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

1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen)

This month's random bits and pieces (Article 1) start with a progress report on obtaining water to stabilize the Neusiedlersee... a basic agreement has been signed. We follow that with a report on West Nile fever in Burgenland and eastern Austria; it is becoming a problem. From there, we talk about the new village-owned inn in Zagersdorf—it's a return to the past! The fourth bit is about a new advertising initiative by Burgenland intended to attract Austria's young people and families to relocate to Burgenland. Our fifth bit developed from something I read about Hungarian naming conventions, so I expanded on that idea a bit. Then we have a heads up on a St. Louis Burgenländer gathering... hold the date if you live nearby! Bit 7 is about new or revised house number translation lists: three are affected. Our final bit is about a role-playing opportunity in support of Eisenstadt's 100-year anniversary in 2025 as capital of Burgenland... did you ever want to be a "voice actor"?

Our regular tidbits include the monthly BB Facebook report, book sales, and a Cartoon of the Month.

Our main article is about something I had heard of but never seen proof of: Marriages at Ellis Island.

We conclude with our standard sections: A Historical BB Newsletter article, Ethnic Events and Emigrant Obituaries.



Danube Water for Lake Neusiedl: A "Memorandum of Understanding" in the form of a basic agreement was signed this month by Austria's water minister, Norbert Totschnig, Lower Austria's governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner, and Burgenland governor Hans Peter Doskozil, and is intended "to secure the water supplies in the east in the long term." Planned are "supra-regional water connections" to bring water from the Danube to the "low-precipitation eastern region of Lower Austria and northern Burgenland."

While securing adequate drinking water supply is Minister Totschnig's top priority, he also says the areas need enough water for supply of local food and agrees on the national and international importance of unique habitats such as Lake Neusiedl or the soda lakes of the Seewinkel.

Even though the joint declaration of intent was signed, it is not yet clear where the supply lines will be built nor how much water will be taken from the Danube, so the next step is development of joint implementation concepts and financing approaches.

Lower Austria's environmental lawyer, Thomas Hansmann, noted that "Austria is faced with the challenging task of implementing the EU Renaturation Regulation to protect the livelihoods of all of us. Projects on the basis of the current agreement should make a significant contribution to this."

However, not all agree. Environmental protection organization WWF called for "nature-based solutions instead of new sewers, pumping stations and infiltration systems." They argue that using Danube water merely postpones the problem, instead "water must be kept in the landscape longer in the future" by restoration of natural retention areas such as floodplains, swamps and moors. And the Greens remain skeptical about the plans for a water supply to Lake Neusiedl, demanding "a detailed examination of the effects on salinity, biology and chemistry of the lake."

Conversely, Burgenland provincial councilor Heinrich Dorner defended the project, saying this "is an important step for the preservation of unique habitats, such as Lake Neusiedl or the soda lakes in Seewinkel. The country has already done comprehensive, well-founded and detailed preparatory work for this in the course of the – ultimately failed – talks with Hungary. In addition, it is never just a matter of supplying Lake Neusiedl, but of a holistic view of the water balance in the Seewinkel natural and cultural area."



West Nile Virus: Just as in the US, cases of West Nile fever are on the rise in eastern Austria. Most recently, five people in Lower Austria fell ill from the virus. Earlier this year, six people in Burgenland contracted it, says Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety. Last year, there was only a single West Nile virus case in Austria.

Six of the eleven cases this year were detected during routine examinations of donated blood. The others were diagnosed because the victims were hospitalized or examined due to neurological symptoms.

This increase in cases is not just in Austria. West Nile virus diseases have already occurred in twelve other European countries this year, including Germany, Spain and Italy, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The disease can be triggered by the bite of mosquitoes infected with the West Nile virus and it also can be transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected catfish. Humans cannot transmit the virus, and in 80 percent of the cases, the infection is asymptomatic. For the other 20 percent, victims have flu-like symptoms such as sudden high fever, muscle pain and headaches... but there is no vaccine.



Zagersdorf Votes for New Village Inn: If you have looked at BB "house lists," you may have noticed that many villages once had a village-owned inn or tavern (i.e., a village Gasthaus or Wirtshaus). Most of those were established by the local nobility back when the nobility owned whole villages and their farm lands. However, that ownership likely transferred to the village itself in the years after the Austro-Hungarian version of serfdom and feudalism was dismantled beginning in 1848.

For Zagersdorf (previously Zárány, Hungary), our houselist shows the Wirtshaus (tavern) still under Prince Esterhazy ownership in 1856. While I don't know when control transferred to the village, it remained under public control until the late 1920s, when it became a private business. The most recent owner shut it down in 2020 and the property was eventually purchased by the village, which then demolished the old structure.

The intent of the purchase, of course, was to build a new village-owned inn (a goal that the village council first declared way back in 1929, right after they sold their previous inn!). According to Zagersdorf mayor Ivan Grujic, what the village of 1,200 people lacked was its own inn, saying, "You can't organize any events at the moment. There is a lack of space for celebrations such as balls or even a funeral feast."

So, in order to "strengthen togetherness in the village," the municipality developed plans for a new community-owned, multi-purpose inn costing some 2.9 million euros, financed by a 25-year loan and a "lease agreement with an experienced gastronomy family... to generate income and minimize costs, making the inn both an architectural highlight and an economic asset for Zagersdorf," they claimed.


Artist rendering of the proposed Zagersdorf village inn.

However, not all council members agreed with the scope and cost: "We are not against a community inn. We want to have a meeting place. That's why we agreed when we bought this area. But the dimension of this project is too big for us," said councilor Christoph Zarits. "We are of the opinion that in addition to a small landlord or a coffee house in the middle of the village, we also need one thing: optimal childcare."

The compromise was to ask the municipal population to vote on whether the project should be implemented. "The people should decide and of course we will accept the result of this survey," said Zarits. Mayor Grujic agreed that "if it should really be the case that the population decides against it, then of course we will accept that and then think about what to do with this square."

The vote is now complete. Of the 1,195 eligible voters, 650 (55.5%) voted with 503 for the construction of the village inn and 142 against. So, Zagersdorf will soon have a new village inn.



New Advertising Slogans for Burgenland: The Burgenland state holding company (Landesholding Burgenland) announced a new advertising initiative, called the "Relaxed Burgenland” campaign, that is intended to attract young people and families from across Austria to relocate to Burgenland.

Various slogans are being used to advertise the state’s services—health, tourism, etc.—and to attract immigration. They are intended to generate a greater share of Austrian revenues, explained Governor Hans Peter Doskozil. “We want to present Burgenland as a country worth living in in competition with other regions... not only vacationing here, but also moving your residence here."

The holding company director, Hans Peter Rucker, further explained: “We are competing with the (other) regions for jobs, businesses and tourists. A brand makes you visible in competition,” referring to the Burgenland location brand that was recently opened to private companies in Burgenland. The location brand (logo) was introduced for state use only in 2020, but was opened to private companies in June. It is a stylized sun portrayed in the state colors, and may be accompanied by text such as above.

"More than 80 percent of Burgenlanders can assign the brand. And we also associate the brand with quality, with regionality, with the quality of life in Burgenland," said Rucker. Using the logo makes companies and products brand ambassadors for the state, he claimed, so criteria must be met: "...these criteria have to do primarily with regionality and quality, and are checked accordingly."

Doskozil said the new campaign extends this branding initiative: "We also want to address people who may decide to come to Burgenland not only for tourism, but also to live in Burgenland. That is the essential aspect and that is why we are taking further steps."

Advertising will take place in print media, on posters, with radio spots and online. Examples were shown with slogans such as “Living like on holiday, just like Burgenland”, “Living affordably, just like Burgenland” (below left) or “Living successfully, just like Burgenland” (below right). As you can see, these prominently include the sun element of the state location brand logo.



The ÖVP criticized the timing of the campaign launch, being a few weeks before the National Council elections, saying: “The advertising policy is obviously controlled from the office of the state governor and handled by the state holding company. In this way, the SPÖ's sole government escapes parliamentary control" (i.e., controls regulating political campaign advertising spending). They argued that the campaign should start only after the state election, thus implying they also think this is a beneficial campaign for Burgenland that will meet with the approval of voters... but they do have a somewhat credible argument concerning campaign spending! [We in the US would never use government spending to bolster a campaign, would we? ...he says, laughing out loud.]



Hungarian Names (And Related Things): Because of Burgenland's Hungarian past, Hungarian ways influenced what appears in its old church records. For example, we see Hungarian given names and surname spellings.

We also see full names listed in the Hungarian way: that is, family name first and given name(s) second. Even today, Hungarians will tell you that they do not have a “middle” name in the sense of English speaking nations. Their “first name” is the family name and their "last name" is their given name. Should they have more than one given name (which was rare in the past), their most-used personal name is in the middle and their lesser-used personal name is at the end. These conventions, name ordering and the usage of given names, are followed in both writing and speech.

A given name is known as a “keresztnév” which literally means “cross name” and can be properly translated as Christian name. But even Hungarian Jews call it a keresztnév as it has become a common word with essentially no religious overtone.

Nowadays, at least half of all Hungarians have two given names. The first of these is the name which the person is likely to use every day and how his family will address him; the second given name is only used in very formal situations or if the person is really proud of it for some reason. Most people don’t use both, they just pick one and stick to it. When they do use both given names, it is typically to differentiate from people with a similar surname and given name.

This name ordering convention (family then given name) arises because the Hungarian (Magyar) language was built on eastern roots. This ordering is generally known as "Eastern name order" and is used by about a third of all people on earth, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer and some Basque nationalists.

It is also consistent with a basic tenant of the Magyar language: from the general to the particular... the more general or significant information comes first. Thus, family name before given name, year before month before day in dates, country before state before city in addresses, etc. Even word-ordering in sentences follows this tenant: for example, cseresznyét ettem and ettem cseresznyét both translate as "I ate cherries" but the first indicates it is the cherries that is important whereas the second emphasizes the eating of them.

As for married names for Hungarian women, the traditional convention for most women was much like that in the US: a wife would have been known as "Mrs." plus her husband's last or full name, but with suffix -né being tacked on to her husband's name to indicate "Mrs." or "wife of." So Zsuzsanna Szabó after marriage to Péter Kovács became Kovács Péterné (Mrs. Péter Kovács).

But until the 18th century, Hungarian noblewomen kept their surnames at marriage while their children received their father's surname. Under the Habsburg rule of Joseph II (1765-1790), it became compulsory that all women took on their husbands' names. And this remained both the law and the tradition until the 1950s. During the Communist rule of Hungary, emphasis was put on the equality of women and men, and from that time women could either choose to keep their maiden name or take that of their husband. Most women did the latter except for artists.

The -né suffix, itself, derived from the largely obsolete word némber, meaning woman or female, but also having negative meanings wench or slut (per my 1963 9th Edition of Magyar-Angol Nagyszótár [Great Hungarian-English Dictionary] by Országh László; I'm told that the full word survives mostly as a derogative term for unpleasant females).

Another variant, neje, is often used in writing to refer to a married couple: Kovács Péter és neje (Péter Kovács and wife), equivalent to the English form "Mr. and Mrs. Péter Kovács". This variant can be seen on old tombstones and in godparent and witness columns of church records.

As for Hungarian surnames, doubling the last letter or adding an H is sometimes done to imply a special title or higher social status: See names like Tóth, Horváth, Németh, Kiss (words which otherwise are written tót, horvát, német, kis and have particular meanings). Family names that refer to a place of origin can be written with the -i suffix or with a -y suffix, meaning "from" or "of" a place. So a family originating from Szeged and named after it may spell its surname "Szegedi" or "Szegedy." The -y ending is popularly but falsely believed to indicate noble origin. However, it is an older spelling and older records were more likely to record people of higher rank and wealth.

Late Addendum: After this newsletter came out, Patrick Kovacs wrote to say, "May be interesting to note that in colloquial Austrian-German the family name also comes first." I had never noted this so I did some research on the topic. What I found is this:

In German rural areas where heavy dialect is spoken, the order may be reversed, e.g. "der Mühlbach Klaus" instead of "Klaus Mühlbach." A definite article (der, for males; die, for females) is always added when spoken in this style. In these same regions, it is also often the way in administrative documents, but with a comma; the said person would appear as "Mühlbach, Klaus" or with a title or profession: "Mühlbach, Klaus, Bäcker."

Usage of the definite article with the name outside of dialect is uncommon, and considered a mistake in Standard German. It is considered familiar language, but not as a mark of rough, rural manners, as it is in French. It is used especially when talking of and/or with children, but also in some other situations, e.g., Ich bin der Nils (I am the Nils).

In Austria, a definite article is always used in informal spoken language, but most of the time not in very formal or written language.

I also asked Klaus Gerger if this was consistent with his experience. He replied with the words below and he referenced a site. I have added a variation on one of the maps on that site to add the country boundaries for Austria, Germany and Switzerland (it is for female names but is essentially identical to the map for male names):

Klaus writes: As for the name sequence: yes, but I know this from Burgenland villages, when someone talks about another like "host scho gheat, da Gerger Klaus..." this use is bound to use of dialect or, as mentioned, colloquial Austrian German.

In Vienna, it would be "Klaus" if well known to all, or "Hr. Gerger..." if formal, or a little derogatory "der Gerger...".

On the other hand, when you talk about a celebrity like an actor, “Der Brandauer,” it is like a honorable title.

But that is just my perception, please have a look at atlas-alltagssprache.de/r10. According to this site, that topic is well researched (and my impression matches with the map).

In the map above, the pinkish dots represent areas where the article Lastname Firstname style is used colloquially, which is almost everywhere in Austria but also in much of southern Germany. The dark blue in northern Germany is the 'Standard German' Firstname Lastname style. The light blue, in parts of Germany and into Switzerland, adds an article to the Firstname Lastname style. There are just a few places where Lastname Firstname is used, and those are shown in a darker pink.

St. Louis, MO, Burgenländer Gathering: Theresa McWilliams, our BB contributing editor for St. Louis Research, wrote to say they are planning a St. Louis Burgenländer Gathering for early November. If you are from that area, here are the early details so you can add it to your calendar:

Sunday, Nov 10, 2-6 pm: St. Louis Burgenländer Gathering at the Community Center Cafeteria of Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church,
10235 Ashbrook Dr., St. Louis, MO. Contact: tmacwms@sbcglobal.net

We will, of course, run it as a November ethnic event in our next newsletter, but this early notice will let you plan for it.



New and Revised House Number Translation Lists: Christian Ofenböck, of Graz, Austria, has provided a new house number translation list for Rudersdorf (in the Jennersdorf district), as well as enhanced versions of his previous translation lists for Zahling (in Jennersdorf) and Neusiedl bei Güssing (in Güssing).

These lists start with the 1858 house numbers (Konscription Numern) of the old church records and end with the current street name and (orientation) numbers used in the towns to identify houses. All three lists include at least one renumbering and/or expansion of the old houses numbers to account for houses constructed or destroyed after 1858.

We thank Christian for sharing his research with the BB.



Role-Playing Opportunity: In 2025, Eisenstadt will celebrate 100 years as the provincial capital of Burgenland. As a result, an exhibition is being prepared and one feature will be "old-fashioned" Phone Calls. The idea is that there will be a display of old dial telephones set up so when visitors pick up the phone, they will join, as a listener, recorded conversations on different topics. One topic is a call to an "Auswanderer" in America.

For that call, the designer is looking for someone in the US who can provide an authentic Burgenländer/American voice. In the role-play, you should be fluent in authentic Burgenland German but also a little bit rusty, as you would be someone who has been speaking mostly English for a while and is not expecting to hear a German voice on the line.

There is an example or framework "script" but it can be adapted so the role-player feels comfortable, changing or adding words and ideas. The script is short (as the "overseas" line quickly gets lost), and can be performed by either a man or woman. The plan is to record via a telephone, Skype or Zoom call (whatever works for the role-player), with a Burgenländer voice "calling" from the other end.

If you are willing to volunteer, contact Klaus Gerger via email at klaus.gerger@usa.net. He will put you in contact with the designer.

Example script:
Mitzi: Onkel Seppi? Onkel Seppi? Kannst du mich hören? Ich bin´s, die Mitzi!
Seppi: Wer? I don´t ….
Mitzi: Red lauter! Ja, jetzt geht´s! Ich kann auch nur kurz telefonieren. Es weiß niemand, dass ich anruf. Wie geht´s da denn da drüben?
Seppi: Ah, die Mitzi! Aus good old Burgenland!
Mitzi: Ja, Onkel, ich hab schon so lange nix g´hört von dir?
Seppi: Dont´worry, Mitzi! Wie ich dir schon einmal g´sagt hab: Ich hab erst die „Dipreschn“ (Depression) und dann den Krieg erlebt und you know - in Amerika is so: Kannst wos bist wos. Und i kann eh wos.
Mitzi: Da bin i aber froh. Ich mach ma noch immer a bisserl Sorgen, wegen dem Heimweh, weißt?
Seppi: Ich hab die Heimat im Herzen, Mitzi und ich hab ja meine Burgenländer-Vereine. Aber jetzt sag: Gehst noch immer mit dem Schuster aus?
Mitzi: Ja, Onkel. Im Kino waren wir erst
Seppi: Aber heiraten tust eh nicht gleich oder..?
Mitzi: Aber geh, …
Seppi: Ah, good girl! Pass ma bittschön auf, dass…
Mitzi: Was? Onkel? - So was, jetzt ist die Leitung tot.



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

It’s a dreary and cool weekend here in Pennsylvania, but it is a great time to do some research! Our group has been quite active, so stop by and check it out! If you’ve got a brick wall, we can help you with that! We’ve got 2240 friends who love to help! facebook.com/share/

Member Rebecca Chamberlain shared an index she created for the Apetlon (Banfalu) death records from Matriken, spanning the years 1777-1826.

Member Steve Lamberty shared a searchable surname diffusion map of Austria - you can check it out here: surnamemap.eu/

Our own Steve Huber brightened the days with lots of beautiful music this month. Enjoy!
He shared this lovely waltz performed by Conny Dellmyer’s Egerland Kapelle: youtube.com/eio. Steve also shared some of his own music from his days with his band, The Happy Austrians. This is their “Jagermeister Polka”: youtube.com/Npg. Lehigh University has included in their Library Digital Collection two albums from "Steve Huber's Happy Austrians". Per Steve, “The Lehigh Preserve Repository contains tens of thousands of digital objects spanning centuries of creation and formats ranging from audio recordings to medieval manuscripts. These albums were recorded back in the early 80's and will be digitally preserved for posterity.” Congratulations to Steve and his band! It is wonderful to see our ethnic music being preserved for the enjoyment of future generations! Here are 2 of the songs included: “Oh Du Schone Welt”: lehigh.edu/oh-du-schone-welt, and “Tranen Lugen Night”: lehigh.edu/tranen-lugen-night.

BB Staff member Bob Strauch also noticed that there is also a collection of recordings done by the Coplay Sängerbund’s chorus (aka, the Edelweiss Choraliers) in the late 1960's of Austrian and German Christmas carols, which can be heard here: lehigh.edu/edlelweiss-choraliers.

Steve also wrote a nice tribute to Theresa Lederer Klucsarics. He writes: “Her voice was one of the most revered voices in the Lehigh Valley. Her parents hailed from Oberradling and Raabfidisch. She was more commonly known as "Resi" and her singing and yodeling talents were enjoyed by many in the Burgenlaender community. She performed on many of my recordings and her passing left a deep void in the music world. Here are a few of her collaborations with Steve Huber's Happy Austrians”:
'Im Schönen Burgenland': youtube.com/watch?v=oUO6
'Wir Kommen Von Den Bergen': youtube.com/watch?v=4k3LPR8"

Member Lisa Severin shared some great photos and videos from the Steuben Day Parade in New York City, featuring the First Burgenländer Austria SC and Miss Burgenland New York.

Member Fred Knarr shared lots of nice photos and videos of the Coplay Sängerbund’s Oktoberfest.

Member Janet Kroboth-Weber shared some video of the devastating flooding that has impacted many parts of southern Germany, Austria, Hungary and Poland. Our prayers are with everyone in Europe who has been affected.

Mark your calendars! The Coplay Sängerbund is hosting its Weinlesefest on Sunday, October 13th, 2024. The event runs from 3-6pm. The Emil Schanta Band will be performing. Admission is $5 per person. This is a really fun event. The dance floor is set up like a wine arbor. Tiny bottles dangle from above. As you dance, you try to snatch a bottle without being caught by the “police” who patrol the floor. If you are caught, you are placed in a “jail” until your friends bail you out. It is always a great time. The Bund always has wonderful food and drinks. Come on out if you are in town!

CONNECTIONS:

Member Ellen Schieber writes “Hello everyone, I just started teaching German to 10-13 year-olds. I'm in search of either a class or an adult that my older class (about 20) kids can write to. They are in the second semester of beginning German.“ If anyone would like to help Ellen and her class, please email me at HooftyRN@msn.com and I will pass your information on to her!

That’s all for now! Stay safe and healthy!

Vanessa



Update for book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": Here is this month's update on purchases of the English issue of the 3rd edition of Dr. Walter Dujmovits' book "Die Amerika-Wanderung Der Burgenländer."

Current total sales are 1794 copies, as interested people purchased 11 books during this past month.

As always, the book is available for online purchase at a list price of $8.89 (which is the current production charge for the book, as we purposely choose not to make any profit so you can obtain the book at as low a cost as possible!), plus tax & shipping. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page.

The book is an excellent read for the Burgenländers in your family... so get theirs now!



Burgenland Recipes: This is a recently-rediscovered recipe which Steve Lamberty and his mom are planning on trying; they're sure the Vukits family would have prepared this back in Burgenland. The original recipe can be found on the Austria.Info website at this link. This recipe serves 4.

APFELSPALTEN (FRIED APPLE SLICES)
(suggested by Steve Lamberty)

Ingredients-batter:

Note: Our recipes sortable list has links directly to the recipes or food-related articles published in our past newsletters. You can access the list by clicking our recipe box (to the right). Thanks to the contributions of our members over the years, we have quite a collection of Burgenland recipes, some with several variations.

However, whenever we use up our unpublished recipes, this recipe section will become dormant. So, if you have a favorite family recipe, please consider sharing it with us. We will be happy to publish it. Our older relatives, sadly, aren't with us forever, so don't allow your favorite ethnic dish to be lost to future generations.

You can send your recipe to BB Recipes Editor, Alan Varga. Thanks!



Cartoon of the Month:

As I mentioned, I reformatted this data, eliminating a few columns (because they were blank for this row), compressing the very verbose column titles, and joining separated names and dates columns into single columns. Prior to doing that, the "Notes" column was well off my screen, so that very interesting "Ellis Island" note was not visible. Even with that note text, I did not know how, exactly, to interpret what I was seeing, so I set out to track down the origins of this file. It turns out that "doris" (in the link) is an acronym for the "Department of Records and Information Services" and this is a file in the NYC Municipal Archives.

The file is referenced from their link, Marriage contracts, 1901-1967, bulk: 1902-1907 | NYCMA Collection Guides, which gives some information but does not resolve the question of why "Ellis Island" is mentioned in the file. Here is their information:



Marriage contracts, 1901-1967, bulk: 1902-1907

Consists of marriage contracts received by the City Clerk after they were signed in the presence of a notary public or attorney (with a few exceptions), 1901-1967. The vast majority date from 1902-1907 (date of marriage contract, not date the contract was filed). Though there are marriage contracts for people from all five boroughs of New York City, the contracts are arranged by a sequential number assigned by the City Clerk's Office, numbers 1 to 8616. Most contracts were filed within a few days of the marriage but the 8600 numbered contracts were filed a few months or sometimes years after the marriage. Marriage contracts before 1908 pre-date the marriage license requirement. The contracts are primarily typed with handwritten entries for specific information, though there are some handwritten documents. Information on the contracts include the name and address of the persons getting married; names and residences of the witnesses; name of the notary public; signatures of all involved, plus the date the contract was received by the City Clerk. Sometimes the place of birth of the bride and groom is also listed. The marriage contracts were accessioned by the NYC Municipal Archives in 1987 as ACC-1987-026.

An inventory of the contracts was created during the processing of the material. Information recorded in the inventory includes the name of the bride and groom, marriage contract number (number assigned by the City Clerk), date of contract, and date the contract was filed. See External Documents (below) to access the inventory.

Extent: 18 cubic feet (43 half cubic foot boxes and 1 quarter cubic foot box)
Dates: 1901-1967, bulk 1902-1907



That sentence near the end of their text, "See External Documents (below) to access the inventory" points to the "doris" Excel file I referenced above.

Remaining still uncertain but clearly intrigued, I searched their site for other references to "marriage contracts" and quickly found this: archives.nyc/blog/2023/10/13/marriage-contracts, from which I'll reprint parts of it below, adding my own comments [in brackets] as I go.



Marriage Contracts, by Kenneth R. Cobb, Oct 13, 2023

[We] explore the origins and intellectual content of the Marriage Contract collection... There are 8,616 items in the series [2200+ mention Ellis Island]; the bulk of the material [all but 7 records] pre-dates 1908 when New York State instituted the marriage license requirement [and all but 3 records are dated after 1901]. Similar to license records, the contracts provide information essential for family historians.

Most of the contracts consist of pre-printed forms with information filled-in as appropriate. There are two forms, both titled “Marriage Contract.” On one of the forms the pre-printed text reads, “Now, therefore, in pursuance of Subdivision 4 of Section 11 of Article II of the Domestic Relations Law, as amended by Chapter 339 of the laws of 1901, the said [name of groom] and the said [name of bride] do from the date of this contract become Husband and Wife” [so this formalized a state-sanctioned marriage as of the date the contract was made].

Contract with the above text:


The Municipal Library’s New York State publication collection includes a copy of The Laws of the State of New York, 1901. Turning to Chapter 339, §11, the text states “Marriage, so far as its validity in law is concerned continues to be a civil contract . . . that must be 'solemnized'.” The 1901 law amended an 1896 statute which specified that a marriage may be solemnized by 1) clergyman or minister of any religion, or the leader of the society for ethical culture in the City of New York; 2) mayor, recorder, alderman, police justice or police magistrate; or 3) a justice or judge of a court of record, etc.

The 1901 amendment added a fourth method to validate a marriage: “A written contract of marriage signed by both parties, and at least two witnesses.” The amendment added “Such contract shall be filed within six months after its execution in the office of the clerk of the town or city in which the marriage was solemnized.” The Governor approved the amended law on April 12, 1901, and it became effective on January 1, 1902. Shortly thereafter, the New York City Clerk began receiving marriage contracts.

One notable feature of the series is that many of the couples have family names that point to origins in Southern and Eastern Europe. Given patterns of immigration at that time, the likelihood is that many were recent arrivals to the U.S. Further inspection shows that many were very new arrivals, i.e. marrying at Ellis Island on the day of arrival [my emphasis]. As noted above, most of the contracts are pre-printed forms. One of the two forms that comprise most of the series was supplied by the “U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, Immigration Service,” according to a stamp on the forms.

Examining marriage contracts that used the federal form reveals an interesting phenomenon. The grooms are almost always listed as residing in the U.S., mainly New York City. But the “residence” of the bride is frequently recorded as Ellis Island.

Schebestyk/Wölfer marriage contract with groom residing in New York City (Brooklyn) and bride residing "arr. SS Pannonia Febr.14.05 Ellis Isl. NY," and with the wedding the next day


Over the years, patrons visiting the Archives have sometimes been in search of documentation to support a family legend that their ancestors married on Ellis Island. City archivists replied that there were not records; Ellis Island was not considered part of New York City for vital record purposes, and reporting of birth, death and marriage events to the City’s Health Department was not consistent. Now, with the newly indexed marriage contract series, maybe the family stories are true – and there are records to prove it! [I, myself, had also heard of such legends but could never determine if they were true. Now we know that some are!]

This leads to further questions. Were the “witnesses” representatives of an altruistic organization such as the Immigrant Aid Society, or were they operating some kind of business enterprise? Did having the marriage contract ease entry to the U.S. through Ellis Island?

[In this case, the witness addresses are far enough from Rudolph's then current address (and from the New Jersey address where Cecilia thought he lived) that it seems unlikely that they are personal friends or family, so the conjectures above seem reasonable for them.]

One possible answer [to the second question] comes from historical information supplied by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services division of the Department of Homeland Security. According to their website, “During its first decade [after 1892], the Immigration Service formalized basic immigration procedures and made its first attempts to enforce a national immigration policy. The Immigration Service began collecting arrival manifests (also frequently called passenger lists or immigration arrival records) from each incoming ship, a former duty of the U.S. Customs Service since 1820. Inspectors then questioned arrivals about their admissibility and noted their admission or rejection on the manifest records. Beginning in 1893, Inspectors also served on Boards of Special Inquiry that closely reviewed each exclusion case. Inspectors often initially excluded noncitizens who were likely to become public charges because they lacked funds or had no friends or relatives nearby.”



A few comments...

It is not clear to me what changed in 1907, other than New York State switched to a marriage "license" nomenclature, to cause these contracts to essentially end (there are just 7 records after 1907, dated sporadically from 1914 to 1967). This, of course, begs the question of whether the NY State marriage license database also contains Ellis-based licenses, but I did not explore that. However, in the core years of contracts, 1902-1907, the average was slightly more than one Ellis-based marriage contract each day (nearly four contracts per day in total).

Robert Forcht's great-grandparents, Cecilia Wölfer and Rudolph Schebestyk, are an example of an Ellis-based marriage contract, and the presence of this database answered a question for him. Perhaps it may be an answer for you too.



Other things...

I included above an image of the actual marriage contract for Cecilia and Rudolph, and it raised an interesting question in my mind: How did she contact Rudolph so quickly after arriving at Ellis Island?

You may recall that the emigration record for Cecilia indicated her intent to join Rudolph at an address in Jersey City, NJ, and that she had arrived at Ellis on February 14th. However, the marriage contract, which was signed by them on February 15th, indicates Rudolph was living in Brooklyn, NY, at that time. How, in the span of a single day, was Rudolph notified and able to arrive at Ellis Island to marry her?

To me, it seems evident that Cecilia did not have the Brooklyn address; if she did, it is only logical that she would have listed it on her ship manifest as her destination rather than his address from over a year before. I can only presume that she had a message sent to this New Jersey address and someone there must have known where he currently lived (if not, I can't imagine how she found him!). That address must have been communicated to her at Ellis and another message sent out. The 14th was a Tuesday in Feb 1905, so I assume Rudolph and the others involved were working and this communication effort had to deal with that too. Further, he likely had to take Wednesday off from work to go to Ellis.

All this happening so quickly is amazing to me, so if anyone can explain how such communication worked then, I'd be appreciative!

Speaking of things happening rapidly, I asked Robert (our member who is the descendant of Cecilia and Rudolph) how he so quickly obtained an image of the marriage contract for his people. From the time I told him about the database, only 8 days passed before he sent me the image. He explained:

I got the initial information about the certificate's location from the NYG&B site:
newyorkfamilyhistory.org/online-records/marriage-contract-index-new-york-city-municipal-archives-1902-1907/2668846

I then went to the NYC Records & Information Services site: nyc.gov/site/records/about/contact.page

and clicked on the "Email the Commissioner" link: nyc.gov/site/records/about/email-the-commissioner.page

I completed the form, with "I am looking for a copy of my ancestors marriage contract. They were married on Ellis Island on Feb 15, 1905. According to the Marriage Contract Index, the case number was 2618, box number 14, location 31C-B2-13243, barcode 200004687. When I tried to search the digital records nothing was found. Does this mean the actual certificate is no longer available?" in the "Your Message" block.

They responded 2 or 3 days later with a PDF of the certificate.

Zeugnis

womit vom gefertigten Gemeindevorstand hiermit
bestätigt wird, dass Johann Göltl und seine Ehegat-
tin Eva Göltl geb. Schmitzhofer sammt seinen
Kindern: Paul, Stefan, Josef, Susanna, und Ka-
tharina in hiesiger Gemeinde die Zuständigkeit be-
sitzt, und dass derselbe während seines hierortigen
Aufenthaltes sowohl in politischer als auch in mann-
lischer Beziehung sich stets anstandslos verhalten, so
dass kein Hindernis gegen seine Reise nach Nord-
Amerika obwaltet.

             Leiden Wieselburger Comitat in
             Ungarn am 17. Februar 1885

[circle with Hungarian text: Lébény Mezzo Város Petsétje]
       Dudosits Nándor                  Lárár István
           jegyző                           biró

The Los Angeles translators that Bob approached were right: the handwriting was (only somewhat) hard to decipher, and the language is outdated... but dealing with those issues is something the BB staff is good at. We, as a group, have looked at enough Kurrent handscript so not to be intimidated by it and, because of our experience at looking at old Western Hungarian officialese, we are not put off by the outdated language. Still, translating these old German words and sentence constructs to English is as much art as science and literal translations are not always the best translations.

Below, I present two translations of the main body of the document, one from Fritz and the other from Wilhelm (note that line breaks are only approximate due to the rearrangement of words and phrases required when moving from German to English). Only one translation of the signature block is presented, though it is interesting that the text in the seal and the titles of the signing officials were in Hungarian, whereas the rest of the document was in German.

Certificate [of good conduct]

Whereby the town's Board signed below hereby
confirms that Johann Göltl and his wife
Eva Göltl née Schmitzhofer, together with his
children Paul, Stephen, Joseph, Susanna, and
Catherine, has home rights in this town,
and that he during the time he lived and worked
here always behaved impeccably in regard
to politics and human relations, so
that no obstacle obtains against his travel
to North America.

=====

Testimony

prepared by the community council whereby it herewith
attests that Johann Göltl and his wife
Eva Göltl née Schmitzhofer, together with his
children Paul, Stephen, Joseph, Susanna, and
Catherine, are residents of this community
and that the same (he), during his stay in this place,
in both public and personal conduct,
comported himself without reproach, so
that there is no impediment to his immigration to North
America.

             Lébény, county of Moson in
             Hungary, on February 17, 1885

    [circle with text: Lébény Market Town Seal]
Dudosits Nándor [Ferdinand]   Lárár István [Stephen]
      Clerk                     Judge / Magistrate

As you can see, the underlying intent of the document is essentially identical in both translations, though the English wording differs. The second is the more word-for-word literal translation and, in general, is the one I find most satisfactory.

However, there is one phrase for which I personally prefer the first translation. That phrase is "in hiesiger Gemeinde die Zuständigkeit besitzt" and the two translations are "has home rights in this town" and "are residents of this community."

Home rights, usually designated by the word Zuständigkeit, was an early form of local citizenship and conferred the right of access to community property and some additional protections under the law, including an early form of welfare when needed. You obtained these valuable home rights in a particular village either through birth or by a special grant, and you could maintain these home rights even if you were a current resident of a different village. It is my belief that the town council of Lébény would not have used that particularly rather complex word to mean only residents, as there are simpler German words (Anwohner, Bewohnern, Einwohnern) that mean exactly that, therefore I lean toward the first translation.

The argument given against this position is that a literal translation of Zuständigkeit in der Gemeinde is "standing in the community, a recognized place or position with all the prerogatives of an inhabitant of the community. To call the prerogatives rights is too strong. We don’t know what standing he actually had. Residence may be too weak, but that’s all we know for sure."

My other staff member argues that "Since residency does not imply Zuständigkeit in all cases, the certificate of good behavior would have required a slightly different wording if the person was not resident in Lébény or was not zuständig there. In the latter case, perhaps his zuständige town would have needed to issue the certificate." Nonetheless, he allows that "since Mr. Göltl was zuständig nach Lébény and also resident there, like most people, either phrase is correct and will do."

Interestingly, I looked up Zuständigkeit in my massive (nearly 2,000 A4-size pages in two volumes) German-English comprehensive Langenscheidt New Muret-Sanders Encyclopedic Dictionary that was revised and republished in 1975 but has roots reaching back to 1859. The only translations given are 1) responsibility and 2) jurisdiction. This says nothing about either home rights or standing. However, one example given for the root word zuständig is "nach Wien zuständig sein" and the explanation/translation given is "Austrian officialese: to have the right of domicile in Vienna." So it appears we must consider the "Austrian officialese" use of the word for it to make sense in this document. But, is "the right of domicile" the same as "home rights" or does it mean just "residency"?

In Article 5 of BB Newsletter #236 (31 Oct 2013), titled The Right of Domicile, I provide substantial evidence that indicates that the phrase "the right of domicile" is just a variation of phrase "home rights," and has more meaning attached than just simple residency. Thus it appears that there are reasons other than my "personal preference" for using the "home rights" translation instead of a "residency" translation. The first confers much more information about his official "citizenship" standing in the community. Thus, to not translate the phrase in that manner rejects important information. Therefore, I still lean toward the "home rights" translation and I recommended that form to Bob.

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