. When Graisy's book was first posted to our site, it was broken up into a number of pdf files labeled by the page range included in the file. I've now modified those labels to emphasize the House Number range, rather than the page range. I've also added my head-of-household surname index as an additional pdf file. I hope this makes the book more useful to you who may choose to use it. |
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7) DIGITIZATION PROJECT of BURGENLAND ROMAN-CATHOLIC PARISH RECORDS (by Klaus Gerger) Recently two ORF (Austrian TV) stories caught the attention of BB-staff member Bob Strauch. They were about changes in the management of the Diocesan Archives of Eisenstadt. This made me check the info on the Diocesan Archives we have on our site at Genealogical Research - Helpful Hints. Not sure about the accuracy of the info, I had a talk with the new manager of the archives, Bernhard Weinhäusel. This is what he told me about the present and future of his archive 
(and is not mentioned in the articles below): ● Access to the archives is still possible with an appointment, which can be made by phone (+43-2682/777-235 or -236). Open hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm and on Fridays from 8 am to 2 pm (some exceptions may occur). ● As his predecessor did, Mr. Weinhäusel told me that the archives are faced with an increasing number of genealogical queries. Sometimes very precise, sometimes very coarse. Due to the high basic work load, it is not possible to do research for inquirers. ● The digitization (see story below) of the church records is a 6-year project (and is in year two now). The work will be done parish-by-parish and will also include books that are not stored in the Diocesan Archives but in the individual parishes. This will be an additional simplification for researches. The quality of the high resolution pictures of every single page will exceed the need of genealogists. ● All the church records of Burgenland from 1921 until today are already available in a database but, since they are subject to the privacy policy, they are not accessible to the public. ● The plans are to publish church records from the beginning of the recordings up to 1895 (when civil authorities took over). When the privacy policy allows, the records between 1895 and 1921 will get published. ● The "go live" for public access to the digitized church records will take some time, since there are still some legal and technical as well as financial issues to solve. It is planned for the end of the 6-year project time. I'll keep you informed on this project whenever new info is available. ------ Klaus Gerger Below are raw translations of the two ORF stories: http://burgenland.orf.at/magazin/imland/erleben/stories/338304/ (Jan. 29 2009) http://burgenland.orf.at/stories/463319/ (Aug. 22 2010)  The first article is about the new man in charge of the Diocesan Archives: The Diocesan Archives in Eisenstadt has a new head. The 35-year-old Bernhard Weinhäusel has taken over the office of Hans Peter Zelfel with the beginning of the year and is now master of thousands of volumes. The 35-year-old Bernhard Weinhäusel from Neckenmarkt was previously Episcopalian master of ceremonies on the staff of Bishop Paul Iby. What he likes about his new job is that there are always stories by and about people behind the thousands of files, books and art treasures in the archives. Weinhäusel studied theology and history - ideal conditions for the occupation of the diocesan archivist. He succeeds Hans Peter Zelfel, who retired as head of the Diocesan Archive after 38 years at the end of 2008. Put in a row, all files of the Diocesan Archives represents a considerable length of 800 meters. Among the thousands of files there are different kinds of documents: from the correspondence of parishes of the parish registers to church records. The oldest document in the Diocesan Archives, by the way, is the church consecration document from Deutsch Kaltenbrunn from the year 1531. A task of Weinhäusel in his new job is to manage digitization of the church records. In a first step, any current records will be digitized, and subsequently - step by step - even the old, valuable stocks will get electronically archived. The church records (Pfarrmatriken) urgently need to be digitized. They draw more and more interest from genealogists and so they are worn accordingly. In the church records you can find information on baptisms, marriages and deaths. Beyond the documents and files, Weinhäusel will also take care of the treasures of the Diocese. Hobbies of Bernhard Weinhäusel are religious art treasures - especially valuable items such as chalices, monstrance or liturgical garments. He wants to ensure that these treasures remain well preserved for posterity. The second is about the digitizing of the Burgenland parish records: The registers - that is, baptism, marriage and death books -  of
the Diocese of Eisenstadt are currently being restored and digitized. This is to save and
preserve the valuable stock of books and to allow online access. Genealogists and other interested people shall be able to do historical research online on the PC. A website will allow public access to the church registers. From the book to the register and subsequently to the individual pages, users will be able see and magnify the writings of the ancient records over the internet. Eleven of the 172 parishes in Burgenland have been restored and digitized. Currently, the digitization work is in progress for the twelfth, Frauenkirchen. The registers from Burgenland extend back into the second half of the 17th Century. "Many books are here in a very bad shape," said Diocesan Archives director Bernhard Weinhäusel. Therefore, the individual books will get restored before digitization to preserve the originals. The digitization work is done by the experienced digitizer Hans Carl Weiss of Vienna. To digitize a parish with about 20 to 25 books takes at least two days. The overall preparation time for such a project is about one year. The repository of the original books is the basement of the site of the Bishop in Eisenstadt, where Bernhard Weinhäusel manages the parish registers. Until the project is finished, genealogists must still make a pilgrimage to this place if they want to learn more about their ancestors. |
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8) ETHNIC EVENTS LEHIGH VALLEY, PA (courtesy of Bob Strauch) Saturday, October 9: Weinlesefest/Grape Dance @ Coplay Sängerbund Entertainment by the Emil Schanta Band and the Hianz'nchor. Open to club members and their guests (guests must be accompanied by a member). Friday, October 29: Oktoberfest @ Allentown Symphony Hall Entertainment by The Jolly Bavarians and the Lehigh Sängerbund Chorus. NEW BRITAIN, CT (courtesy of Margaret Kaiser) Friday, October 1, 7 pm: Heimat Abend (Home Evening) with guitarist Peter Frey. Austrian Donau Club (http://austriandonauclub.com/, 545 Arch Street). $3. (Kitchen special: Wursts) Sunday, October 10, 8 am - 12 noon: Sonntag Frühstuck (Sunday Breakfast). Austrian Donau Club. Friday, October 15: Heurigan Abend ("A meeting where wine of the latest vintage is drunk") with Schachtelgebirger Musikanten (Box Mountain Musicians). Austrian Donau Club. $3. (Kitchen special: Sauerbraten). Friday, October 22, 7 pm: Gemütlichkeit Abend (Congenial Evening) with violinist Nick Kwas. Austrian Donau Club. $ Free. (light fare) Thursday, October 21, 6-8 pm: Steamed Cheeseburgers. Austrian Donau Club. Friday, October 29, 7-10 pm: Erntedankfest (Thanksgiving) with Frank Billowitz (a Burgenland descendant). Austrian Donau Club. (Kitchen special: Goulash) Tuesdays at 7 pm: Men's and Women's Singing Societies meet. Austrian Donau Club. Thursdays at 7 pm: Alpenland Tänzer (Alpine Country Dancers) meet. Austrian Donau Club. NEW YORK, NY (courtesy of Margaret Kaiser) October 17, 1 pm: Martini Dance. Bruederschaft Burgenlaender, Gottscheer Hall, Ridgewood (NYC), NY. http://www.burgenlaender.us/events.html. $52 (Ages 10-16: $18, under 10: free). Includes a "family style" meal (roasted stuffed goose with ligonberry, roasted pork loin ribs, goose liver pate & cheese, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, red cabbage, vegetable, coffee & apple strudel), unlimited beer, wine, and soda, the crowning of Miss Bruederschaft der Burgenlaenderand, and music by "Alpine Squeeze." |
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9) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch) Joseph A. Marakovits, Sr.  Joseph
A. Marakovits, Sr., 81 of Stockertown, died Sept. 15, 2010 in the VNA Hospice of St. Lukes,
Bethlehem.He was the husband of Connie (Ciarrocchi) Marakovits. They were married 56 years on Aug. 21. Joe was born Feb. 15, 1929 in St. Kathrein, Burgenland, Austria, son of the late Frank and Maria (Timar) Marakovits. Joe was an expert cabinet finisher. He worked at Starks Cabinet Shop, Belfast (formerly known as Karchas) for 52 years. He also worked at PPG, Stockertown for 34 years. He served in the US Army in the Korean War and was a recipient of the purple heart. He proudly served in the 7th Calvary Regiment. He was a member of Holy Family Catholic Church, Nazareth and a member of the Holy Name Society. He was a life member of Holy Family Club, VFW Post 4366 and East Lawn Fire Co., all in Nazareth. Survivors: Besides his wife, he is survived by two sons, Joseph Jr., and his wife, Rebecca, Scott Depot, WV, Steven, and his wife Anne, Mason, OH; five grandchildren, Kelli, Nicholas, Zachary, Corinn, Ben; two sisters, Mary Strobl, and Rosina Flank; he was predeceased by grandson Christopher; sister Veronica Goth, and brother Frank Marakovits.  Services: Sat. 9:30 a.m. at Reichel Funeral Home, 220 Washington Park, Nazareth. Mass of Christian Burial 10 a.m. in Holy Family Church, Nazareth. Burial with military services in Holy Family Cemetery. Call Friday 6 to 8 p.m. in the funeral home. Published in Morning Call on September 16, 2010 |
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END OF NEWSLETTER |
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REMINDER: Be sure to switch your links to the new Burgenland Bunch website: www.the-burgenland-bunch.org |
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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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