^{The News}
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

I don't know what the deal is, but this is the second year in a row we've endured a blizzard while traveling. Last year, we were in Washington, DC, for the "snow-maggedon," so dubbed by the DC media. Luckily, we were there with our 4-wheel-drive Jeep, just shod with new tires, so we were able to get about the city while most vehicles were buried in drifts. We even got to play "hero" by taking a pregnant mother (a friend of our son and daughter-in-law) to the hospital to give birth!

This year, it was the NYC blizzard... crystalline snow pellets propelled by high winds in the Manhattan canyons! Not fun. Nonetheless, with the help of the subway (still running in the underground sections), we managed to get to two Broadway shows and out into Brooklyn for dinner with our son during the worst of it. But I think my wife is still thawing out! The Tuesday departure of our Amtrak train back to North Carolina was delayed an hour and a half (but at least it ran), and the train lost more time enroute, so our planned 12-hour travel day turned into 16 hours, but we made it back home... next year, I think it will be a Caribbean island for Christmas!

So, that left little time for writing an editing a December newsletter.
 

“Can you good reader, imagine how those first immigrants felt when they ate their first meal (which they brought with them) under an ancient Oak tree? Their thoughts looking at people walking by, knowing that they were unable to exchange a single word with them? Finally they found a man, named Wartha, who could speak German and whom they could ask for where to go before night fell upon them under the Oak Tree. Wartha helped them find a empty apartment on Webster St. where they spent their first night in South Bend on straw on the floor.”

A paragraph later, we find:

“It is true that when Antal Kertesz and his wife arrived the first evening to pick up their daughter Terez, he could only tell that after two months of living in South Bend he still did not have a regular Job or income. His story could not be a consolation to his countrymen.”

In the next paragraph, we find:

“On the day following their arrival, Wartha assisted them in finding apartments.”

We suspected that this meeting with the Wartha man was more than a coincidence and thus our search for his full identity began.

Going back to St. Mary’s German Catholic records of Nov. 6, 1882, for the marriage between Gizella Kertesz and Stephen Wartha, we find that he was from Wieselburg, Hungary, son of Andras Wartha and Theresa Jola. The witnesses were Joseph Andert and Francis Gracher. (I will have to find out more about Joseph Andert, a common Pamhagen name in the BB.) We now must find out where Wieselburg was. We contacted the BB staff and Tom Steichen informed us (thanks Tom) that Wieselburg was the German name for Mosonmagyaróvár. After going through the microfilms available at our local LDS family history center—and not finding any Warthas, one of my fellow researchers, Chris Kovach, suggested that perhaps Wieselburg was used as the German name of the entire County, which was Moson at that time, and we should research Pamhagen as starting point. We later collected Steve Wartha’s birth date from other records, which included his obituary and citizenship papers, which was on 14 Aug 1860. He arrived in the US in July of 1881. After securing the LDS microfilms, the entire family story unfolded.

Steve Wartha’s parents were Andras Wartha and Theresa Csaller, who were married in Pamhagen on 20 Apr 1843. They had seven children and, beside Stephen, the youngest, they had an older son Martin born 15 Aug 1847. Martin married Maria Andert on 13 Jun 1870. They had six children and two migrated to South Bend. Son Lawrence was born on 26 Feb 1871 and son Michael was born on 3 Sep 1877. Lawrence migrated in 1894 and Michael in 1898. We mentioned Steven’s marriage to Gizella Kertesz previously. Lawrence married, at St. Mary’s in South Bend on 1 Jun 1896, Johanna Tschida of Pamhagen, daughter of George and Maria Koppe. After having three kids, she died suddenly on 25 July 1901. He then married Mary Nemeth from Pali, Sopron Megye, on 10 Nov 1903 and they had six more children.

Michael married, on 6 Nov. 1899 at St. Mary’s church in South Bend, also to a Johanna Tschida, daughter of John of Pamhagen and Elizabeth Schwarzbauer of Wallern. Johanna’s parents and brother also arrived here about 1888. As you can see, the floodgates were now open as the word got around that those migrating to South Bend in America were successful in eventually finding work and beginning a new life. By 1930, there were about 9,500 Hungarian-Austrians living here in a community of 120,000. Church records indicate the majority of these were from Sopron, Gyor and Moson Megyes, the latter now part of Burgenland, as everyone knows. Villages such as Pamhagen, Frauenkirchen, Fertöszeplak, Fertöszentmiklós and Kapuvár could have lost up to 10% of their population to South Bend. We would add to this the Croatian communities of Minihof (Malomháza) and Nikitsch (Füles) [circled in purple on the above map], south of Sopron, once the word filtered down to those villages.
 


In conclusion, I would add a footnote to the history noted above—that the first Hungarian immigrant to the South Bend area was actually Stephen Wartha from Pamhagen, who provided compassion and assistance to his fellow Hungarians to begin their new life in this great country. Special thanks to members Kathleen Rosenthal, Nadine Hardin and Tom Wartha for the majority of the above work.

For a related article on immigrants from Pamhagen, see member Gene Andert’s article in the Burgenland Bunch archived newsletter # 47, dated 30 Nov 1998.

I also will submit a list of the above Burgenland immigrants to the Burgenländers Honored and Remembered site, since I note that these important individuals were previously missed.

What is interesting is that there is only a single name that matches exactly... and you must look closely to see why I matched superficially different names as I did. I remind you that we are looking at names of farm owners (a likely very stable group) recorded just two years apart! One might expect a little turnover... but not much... so most of these are almost certainly the same individuals.

In fact, it appears that, other than the addition of one "whole farm," there is no change in ownership ...but look how differently the owner names were recorded! If I had to "interpret" what I see, I'd speculate strongly that the lists were recorded by different individuals with quite different backgrounds (compare the "Latinized" given names in the 1700 list to the more Germanic given names of the 1698 list; also, look at the tendency to use "K" in the 1700 list where the 1698 list uses "G"; also a tendency to use "B" for "P" and "W").

To make these tendencies more obvious, I'll also show you the "matched" lists of owners of half farms:

Here we do not find even a single name that matches exactly... many are close, but none exact. I've placed question marks after the few that I think might be more questionable matches but, again, we see only two additional owners of half farms and adequate match of the rest.

My real point is that names were pretty flexible in those days... essentially whatever phonetic equivalent the writer found appropriate (and that depended mostly on the writer's language and background). So, as you do your research, be open to phonetically equivalent names... otherwise you might not find your ancestor!

             

For completeness, I'll also list the 1698 names of the Small-Holders and Renters (no matching intended here):  

             

I'll also provide the descriptions given for Whole and Half farms in 1700:

Ein ganzes Bauernhaus: mit einer ganzen Session (Anteil) zu je 26 Joch Ackerland und 3 Tagwerke Wiesenfläche.
 
(A whole farm: with an entire Session (share) each with 26 Joch [~37 acres] of arable land and 3 Tagwerke [~80 acres] of meadow.)

Ein halbes Bauernhaus: einer halben Session zu je 18 Joch Ackerland und 1.5 Tagwerke Weidefläche.

(A half farm: a half Session, each 18 Joch [~26 acres] of arable land and 1.5 Tagwerke [~40 acres] of pasture.)

Please note that the concept of a Session (a share) varied from village to village and even areas around a village depending on how good the land was. So, the acreage provided in Halbturn may be more or less than provided in other villages or areas.

             

Lastly, I'll note that the author gave an example of additional property owned in each class in 1700:

Martinus Regner, der eine ganzen Session bewirtschaftete, besaß: 6 Ochsen, 3 Kühe, 4 Pferde, 2 Stiere, 18 Schafe, 15 Anteile an Weingärten.
 
(Martinus Regner, one whole session managed, owns: 6 oxen, 3 cows, 4 horses, 2 bulls, 18 sheep, 15 interests in vineyards.)

Michael Snaider, der eine halb Session bewirtschaftete, besaß: 4 Ochsen, 3 Kühe, 2 Pferde, 2 Stiere, 14 Schafe, 10 Anteile an Weingärten.

(Michael Snaider, one half session managed, owns: 4 oxen, 3 cows, 2 horses, 2 bulls, 14 sheep, 10 interests in vineyards.)

             

Note: Herbert Brettl has authored numerous German-language books about Burgenland and West Hungary. He has a website at http://www.brettl.at/.
 

A few days later, Joe replied again (in part): With regard to the savings book cover: it was issued to the wife of József Németh in Sárvár, but neither date nor the name of the institution could be read. She is searching the archives in Szombathely to find relevant material on the bank.

I also passed on your idea of looking for church records to the local researchers in Vermont. They promised to look into it as time permits.

In-between, though, one of them came up with a web site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegaleire/Abb.html, where P.M. is defined as Patriarchs Militant, which was an exciting discovery. Went right away to the Odd Fellows web site and contacted the Vermont lodge to see if they have any old records on members. Their members in those times were more than the Free Masons. And since József Németh was a cartwright, wainwright in Hungary (some of his tools survived to this day) he might have been a member of a guild back home and searched for similar associations here as well. If we find new developments will definitely let you know.

But, dear reader, if you have an alternative definition of P.M. Egyleti, please contact Joe (click here to e-mail Joe) or drop me a note (I'll pass it on). I suspect that this Society's inscription is on more than just József Németh's headstone, so if you help Joe, you may be a help to many others too.
 

             


THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS No. 92
January 31, 2000

VILLAGE NAMES CHANGE BUT RECORDS REMAIN

Perhaps some confusion exits among those who find that their ancestral villages are no longer known by their old names. They may feel that the records no longer exist. Not so. Those records have been cast in stone by being archived in Budapest and other places and also copied by the LDS. This is illustrated by the following:

From: (Amanda Haft)
I just recently joined the Burgenland Bunch -- you probably remember me, I'm the one with the problem involving the Ostovich family from Fusthege. Anyway, I was wondering how I would go about finding vital records for this family since the village, I guess, no longer exists? I remember you saying something about how it was very small, about 98 Roman Catholics. I found out from my great aunt that my great grandmother (Theresa Ostovich) was born in September 1890 in Fusthege. I don't know who her parents were because my grandmother always told me that her parents were orphans. Is there any way around this stumbling block? I don't know if it helps, but Grammy (my grandmother) said that Theresa spoke Croatian, Hungarian, German, and English fluently. So I figure either her parents spoke those languages, or maybe it was just because she grew up in Burgenland. I would really appreciate any tips or advice you could give me!

My reply: Oh but it does exist! Füsthegy is now called Rauhriegel-Allersgraben in the Austrian Burgenland in the district of Oberwart with people attending church in Neumarkt im Tauchental and civil matters administered from Weiden bei Rechnitz.

The church records, 1828-1896, are available from the LDS (Mormon church) at any of their history centers. Microfilm number is 0700661. Civil records (1896-1920) - for Weiden - are 0665230-231. See our archives on how to use the LDS and read these records. Not too difficult.

What you do is order the film (costs 3.50/film for postage [Ed. note: cost is now ~$5.50] - you need only the one for an 1890 birth) and read the records at the history center nearest you (see URL list for LDS website to find where the history centers are). You take 0700661, turn to the baptisms for Sept. 1890, find your grandmother's name and birth date and there you'll see her parents names and maybe their ages and place of birth. You can then go back from there for at least two more generations. Let me know how you make out.