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

As you can see, we had two months exceeding 10,000 unique Visitors and averaged 8,626 a month for the year (over 283 per day), though this was actually a slight drop in visits per month (down 291) from 2015.

Like last year, usage of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) Web Browser continues its slide into oblivion: only 4% this year from 8% last year, 19% two years ago, 41% three years ago and over 50% in prior years. Google Chrome continues its rise, with an increase of 9% from 29% last year. Safari again rose 1% while Firefox/Mozilla sustained most of a corresponding 10% loss. Unlike prior years, I have combined Firefox with Mozilla, as Firefox is merely a specific implementation of the underlying Mozilla architecture.

As for Computer Operating Systems, our visitors continue to predominantly use Windows-based computers (65% on average), with the Mac and Linux (Unix) operating systems trailing quite distantly (but up 3 and 1%, respectively, over last year).



About the BB Staff: As I have noted many times, the BB staff is a fluid collection of individuals who, over varying tenures, voluntarily give back to our community a bit of what they have learned while on their personal journey of family-history discovery. Like in previous years, we lost a few long-term staff members but gained some new contributors in return.

In January, I announced that Johnny Santana was joining the staff as Members Editor, replacing Hannes Graf who had to retire in December 2015. In May, Steve Geosits, co-Croatian Burgenland Contributing Editor for nearly 10 years, chose to retire from the BB, while in the same month, Julia Szent-Györgyi offered her assistance with reading and translating Hungarian records (though not as a full-time staff member). In August, Mary Reilly, our  E-mail List Manager for nearly six years, informed me that she needed to resign due to family issues.

Thus at this point, the staff consists of 13 individuals, two of whom, Fritz Königshofer and Tom Glatz, were on Gerry Berghold's first formally-identified staff of 11 (as reported in the Dec 1998 newsletter). Over time, 31 different individuals have served (though Hannes Graf has the distinction of serving over two separate intervals, thus being both the 16th and 29th sequential staff members and having retired twice!).

In order of joining the staff, these are the current 13 staff members: Fritz Königshofer, Tom Glatz, Tom Steichen, Klaus Gerger, Bob Strauch, Margaret Kaiser, John Lavendoski, Frank Paukowits, Emmerich Koller, Alan Varga, Wilhelm Schmidt, Terry McWilliams, and Johnny Santana.

In order of retirement from the staff, these are our 18 retirees: Ernest Chrisbacher, Albert Schuch, Hap Anderson, Bill Rudy, Frank Teklits, Dale Knebel, Gerry Berghold, Anna Kresh, Hannes Graf (1st time), Charles Wardell, Heidi Hermann, Bob Unger, Maureen Tighe-Brown, Ron Markland, Barbara Raabe, Hannes Graf (2nd time), Matt Boisen, Steve Geosits, and Mary Reilly.

I'll close this section by saying that the BB would not exist without the giving, knowledgeable people named in the above two lists! My thanks to all our BB staff members, both former and current, and to those members who help out on an informal basis (thinking of you, Julia!).



BB Website and Organizational Events: Although we did not have any significant website changes or additions this past year (just routine addition or changes of data from members), I'm pleased to recall a few associated items:

►St. Louis Gathering of Burgenländer and Descendants: On Sunday, May 16, the second gathering of Burgenland descendants took place in St. Louis, Missouri. Thirty-one people were in attendance.

►Burgenland Bunch Facebook Page: After some months of confusion, the BB moved its Facebook affiliation to a new home: "The Burgenland Bunch OFFICIAL," found at address: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL. Steve Geosits ran the prior BB-affiliated page (now known as The Burgenland Genealogy Group) but wanted to administer it independent of the Burgenland Bunch after he retired from the staff. In response, Jenni Wiggins-Montoya of Minnesota generously offered her relatively new Burgenland-related page and allowed BB Membership Editor Johnny Santana to act as co-administrator and Burgenlanders Honored & Remembered and Burgenland DNA Project founder Frank Paukowits, Vanessa Sandhu (of the Burgenländer enclave of Lehigh Valley region), Rachael Dobšovičová (transplanted New Yorker, now residing in Vienna), and Patrick Kovacs (of Olbendorf, Burgenland) to be moderators. As with the previous Burgenland Bunch Facebook page, membership with the BB is not a requirement, but is welcome.

►"The Burgenländer Emigration to America" (by Dr. Walter Dujmovits): As expected following the outstanding 2014 first-year sales of 761 copies of the book, the sales rate slowed with but with a still encouraging 197 copies purchased in 2015 and 162 in 2016. Current total sales is 1120 copies, so the thousand-book mark easily fell by the wayside in 2016!

As you may recall, the BB sells the book at its wholesale production cost of just $7.41 (plus any tax & shipping), as our goal is wide circulation rather than profit (we earn absolutely nothing from book sales but you get an inexpensive opportunity to learn about the forces that led your ancestors to leave their homeland).

The book is the definitive history of the emigration of Burgenländers to the Americas, written by the leading authority on the subject. The BB remains pleased to have been instrumental in bringing this material to English-reading audiences and we recommend that you treat yourself to a copy, if you have not done so already... call it a Christmas present for yourself!