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

This newsletter concerns:

1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER

2) FINDING THAT UNKNOWN / MISSPELLED VILLAGE – TAKE TWO

3) FAMILYSEARCH’S RECORD-PRESERVATION STRATEGY

4) MORE DATA FROM THE HISTORISCHES ORTSLEXIKON

5) HISTORICAL BB NEWSLETTER ARTICLES:
    - WAS MEINT "HEIMAT"? HOW IS "HEIMAT" DEFINED?

6) ETHNIC EVENTS

7) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch)

Latin Phrase Dictionary: The Genealogy In Time magazine website has an online translating dictionary for Latin words and phrases that might appear in wills, parish records or land records. You can find it here:

genealogyintime.com/dictionaries/genealogy-latin-dictionary-pageA.html



DNA Romance: So, can DNA help you find that Mr. or Ms. Perfect?

Website DNA Romance, an "online platform for singles looking for genuine relationships based on chemistry and personality compatibility," claims it is "bringing chemistry to online dating using DNA matchmaking." It says they "provide evidence-based matchmaking, saving our customers time, money and frustration by matching them with Mr Right or Ms Right sooner."

They argue that chemical attraction is an essential ingredient for a romantic relationship, and that in-person chemical attraction is detected by your nose (thus explaining the expression that "love is in the air"). Further, that their platform uses specific DNA markers to "forecast the level of chemical attraction between you and other members."

All you need to do is upload your DNA results (from any of the major testing companies), fill out a personality questionnaire, then await your three free matches. After that, you can "unlock and communicate [with] more matches for a small monthly fee."

If you can't resist, here is the website: www.dnaromance.com.



Additional Digitized LDS Films: Three Burgenland-area microfilms were released for access this past month. The three newly-released films are for the Hungarian border area that we list (two for Körmend; one for Rábaszentmihály), reducing that missing count to 16. For Burgenland-proper, 15 films remain undigitized. Our LDS pages (at http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/LDS/LDS.htm) have been updated to document these additional films and provide links to the images.

Of the 31 microfilms remaining to be converted, 7 are Lutheran, 11 are Catholic, 7 are Civil and 6 are Military. We will, of course, monitor these unconverted microfilms and add the digital collection numbers and links when they become available.



Spam Overkill, Version II: Yes, it happened again... back in January, I reported that a BB member had chosen to use the SpamArrest software, which requires email senders to fill out a "sender verification" form, supposedly to validate that I was a legitimate email sender before it would send my message on to my intended recipient. SpamArrest was clear overkill because it also required that I accept its atrocious "Sender Agreement," something I simply could not do.

The latest occurrence (via the EarthLink spamBlocker software) is not nearly so bad, as it just allows the recipient to "approve" email delivery—no dastardly "sender agreement" wherein I promise my first born [or up to $2000] should the recipient be offended by my message.

However, its use was still "bad form" because I was merely responding to a request for help from this correspondent. I felt that the correspondent should have pre-approved me rather than forcing me through the verification process (spamBlocker allows the user to do so merely by adding the address to its address book). After all, the correspondent used my email address to send a help request to me, so wanted a return email via it, which I was trying to do.

Despite not being happy about this (admittedly minor) inconvenience (and I told my correspondent so), I chose to submit the form (see below) [note: I replaced part of the correspondent's email address to make it anonymous].  Using the form was inoffensive, as it merely popped up a screen that said my "request" had been passed on for approval.
       
Still, if you are asking for help from someone, you shouldn't make them jump through hoops to do so. Spam is a fact of online life, of which I get a massive share given my wide web presence. I deal with mine quietly... you should with yours too.



Trip Report, Southern Burgenland: Annette Kapple wrote to say she had written a blog post about her recent visit to Güssing and Inzenhof. Annette's post is fairly long but quite informative, and is complete with 100+ pictures, so give it a look if you can; you can find here: annettekapple.blogspot.com/a-visit-to-southern-burgenland.



May St. Louis Burgenländer Gathering: Several new friends joined our St. Louis Burgenländer Gathering in May. There were over 40 in attendance. The afternoon was most enjoyable, as we shared photos and stories about our ancestors and some great Austro-Hungarian food! So many connections were discovered.

We now have a St. Louis Burgenländer Facebook page, the primary purpose being to connect the descendants of Burgenländers who settled in St. Louis. We are planning a Fall Cemetery Crawl and our next St. Louis Burgenländer Gathering will be November 11. If you live near or are planning a trip to the St. Louis area, we would love to have you join us. Contact: theresamcwilliams32@gmail.com.



Note: Theresa included a photo that was shared at the Gathering by Donna Schnalzer Huneke that was inscribed with title "Anschluß Bund" (see below). I looked for mention of such a group (whose title I translate as "connection alliance") but did not find anything, so I assume it was a temporary combination of a number of St. Louis singing groups (perhaps an "all star" group), likely assembled for a fund-raising concert. Theresa says that her "best guess is that the Anschluß Bund photo was taken between 1914 -1917 in St. Louis."


Photo inscribed "Anschluß Bund"

The Gathering attendees were able to name three of the participants:

- Ferdinand Schnalzer (second row, 5th from left) of Deutsch Schützen (1880-1952), grandfather of Donna Huneke, the owner of the picture;

- Stefan Taschler (front row, 2nd from left) of Deutsch Schützen (1881-1928), great-grandfather of Theresa McWilliams; and

- a Rossner, presumed to be Stephan (front row, 3rd from left) of Deutsch Schützen (1889-1963).

We invite those of you with St. Louis roots to see if you recognize anyone; if so, please share details with Theresa or me. You can find a higher-resolution image here: photo (once open, click the image to get a still-closer view). [I am also curious about the ribbons the group members are wearing, especially why a few ribbons seem more elaborate; if you know anything about these ribbons, please enlighten me!]



Satisfaction with Burgenland State Government: In a somewhat curiously designed survey of 1000 Burgenländers (conducted both online and via telephone, but only in districts Mattersburg, Eisenstadt-Umgebung and Neusiedl am See), the Burgenland government reports that citizens are much more satisfied with the state government than with either the Austrian federal government or the European Union.

    

The survey reports that 79 percent of Northern Burgenländers are very or rather satisfied with the work of the Burgenland provincial government, whereas the Austrian federal government gets only 56 percent approval and the European Union only 35 percent.

I find this to be a "curiously designed" study for a number of reasons, the first being the obvious exclusion of middle and southern Burgenland! Given it was an online and telephone survey, physical logistics can't be the reason for excluding them. So why? Are they inherently less satisfied with government(s) and therefore to be avoided?

Second, the "round" 1000 number of surveyed citizens makes the statistician in me wonder about the reliability of the study: how big is the sampling error?; was the number of respondents chosen arbitrarily or did it meet a pre-determined criteria?; is this really a scientific study or just political posturing?

Third, the results of the survey seem obvious... local governments should be much more attuned to local issues and therefore should have opportunity to garner more local approval. The fact that this survey is in line with that expectation is good (but unsurprising) ...whereas, failure to attain greater local approval would have been highly disturbing!

Perhaps an additional or more-informative approach would have been to present the approval ratings relative to previous ratings or those in other Austrian states.



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 1309 copies, as interested people purchased 9 more books during this past month.

As always, the book remains available for online purchase at a list price of $7.41 (which is the production charge for the book, as we purposely choose not to make a profit so we can avoid dealing with the income tax consequences and 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 and for information about current discounts (there is at least one discount on price or shipping available most of the time... if not, wait a few days and there will be one!).



Burgenland Recipes: This recipe is from ongoing contributor Christine Rubba.

SAUERKRAUT(from Christine Rubba)

Ingredients-Kraut:
1 can or jar of sauerkraut
  (for example, Hengstenberg, one of the best Bavarian-style German brands, or Bicks, which usually has wine in it)

Ingredients-Other:
1 piece of smoked ham (about 300 grams [2/3 lb.])
2 cup beef broth (Knorr beef cubes work well too)
1 apple, cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp. lard or vegetable oil
1 onion (optional), cut into small pieces
1 small potato (optional), grated

Preparation-Meat:
1) Boil the smoked ham separately for ½ hour.
2) Take a ½-inch slice and cut it into small pieces to use in the sauerkraut.
3) Keep the remaining ham warm; you will eat the finished sauerkraut with it.

Preparation-Kraut:
1) If using boullion cubes, boil water and prepare broth according to directions.
2) Use both the kraut and the liquid from the container. If necessary, add up to ½ cup of water.
3) If you do not care for a lot of sour taste, then go ahead and rinse.
4) Boil the kraut and apple for 30 to 45 minutes, until soft.
5) Put lard or vegetable oil in a pan and heat, add the cut up onion and fry for 5 minutes or so until soft.
6) Add the kraut, the cut up pieces of ham, and beef broth, and bring to a simmering boil.
7) You can thicken up the sauerkraut by adding the grated potato.
8) Boil for another 10 minutes.
9) Done. Guten Appetit!

Serving Suggestions:
Serve with the remaining smoked ham, smoked sausage or bratwurst.



Reminder: We no longer have a "regular" source for Burgenland recipes. As evidenced above, a few readers have shared favorite family recipes, and we do have a reserve for a couple of months now, but if contributions stop coming in, we'll be begging again! So, please consider sharing your favorite Burgenland recipes or recipe books with us. Our older relatives sadly aren't with us forever, so don't allow your allow your favorite ethnic dishes to become lost to future generations. Send your suggestions to BB Recipes Editor, Alan Varga. Thanks!



Cartoon of the Month:

   

Well that seems to be the source for the reference to place "Halyez" ...but it applies to the NEXT name on the manifest, NOT to Joseph Kalchbrenner (despite what the index claims!).

Joseph is listed as last living in Rabenhorst, Germany (which is way in the north of Germany) and he is part of the Franz Frühwirth family listed above him (he is marked as a nephew). I read his birth place as Fabnitz, Hungary (same as the birth place of Josepha Frühwirth, wife to Franz). My guess is that it probably should be Rabnitz (Unterrabnitz is just 8 miles from Goberling). Frühwirth is, of course, a Burgenland name. Franz Frühwirth is also listed as born in Hungary, but the village name is difficult to make out... my best guess is "Kalosz" ...but I can find no village by that name.

So, though we solved the problem of this unknown "Burgenland" place, Halyez, we introduced two more unknown, possibly-misspelled village names, Fabnitz and Kalosz. Knowing that more eyes on a problem are always helpful, I wrote to the BB staff, asking them to look at this manifest and to make suggestions on the village names, both on my transcriptions of the writing and their interpretations of what the village names should be.

For the benefit of you, my readers, I include a larger clip of the birth-village names to the right. The top one is what I read as Kalosz, and the second and fifth are what I read as Fabnitz. The third and fourth are Wien and Rabenhorst (birth places of the two Frühwirth children), and the last is that now-irrelevant Halyez.

Shortly after I sent my request-for-help message to the staff, I took a second look at those village names, which prompted me to send yet another message:

A follow-up thought... the birth place may be a scribbled, phonetic Jabing (i.e., Jabink)... and there was a Joseph Kalchbrenner born there in 1910. Still have no idea for "Kalosz" though.

This prompted Bob Strauch, who always has a good eye for these difficult handwriting samples, to reply:

Tom et al., I think you're right about Jabink / Jabing. The uncle in Chicago was Josef Farkas, and we have a Joseph Farkas, 1867-1923, on BH&R-IL [Burgenländers Honored and Remembered, Illinois section] and he was from Jabing.

I read "Halyez" as "Halycz", which probably refers to the city of Halych in the western Ukraine, which gave its name to the historic province of Galicia.

All of the above prompted Carol to write, saying (in part):

Sorry about all the confusion. When I looked at the Ellis Island info (about 3 years ago), I obviously skipped down a line when looking at place of birth. My grandfather was born in 1889-1890; he died in 1970. His father was Johann Kalchbrenner. My grandfather married Anna Kalchbrenner in Chicago… yes, same last name; they were second cousins. She was born in Goberling in 1893. They were Lutherans. I’m not familiar with the Frühwirth name.

Her message prompted me to do a little research (which took a curious twist) and led to this reply (in part) by me:

Hi Carol, that manifest is hard to sort out, as the writing drifts downward making it hard to tell what is part of the same line. It even fooled whomever indexed the record, as they listed Halyez for your guy too.

It does seem clear, though, that the birthdate used in the US (4 Apr 1890) is off a few days... the correct date appears to be 9 Apr 1890 and the birth was in Jabing. I have attached Joseph's birth record... well, more accurately, records! This birth is recorded in both the Catholic (first attached image, see line 8) and Lutheran (second attached image, see line 9) records because the father was Lutheran and the mother Catholic. I have also attached the marriage record for his parents (third image, line 3) [images not included here]. They married only a few months before the birth, which may explain why a mixed-religion marriage was allowed. The parent's ages and their parents' names are listed in the record, which should help you track further back along the family lines. (That is the Catholic record... I assume the marriage is recorded in the Lutheran records too.) Bu the way, János is the Hungarian form of Johann, so don't be thrown by the name switch in the records.

So, it looks like we need to drop this Halyez village and substitute Jabing for Joseph... and, of course, maintain Goberling as the village for Josef's wife, Anna Kalchbrenner.

The "curious twist" was, of course, that the birth record appears in both the Lutheran and Catholic records. I had never seen that before (though I can't say I have ever looked for that type of thing before!). The reason I discovered this dual recording was because I looked in the Catholic records (by force of habit, I expect) and found it there before I realized that Carol had said the family was Lutheran. Presuming I had found the wrong birth, I went over to the Lutheran records and found it, essentially-identically recorded, there also. That prompted me to study these records, which both indicated that the father was Lutheran and the mother Catholic... even then, I hunted down (one version of) the marriage record to confirm this mixed marriage.

We also heard again from Bob Strauch, who wrote:

Kalosz (birthplace of Franz Frühwirth) = Gálos (now Gols, Burgenland)

From the Hungarian Catholic Church Records:
Name: Franciscus Früwirth
Event: Type Baptism
Event Date: 07 May 1865
Event Place: Gálos, Moson, Hungary
Gender: Male
Father's Name: Josephus Früwirth
Mother's Name: Anna Ganitsch

Cook County Death Records:
Name: Frank Fruehwirth
Birth Date: 1865
Birth Place: Hungary
Death Date: 22 Jul 1914
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Burial Date: 24 Jul 1914
Cemetery Name: St Mary
Death Age: 48
Occupation: Barn Foreman
Race: White
Marital Status: Married
Gender: Male
Residence: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Father Name: Joseph Fruehwirth
Father Birth Place: Hungary
Mother Birth Place: Hungary
FHL Film Number: 1287503



And that concludes Part One of this article, wherein we discovered that the mystery village Halyez was irrelevant and the equally-confounding villages Kalosz and Fabnitz were relevant, especially Fabnitz, which turned out to be Jabink = Jabing.

I wish I could relate some nifty tricks that might help you sort out such misspelled village names like these... but there are no big tricks, just hard work. Bob and I are able to do so because we've spent 20 years looking at problems like these. We know what village names are possible and we have developed a deep understanding of the phonetic and spelling variations that typically occur. Thus we are able to develop reasonable hypotheses that we can test with data.

In this case I asked myself: is Fabnitz really Jabink, which is a phonetic version of Jabing? If so, could I find the birth of Joseph Kalchbrenner in those records and thus prove myself correct? That was the approach I took and it proved correct.

Now, while I don't know for sure, I think I know the approach that Bob used to prove that Kalosz = Gálos / Gols (and this is a little bit of a "trick"). I think he started with the Franz Frühwirth name and a comment I made after he mentioned that the uncle in Chicago that the family was joining was Josef Farkas from Jabing. I said: "Yes, and the Franz Frühwirth that Josef Kalchbrenner traveled with died in 1914, with his wife Josephine being informant." So, he looked for the death record, which indicated that Franz Frühwirth was born in 1865 and his father was Joseph. Now Bob jumped to the LDS index looking for a birth record for a Franz Frühwirth born in 1865 with father Joseph, finding the one he listed above... it showed Gálos as birth location, and then it was but a small jump to realize that Kalosz was a phonetic version of Gálos. A nice bit of work!



Before going on to part two of this article, I want to complete a circle started back with the ship manifest for Joseph Kalchbrenner. You may recall that Joseph traveled with the Frühwirth family, was listed as a nephew, and was born in the same town as Josepha, wife of Franz Frühwirth.

I wrote (in part) to Carol:

By the way Carol, it looks like the Josepha, wife of Franz Frühwirth, of the family your Joseph traveled with, was born 8 Feb 1879, out of wedlock, to an Anna Kemeter (Catholic).

I searched forward from that date and the first marriage record I found for an Anna Kemeter was the one who married János Kalchbrenner (the marriage record I previously shared [for the parents of Joseph Kalchbrenner]), implying that Josepha and Joseph were at least half-siblings (and likely full siblings). Although Joseph was listed as a nephew on the passenger manifest, his correct title likely should have been brother-in-law (to Franz).

The possibility exists, though, that there were more than one Anna Kemeter in town and that the one who birthed Josepha never married (and therefore isn't Joseph's mother). However, the one who married was 31 at the time, so old enough to have had a child 11 years earlier.

You could go through all the birth records, looking for a second Anna Kemeter of the right age range... if one is not found it doesn't prove anything, but it would certainly suggest they were the same person. I was able to find the Anna who was 31 at marriage, with the parents as listed on the marriage record; she was born 9 Apr 1859 in Jabing (Catholic)... I didn't look for others.

So that seems to explain why Joseph traveled with the Frühwirth family... he was traveling with his sister.



The quite-short Part Two of this article deals with the maternal side of Carol's ancestry, which is relevant to this topic because it also had village name issues. I asked Carol to fill in some details about her Wehofer and Schlaffer surnames. She wrote:

On my maternal side, the story is the same. Both grandparents came over from Burgenland as teenagers independent of one another…I’m guessing they didn’t know each other. Both emigrated to Chicago. Here is what I know:

Maternal grandmother is Caroline (Karoline) Wehofer, born 1897, town unknown. I believe her family was Protestant. Emigrated in 1914 on Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm out of Bremen.

Maternal grandfather is Fred (Ferdinand) Schlaffer born in 1895 in Leinctleva, Hungary (can’t find any reference to that that town). Emigrated in 1913 aboard the Patricia out of Cuxhaven. I’m fairly sure he did have relatives in St. Louis. I believe he had a brother named Frank. I believe his family was Catholic.

I replied (in part):

Your Karoline Wehofer seems easy to find, Carol, as the passenger manifest (line 7) gives her village and father's name: Hamvasd (Aschau) and Samuel Wehofer. Given that and the info you shared, it only took a moment to find her in the appropriate civil records, Felsölövö (Oberschützen). I've attached the manifest and birth record.

Ferdinand Schlaffer, from "Leinctleva, Hungary" is likely only a little harder, mainly because of less-definitive starting info. I looked at the manifest and read the village name as a bit different from what the transcriber recorded... even then you have to do a lot of "interpreting" of what was written for the home village. I read it as Lemetlevö but interpreted it as Németlövö (Deutsch Schützen). [Ed. note: after sending this message I looked at page 2 of the manifest; it clearly indicates Deutsch Schützen (image shown here) as his birth place!] Checking the church records for Deutsch Schützen revealed a Nandor Schlaffer (Nandor is Hungarian for Ferdinand) born there in 1895. I've attached that record too (line 23).

So that wraps up Take Two of Finding That Unknown / Misspelled Village. It was really all about interpreting badly written records... no great tricks involved, rather the exercise of lots of experience in dealing with problems like this... it is one of the reasons the BB exists: to provide the expertise that new researchers just can't be expected to have. So if you have a stumper, drop us a note!

[Note: Linear interpolation is a method for estimating missing data when you have data on either side of it. For example, in the diagram to the right, we can estimate a value for the 'green' year by drawing a straight line between the data points for the 'red' and 'blue' years and picking off the value from the line at the 'green' year. Linear extrapolation changes this slightly: If we wish to estimate a value for the 'blue' year and we have data for the 'red' and 'green' years, we draw a straight line between the values for the 'red' and 'green' years, extend it past the 'blue' year, then pick off the value from the line at the 'blue' year. While I described this visually, I actually obtained my estimated values via mathematically-equivalent equations. As in all data estimation, these methods are not perfect (and extrapolation is considered less reliable than interpolation), but they will suffice for my purposes].

As always, masses of data are easier to understand when shown graphically:

 

There are a number of notable features about this data.

First, the population of Burgenland rose nearly linearly over time from about 50,000 people in the late 1500s up to nearly 300,000 around 1900. The actual population high point was 1934, the last recorded point before WW-II. Between 1900 and 1934, the population remain fairly constant, though there is a noticeable dip for 1923. It would be easy to say that this was due to WW-I (and I'm sure the war had some effect) but it more likely (or more directly) was due to the movement of ethnic Hungarians out of Burgenland after the territory changed countries (it was the first population count after that changeover). During and after WW-II, the population shrunk slightly and then remain mostly flat, only showing an increasing trend in the 2000s (almost certainly due to the influx of emigrants attracted by Burgenland's improving economy).

One expected effect that does not show up is a population reduction due to the early emigration. Despite about 20,000 Burgenländers emigrating to America in the 1870-1900 period, the population continued to increase apace over those years. However, it seems evident that the post-1900 emigration, being much larger than the pre-1900 emigration, is at least partly responsible for the flat population numbers in the 1900-1934 period.

When we look at the number of households, the big surprise was the large increase in households after 1950. I'll come back to this in a bit, after I comment on the earlier data. I'll conjecture that there are three mostly "linear" sections to the household data: up to 1720; from 1720 until 1950, and 1950 and beyond. So why did the rate of increase in households change between 1720 and 1787 (the two data points surrounding this change), or did it change?

One could easily argue that there was no change in rate—after all, I had just said the population data rose nearly linearly yet there is an apparently perceptible "elbow" in that data at 1700 that I ignored! However, my argument for a rate change comes from the following points:

In the reported years prior to 1720, Burgenland was affected negatively by the Ottoman incursions toward Vienna and Styria, and the Ottoman presence in nearby Western Hungary made economic improvement difficult in the Burgenland area. Then, after the Ottomans were driven out, the peasant Kuruc wars of Rákóczi and others rained additional destruction down on Burgenland. That peasant unrest resulted, eventually, in the 1767 Urbarium that provided initial rights to the peasants concerning the land they farmed and opened the doors for more land movement from the nobility to them. While we have no additional data points between 1720 and 1787, the household count more than doubled during this period, after being essentially flat between 1700 and 1720. Part of that increase in household count was likely due to the 55% increase in population during the period. Part of the remainder was likely due to the increased ability to move away from the farm, given the new freedoms granted by the 1767 Urbarium, and establish a new household. More likely, they increased hand-in-hand due to the peaceful political environment and the improved legal ability to control both land and personal destiny.

But let us look again at the post-1950 change in household count. You certainly cannot say it was in response to a Burgenland population growth, as population fell initially in this period and remained mostly flat, while household count more than doubled. However, it is known that this doubling occurred during a well-documented shift to a non-agrarian society in Burgenland!

People were moving away from the farms, taking industrial jobs instead. Having no need for land to support themselves, they could establish their own households on just a small lot. Further, the farmers themselves became more efficient due to mechanization—one man on a tractor could replace a large family of workers!

If we divide population in each year by number of households in Burgenland for that year, that ratio falls dramatically starting in 1920. As you can see in the graph below, I have added the ratio of Burgenland population to household count (Pop/Household) using the axis scale on the right. The ratio was fairly constant from 1787 until 1920, being between 6.1 and 6.7 people per household for the full period. After 1920, it fell precipitously to about 2.4 people per household in 2000, whereafter it appears to be creating a new plateau.

 

Now this does not mean that there are currently 2.4 farmers per household. A far greater proportion of Burgenland's population currently works in business, government and other non-farming occupations than ever did in its agrarian past, so, though the ratio of population to households in the pre-industrial era was likely closer to the ratio of farmers to farms, I'll argue that the current ratio of farmers to households is much lower than this computed 2.4 people per household in Burgenland (as a good portion of those 2.4 people are not farmers!); how much lower, I don't know.



I'll now move on to the other datasets, which unfortunately are not nearly so complete. What the Ortslexikon provided was limited data on the number of Croatian, Hungarian, Roma and Jewish residents, unfortunately for limited and differing years. What I chose to do was to construct a master data table with rows for every year appearing in these datasets and in the above total population dataset, terminating at the last year (1991) reported for an ethnic subset.

To do so, I interpolated between reported values for each ethnic type for each unreported year, with three exceptions:
- for years prior to the first reported value, I filled in the prior years by maintaining the same proportion of the ethnic subset to the total population;
- for years after the last reported Roma value, I filled in with that last value; and
- for Jewish, I filled in with a fixed count (12) reported by a number of other sources for post-1938 Jewish residents in Burgenland.

After filling in all of these unreported values with estimates, I calculated the German ethnic subset for a year as the difference between the total Burgenland population for that year and the sum of the other ethnic subsets for the year.

That resulted in the following constructed dataset (where linearly interpolated values have a bold blue font, and ratioed early values and filled late values are in a bold green font):

Again, the easiest way to visualize this data is with a graph:



Because the ethnic German population is so much larger that the other ethnic subsets, I have placed it on its own axis on the right. All other ethnic subsets use the axis scale on the left (spanning only one-fifth of the range for the German population).

As you can see, the German ethnic population (bold red line) rises from approximate 34,000 residents to nearly 250,000 residents in a mostly linear fashion across these years (i.e., from 1570 to 1991). All other ethnic group populations rise similarly in the early years but then hit a point where their numbers fall. [Realistically, given the way I constructed much of this data, everything before 1735 is an estimate (only the sum of all the ethnicities is based on hard data), as is much of it before 1880 (only Roma have "real" data before 1880). So take that early data with the proverbial "grain of salt." However, the key things I say below are from more-recent times and are based on real data.]

Not surprisingly, the number of Hungarians (lime-green line) has its high point in 1910 (its first real data point), which is just prior to WW-I and Burgenland becoming part of Austria, and then falls steadily after 1920 until 1981. Interestingly, it shows a rise in the 1991 data point, which is three years after the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary fell.

What was a surprise to me was that the number of Croatians (magenta-purple line) also fell precipitously after 1920 with the change of Burgenland to Austrian rule. The Croatian count rose next only in 1961 and roughly plateaued thereafter. Further, I was not aware that the Croatian population in Burgenland was nearly double that of the Hungarian population before the change to Austrian rule. That it remained higher after the changeover is not a surprise.

The number of Jews (light blue line) has its high point in 1880 (its first real data point), thereafter being on a steady decline until the 1934 data point; the next point, 1939, is after the Nazi expulsion of the Jews from Burgenland; their numbers never rose thereafter, due both to the death camps and the understandable unwillingness of survivors to return.

The number of Roma/Gypsy (violet-purple line) reached its high point in 1836, then fell dramatically until 1880, where it plateaued for 30 years. The population steadily rises again until 1933, nearly reaching its previous high point. The Roma are also subjected to the Nazi expulsions and death camps, losing over half of their number during the war years; but nearly all of the rest leave Burgenland in the post-war years. While the second, Nazi-driven decrease is well understood, the early decrease after 1836 is less clear to me. I'll conjecture that the emigration was triggered by the 1848 abolishment of serfdom, freeing the Roma to move, but driven by the years of forced assimilation required by the 18th century laws of Maria Theresa and Josef II.



We end here. I will remind you that I was a statistician in my working career, thus I have an abiding interest in what data can tell us. I hope you enjoyed my light jaunt through this data and I invite you to write to me if you can enlighten us on why any of these data changed in the way they did. While I think my conjectures about the changes are reasonable, I am merely speculating, thus remain open to other opinions and analysis.

Germans are known for their attachment to Heimat—a word with broad and deep connotations commonly translated as "homeland" or "home." Since the 19th century, Heimat has been invoked to boost everything from nationalist causes to sentimental movies about life in the high Alps. But what does it really mean to the average German?

According to a survey recently conducted by the social research institute Emnid for Reader's Digest Deutschland, 94% of Germans, cutting across all age groups, have a place or an idea they call Heimat. For 32% of these, it is the place "where I live now," while for 14% it is Germany as a whole. Another 13% equate Heimat with family, 12% with their birthplace, 11% with "a certain region or landscape," another 11% with "where I feel at ease" and an equal number with the idea of "home in general."

A BB Definition (Gerry)

As a Burgenland writer, I use the term often. To me it means the homeland of my forbears: my Burgenland grandparents and their ancestors. It also refers to a special place in my own mind: the place of the origin of my clan, my family, the source of my European family history.

I was born and raised in Allentown, PA—I no longer call it home—I don't think of it as my "Heimat." I spent time in other places, then 30 years in Delaware and now almost as many in Virginia. I consider neither my "Heimat." I have relocated too often to have deeply attached roots anywhere.

A problem with today's American generations—few of us remain in one place long enough to develop a personal sense of "Heimat." To a Burgenländer, who can look back on many generations of his family living in one house, one village, however, "Heimat" can only mean his village or, at most, the general geographic area of his village, his parish, his "Bezirk", his district. To an immigrant, it had even deeper meaning, it meant the source of his roots—the place where family still remained—the place for which he forever yearned, remembering the good, forgetting the bad. Heimat to us, means our ancestral immigrants' Heimat.

My Thoughts (Tom)

I've said it before (I know) but I need to say it again: I'm a Germanic mutt! What I mean by that is that my ancestral roots are diverse yet derive only from the German-speaking areas of Europe. Yes, I'm a quarter Burgenländer... but I'm also a quarter Luxembourger (including the Steichen name)... and the other half of my great-eight comes from various regions in Germany: Nordrhein-Westfalen (in the northwest of Germany), Rheinland-Pfalz (west-central Germany), Württemberg (southwest Germany), and Bavaria (southeast Germany). If I go back one more generation, I also pick up the old German-speaking Oberschlesia province of Prussia (east Germany), which is now part of Poland. So, while I hold Burgenland dear, it is hard to call it my only Heimat.

Like Gerry, I've lived most of my adult life away from my birth state (Minnesota, where I lived for my first 18 years). I "played" in California for two years before being drafted; spent nearly two years in Germany (compliments of Uncle Sam), went back to Minnesota for four years of college then on to Kentucky for graduate schooling; then I lived the biggest chunk of my life in North Carolina, where I worked a 30-year career; I've been in Pennsylvania now for 6 years (working a 'career' as a grandpa!).

So, are any of those places home or Heimat?

Yes... to me, home is where I live now... so PA, you get that nod (though it usually takes 2-3 years of settling in before I change my "home" designation).

Heimat? For me, it's Minnesota, where most of my siblings live, where we gather when we get together, and where my more-recent ancestors are buried, including my mother and father. It is also where my wife hails from (and her ties there are even stronger than mine, though a few generations shorter).

Generally speaking, my roots in the US are also two or three generations deeper than many in the BB; even my Burgenländers were from the beginnings of the early migration, though they were later arriving than most of my other ancestral immigrants to Minnesota (where all my ancestral lines intersect). So I have grown deep, concentrated roots there; it's my Heimat... where is yours?
 

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