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

Concerning this newsletter, we present, as our featured article, the first half of a two-part article by Richard Potetz on the 1646 Raid on Neumarkt an der Raab (see Article 4). This article arose out of a email discussion between Richard and I about the depopulation (or not) of Burgenland during the 150-year Turkish occupation of Hungary from the 1520s to the 1670s. As Richard shows, parts of present-day Burgenland (then Western Hungary) were ravaged by war and/or beleaguered by Turkish raids. He presents the story of the devastation at Neumarkt an der Raab, complete with a contemporaneous letter listing the damages and the names of the victims (but you'll have to wait for Part 2, to be published next month, for those details). This first half of the article shows the fluid and complex maneuverings and alliances that existed over the 120 years after the Turkish occupation began but prior to the raid of 1646. However, to put it in perspective, consider how complex the last 120 years of US history has been... Wikiweb's timeline of US military operations shows hundreds of individual military events during the last 120 years.

In addition, we provide details on the passing of Otto von Habsburg, son of the last Habsburg ruler (see Article 3), some follow-ups on recent articles and some write-ups of interactions with members.

The remaining articles are our standard sections, Historical Newsletter Articles, and the Ethnic Events and Emigrant Obituaries sections.

             

Member Kathy Middendorf shared a picture and a short note about the Burgenland Bunch Midwest picnic held Aug 14 at the German American Institute in St. Paul, MN. She notes that "...members brought food (pot luck), which we kept inside. The weather was so nice, we set up tables outside to eat. The group is led by Charlie Deutsch, who sets up the meetings – about four times a year. The next one will be in October. We did have a speaker from the MN Genealogical Society, who spoke on the history of the house (German American Institute). Nothing on Burgenland. Her name was Margie Deutsch, but is not related to Charlie. One of the members, Tom Lackner, ex-professor of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota but now in a private health care system, talked briefly on DNA. He also did at the last meeting in May."

The group has a website at http://sites.google.com/site/bbmidwest/ that tells how to join (it's free) and provides information about Burgenland-related research in the Midwest as well as ancestral data for many of its members (some of my own ancestors make it into their lists; although I am not a member, I am related to some of the members and was born in Minnesota -- if I ever move back, I'll join!).

             

Although it had nothing to do with Burgenland or genealogy, how many of you felt the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit the East Coast on August 23rd?

The map to the right shows early responses to the USGS' "Did You Feel It?" online questionnaire... I was one of 4000 who filled it out over the ensuing hours.

The shockwave arrived here in Winston-Salem, NC, about 5 minutes after the quake occurred near Richmond, VA, (actually, it was centered near Lake Anna, some 45 miles NW of Richmond). Lake Anna is about 190 miles "as the crow flies" from Winston-Salem, indicating that the shock wave traveled at over 2000 miles/hr.

I was sitting at my desk at the time and my chair shook for about 4 seconds. The shockwave was audible, giving off a deep rumbling sound, and the vibrations were strong enough that I walked about my house after it stopped to see if I had any cracked plaster; the answer was no, thank goodness!

I did find it humorous, though, to see that CNN reported the quake as "breaking" news. Not so humorous is the fact that my wife and I have considered buying a home at Lake Anna to be nearer our family in the DC area. The twin nuclear plants sitting on the fault line under the lake may give us pause!

Drop me a note to share with our readership if you have an interesting tale to tell concerning the quake.

This earthquake discussion does, though, beg the question of whether Burgenland is subject to quakes... and it is... though major quakes do not occur frequently.

The map to the right shows that Austria's strongest earthquake zone, in what is known as the Vienna Basin, is just to the northwest of Middle Burgenland. You may also note that three fairly intense earthquakes (all 4.6 magnitude) were centered in Burgenland just southeast of Eisenstadt (two in 1766 at St. Margarethen and one in 1888 at Siegendorf).

Since 2000, three temblors have been noticeable in Burgenland... a 6.0 magnitude quake in 2000 near Ebreichsdorf (15 km NW of Eisenstadt, just into Niederösterreich), a 3.5 magnitude quake in 2005 between Mattersburg and Wiener Neustadt, and a minor, 2.8 magnitude quake a few weeks ago (August 16, 2011), with epicenter at Forchtenstein (felt locally only). So, compared to the east coast of the US, Burgenland is seismically quite active!

             

Speaking of disasters, in September, it will be 10 years since the 9/11 attack. In our next newsletter, we will rerun some touching letters that arrived in the BB in-box in the days following the attack.

If you have some personal remembrances that you would like to share, please send them in.

             

Bob Strauch sent me a note about a daily series, called "90 Burgenländer," that has begun on TV Burgenland (see http://burgenland.orf.at/magazin/extra/). The series celebrates Burgenland's 90th Anniversary by showing short profiles (a few minutes long each) of 90 Burgenländers not usually in the limelight.

The first episode (Aug 29th) profiled Ed Marakovits, who emigrated to America at an early age and later returned to Burgenland. The second episode profiles Peter Nagl, the church sexton in Dürnbach. Eighty-eight more profiles will follow. Enjoy!
 

Born in 1912 in Reichenau, Austria, he became head of the family after his father's death in 1922 and continued to claim the throne until the 1960s. He was the oldest son of Charles I, whose family had ruled much of central and eastern Europe for centuries. After Austria and Germany lost WW-1 and the Austria-Hungarian Empire was dismantled, Charles I had to resign, and Austria become a republic. Charles and his family were forced to leave the country, for what turned out to be permanent exile in various European countries.

After his father's death in 1922, the 10-year-old Otto officially took over as the head of the House of Habsburg and was witness to the family's decline after the empire was dismantled. He tried to negotiate a return to Austria in 1935 and again in 1938, when he sought to become chancellor to fight the expected invasion by Hitler's troops, but could not gather enough support.

He was finally allowed to return to Austria in 1966, five years after he officially abdicated the crown, but he claimed to be baffled by the hostility and criticism in his home country.

Otto was a longtime advocate of European reunification and he campaigned against communism and for the removal of the Iron Curtain. He served as president of the Pan-European League from 1979 to 1999. In that role, he was instrumental in helping organize the Pan-European Picnic peace demonstration in 1989 on the border of Austria and Hungary. The border was briefly opened in a symbolic gesture, which created the opportunity for 600 East Germans to flee communism months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was the first time an Eastern European nation had opened its borders and is widely seen as the start of the fall of communism.

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, mourned the passing of "a great European ... who gave an important impetus to the European project throughout his rich life. He made a central contribution to the opening of the Iron Curtain and the peaceful reunification of our continent that had been divided for too long. I will particularly remember his strong stance against all forms of totalitarianism and on Europe's fundamental values."

Regina, Otto's wife, who died in 2010, provided seven children. Their eldest son, Karl, now runs the family's affairs and has been the official head of the House of Habsburg since 2007.

Otto von Habsburg was buried July 16 in the Emperor Tomb in Vienna, below the Capuchin Church.
 

In an article in the last newsletter, I noted that Bob Paulson donated a copy of "Allgemeine Landestopographie Des Burgenlandes," Volume #1, "Der Verwaltungsbezirk Neusiedl Am See" and I commented on a bit of its text about Wallern, wherein the authors said:

"Um diese Zeite schickte Graf Paul Esterházy Stäbe in die Gemeinde mit die Aufforderung, katholisch zu werden oder den Wanderstab zu ergreifen. Auf diese Weise wurde die Siedlung wieder katholisch."

I translated that as:

"About this time, Count Paul Esterházy sent sticks into the town with the call to become Catholic or to take the walking stick. In this way, the settlement was once again Catholic."

Member Wilhelm (Willi) Schmidt, of Allentown, PA, wrote to say: "Paul Esterhazy didn’t send sticks into the villages, but staffs of military people - and they probably used something more persuasive than sticks to reconvert the locals to Catholicism."

I replied: "Hi Wilhelm, I considered that Stäbe could mean military or personal staff but that usage, without a qualifier, seems rare today. Was it a more common usage in earlier times? Also, the quote clearly uses Wanderstab; is their some other definition than walking stick? I had no doubt that “more persuasive” measures were used (or at least threatened) but the quote seemed to work better the way I translated it. I’d appreciate your further thoughts on this."

Wilhelm replied: "I think the flippancy you detect in the sentence is the book’s author’s. He indulged in word play. Read literally (not figuratively), “Staebe” has to refer to delegations that were sent throughout the countryside. They may not even have been armed forces. The Jesuits (God’s marines) were in charge of the Counter-Reformation in Hungary, and went from village to village. I think this is the more sensible reading, but I don’t want to deprive you of a chuckle."

So there we have it... and I'll let the reader decide which interpretation, figurative or literal, is more informative (and/or more fun). Thanks Willi!

             

Nadine Hardin, of Orlando, FL, sent a message that touched on a number of recent articles in the BB Newsletter (the Kris Kovach archives for South Bend, IN; the Turkish occupation; Heideboden; Tschida families; etc), with most emphasis on the one about the Heideboden.

She said: Dear Tom Steichen, I was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, and have used the data bases from Kris Kovach and lately, Gary Gabich. I have researched both paternal and maternal Magyar descendents in my family. Fritz Königshofer and you, Tom Steichen, have all contributed to my research efforts concerning my Galgoczi-Schwarzbauer-Tschida ancestors. And by the way, I took the time to translate the German language for the Schwarzbauer residents of Wallern with success! [Ed note: this most likely refers Father Graisy's book about the houses of Wallern and the German-language text associated with houses owned by Schwarzbauers.] But, I was most was so excited when I read the article on “Heideboden – Where and What Was It.”

Guess what? My Galgoczi-Galgoczy ancestors are accounted for in the original Heideboden Villages (Raab/Gyor; Tschanak/Menfocsanak; Martinsberg/Pannohalma)! My grandfather is Walter “Balint” Galgoczi, and he and his brother, Andras, immigrated to East Chicago, Indiana. Walter was a foreman for copper works, and later a fireman. He moved the family to Rosebush, Isabella County, Michigan and became a farmer and in later years, was owner-operator of the “DX Gas Station” in Rosebush. His ancestors can be found at the following link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=30105513. If you go to the bottom of each frame and go to parents, you can click on the father that will take you to the 1650s.

“The Galgoczi-Galgoczy Families of Menfocsanak, 1995” book was written and compiled by Karoly Galgoczi; his wife, Gabriella (Horvath), took up his research and kept the memory alive of her husband’s initial efforts. She recently retired as a librarian, but kept the memory alive of Erzsebet Galgoczi at the Bezerédj Castle in Menfocsanak. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=50699503

I spent more than six months compiling all my ancestors from a site that Antal Galgoczi has since taken down. Antal made tremendous effort in translating the findings from Hungarian to English.

I met my ancestors at the Radixforum.com and am most appreciative of all the tremendous efforts they took and all my fellow-Hungarians. They noted I had rare documents from the US and was very sincere in my research since the 70s!
One of my ancestors, Istvan Galgoczi, fought in the unsuccessful Battle of Raab against the Napoleon army in 1809. He and his fellow soldiers fought in Kismegyer, a village on the outskirts of Raab. Istvan was about 18 years old at the time of the battle.

Another ancestor, Gyorgy Galgoczy was found from Revfaul. “In an assessment of taxes of 1720 we find a certain György, an extraneus of Révfalu (Archive of Gyor-Moson-Sopron County / Archive of the Gyor Diocese) As András had a son named György, we consider him the progeny of the kin. This is also supported by the fact that in the birth registry his name is followed by the term "Csanakienses" (Archive of the Diocese). In assessments of taxes the name of György can be found until 1750; at a time he was also a village mayor. After this, twenty years have been lost from the tax assessments of Csanakhegy. Next time we find János Galgóczy only in the register of corvées (urbarium) of 1767, registered as a serf having very little or no land upon the mountain.”

And last, Andras Galgoczy: “To continue with the identified family tree, in the 1696 catalogue of the vines upon the Csanak mountain the name András Galgóczi/Galgóczy turns up, as somebody having a vineyard of 12 'hoes' [2] (Archive of Gyor-Moson-Sopron County, Gyor). Csanak mountain and the village were in the possession of the Abbey of Pannonhalma. The Abbey gave substantial rebates already in the Turkish era to promote the renewal of the vineyards. After the last Turkish campaign (1683) the Abbey gave complete freedom of all payments for 11 years to 33 nobles and citizens of Gyor in order to make them able to put in order their old or newly acquired vines.

Any picture that you see at findagrave.com can be downloaded to you system as .jpg, so if you are interested in printing any or part of my findings, please feel free – as I love to share. By the way, in 1934, three villages, Csanakfalu, Csanakhegy and Ménfõ were merged (unified) into one large village, then renamed to became Menfocsanak. In 1971, Menfocsanak became the ninth district of Gyõr.

I owe my gratitude to so many people over the years, too many to mention. I am so grateful to have found my maternal ancestors.

             

Albert Muick, of Allentown, PA, wrote concerning the discussions around Jack Tonk's ancestral search, pointing out a resource that may be useful to a number of us.

He said: Hi Tom, I read with interest the discussion between Jack Tonk and other members, including Fritz. I had seen where there may have been some difficulty in deciphering K.u.K/K.K. military abbreviations. Many of them have not changed to present day.

The following online translator may be of help: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/german_to_english/military_defense/

Here, one can ask for translations of the military abbreviations. Sign-up is free. Sometimes one can use the advanced search feature and the answer is already there, having been already asked by someone else.

Best, Albert Muick

I then wrote: I just double-checked at www.familysearch.org and see that I gave you the film number for Lutheran records. The Catholic records for that time period are on film 700741. Sorry about the error. Tom

Diane replied: Thank you for that, Tom. I've learned that there are some Family Centers in Australia, too...I may be able to order the films here rather than wait till September... I really appreciate your help and encouragement. Cheers, Dianne