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

This newsletter concerns:

1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER

2) THE HIANZN (by Wilhelm Schmidt)

3) A SIMPLE REQUEST... A LESS THAN SIMPLE ANSWER

4) ONE RELATIVE? NO, FIVE GENERATIONS! (by David Hofer)

5) HISTORICAL BB NEWSLETTER ARTICLES:
    - PASSAIC CO, NJ, DECLARATIONS / NATURALIZATIONS NOW ON-LINE
      (by Margaret Kaiser)

6) ETHNIC EVENTS

7) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch)

For Burgenland, the two parishes currently available are:

Mönchhof vital records register images, 1683-1938:
http://data.matricula-online.eu/en/oesterreich/burgenland/moenchhof/

Kaisersteinbruch vital records register images, 1690-1827:
http://data.matricula-online.eu/en/oesterreich/burgenland/kaisersteinbruch/



Start of Construction of the S7 Rudersdorf Tunnel: Last month, a ceremonial ground-breaking was held for the Rudersdorf Tunnel, a key link in the Fürstenfelder Schnellstraße, aka, the S7 Expressway, which will connect southern Burgenland to eastern Styria and to the A2 Freeway (the Süd Autobahn) to Vienna.

Last year, after an almost twenty-year-long legal tug-of-war, construction of the expressway began. It will lead from the A2 at Riegersdorf (Styria) to the eastern Burgenland border with Hungary at Heiligenkreuz. The tunnel will be 2.8 kilometers (1.75 miles) long, cost about 160 million euros, and will be the first highway tunnel built in Burgenland.

The immediate benefit from the tunnel will be to remove traffic problems from the Rudersdorf municipality, as the old B65 highway runs through the heart of Rudersdorf. The wider goal for the Expressway as a whole is economic: "It is also important for the economy, because infrastructure is important for rural areas. We want that not all people have to move to the city to find work, but to live here and work - and that is our contribution," said Transport Minister Norbert Hofer.


The Fürstenfelder Schnellstraße, the S7, has a length of 29 kilometers (18 miles). The West section (in pink) extends from the A2 in Styria to Rudersdorf, where it passes through a 2.8 kilometer-long (1.75 mile) tunnel (in red). The East section (in yellow) extends from the tunnel to the Hungarian border at Heiligenkreuz.

Construction of the tunnel will take about 23 months and is rather unique. Rather than going through a monolithic rock mass, the tunnel will go through a series of comparatively loose rock masses. Excavators, not explosives, will be used to remove rock and soil and support structures will be inserted as the excavation proceeds.

The main arguments against the expressway was a concern that the environment would be damaged by the construction and that the presence of a "high-level road" would create an increasingly busy transit route for freight traffic between Styria and Hungary. Nonetheless, Governor Hans Niessl said at the groundbreaking, "I worked for this project for 18 years, witnessing demonstrations against it. I am very happy that this tunnel is being built here. This leads to a relief of the population, it leads to a business location in Burgenland being upgraded. It also leads to more traffic safety, therefore I was for it for 18 years." 

Overall construction cost for the S7 is about 700 million euros, with a target of the end of 2023 for completion.



State Visit to Israel: Austrian President, Alexander Van der Bellen, took his first state visit to Israel during the first week of February, arriving with a delegation of over 50 members. He was welcomed by his counterpart, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, as they reviewed an honor guard during the welcoming ceremony at the presidential compound in Jerusalem on February 4, 2019. In addition, he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he laid a wreath at a ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, and the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, as well as participating in a formal tree planting ceremony at the Grove of Nations, where over 100 past and present leaders from around the world have planted a tree as a symbol of friendship, peace and continuity.

Van der Bellen also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, where a bilateral memo of understanding was signed on continued cooperation in science, culture and education, as was a declaration of intent on future international cooperation regarding assistance to third world countries.

Of more interest to us Burgenländers, the President also met with Rabbi Yitzhak Ehrenfeld, the grandson of the last rabbi of Mattersburg, Samuel Ehrenfeld, and with Meir Deutsch, who has written a number of articles for the BB Newsletter. Van der Bellen presented Rabbi Ehrenfeld with a copy of the street sign of the lane in Mattersburg named after his grandfather.


left: Austrian President Van der Bellen with Rabbi Yitzhak Ehrenfeld; right: with Meir Deutsch.

During the meeting with Meir Deutsch, Meir told the President that he could trace his family back into the 17th century in Austria, and that two of his great-great-grandfathers were judges in Mattersdorf whose rulings can be found in the Burgenland archives and in a book Meir wrote. Although the book is in Hebrew, President Van der Bellen requested an inscribed copy.



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Hello Burgenland Bunch!

Here is a little bit of what you might have missed if you haven't joined us on our Facebook group. We currently have 853 members. Since last month, 57 more members have joined us on Facebook. The group is always very helpful and active. If you haven't joined us, please do! www.facebook.com/groups/TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL/

This month’s hot topic was a question posed by BB staff member Patrick Kovacs. We had a great discussion about the online availability of FamilySearch’s 1828-1895 church records. He asked if members managed to make full use of the records or if they didn’t bother, due to language barriers, lack of time or trouble deciphering handwriting. The majority of respondents felt that the records were invaluable. Several posters felt that visiting the Family Centers was not very convenient, and that the online availability was very helpful.

Another fun article was shared by Erin Eyroys Berghold. The article was about all blue-eyed people sharing a single common ancestor. She asked how common blue eyes were in Austria. Many members chimed in to share the eye colors that were prominent in their families. See .../all-people-blue-eyes-have-common-ancestor

Mary E. Horvath was looking for a recipe for Spitzbuben and several of helpful members shared their recipes.

Our members did lots of lookups and helped to decipher lots of tough handwriting, and our friend Werner Schoenfeldinger shared a lovely song sung by the children of the kindergarten in Stadtschlaining. It is about sledding in wintertime! Enjoy the song! https://youtu.be/DZNFBI886bU



Burgenland Government Changes: Last month, I mentioned that Burgenland Governor Hans Niessl retired after heading the SPÖ party for 18 years, and that Hans Peter Doskozil was elected as the new party chairman. Doskozil was scheduled to succeed Niessl as Burgenland's Governor on February 28th.

That transition has taken place and the new state government leadership structure is now being defined. Deputy Governor, Johann Tschürtz, and State Councilors Astrid Eisenkopf and Alexander Petschnig retained their offices. New to the government leadership are Councilors Heinrich Dorner, Daniela Winkler and Christian Illedits. Of the outgoing Councilors, Verena Dunst will be the next State Parliament president, replacing Illedits, and Norbert Darabos, after 32 years in government, is retiring to volunteer work, becoming president of the Friedenszentrums (Peace Center) Schlaining.

The planned responsibilities for these officeholders are:

Of the new government, only Councilors Eisenkopf and Petschnig have been part of prior Burgenland delegations that visited emigrant enclaves in North America. Former Governor Niessl continued the tradition of these every-five-years visits, sending delegations in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 and personally participating in three... but will there be a 2022 visit? We shall see.

As for Niessl, he responded in a December interview with DerStandard (a Vienna-based Austrian newspaper), that he was completely retiring from politics and will open a consulting company in March or April.

When asked what accomplishments during his 18 years as governor he was most proud of, he said "I am proud of what Burgenländers have achieved during this time. Today we have 30 percent more jobs in the country... we really took advantage of the opportunity offered by the Objective 1 status with its funding. Second, the education system. From the land of school shame, we have transformed ourselves into a modern, self-confident educational country. And third, we have a good health and social system, which is not easy to organize for a rural area."

It is worth noting that Niessl's 18+ year reign as Governor (2000-2019) is the second longest in Burgenland history, trailing only Theodor Kery's 21+ years from 1966 to 1987 and far exceeding the third-longest, 10+ years by Lorenz Karall from 1946 to 1956. Not bad for a man who started as a primary and secondary school teacher in Frauenkirchen. Niessl's entry into politics was as mayor of Frauenkirchen, which led to election as a member of the state parliament. He quickly became chairman of his party, which led to the governorship. In 2005, he carried his party to a historic level of election success, winning over 52 percent of the vote and the absolute majority of the parliament, levels extremely difficult to attain when there are four major parties competing for votes. Yes, not bad!

Note: Letters have been sent on behalf of the Burgenland Bunch to both new Governor Doskozil and former Governor Niessl, congratulating the first on his new role and inviting him to continue the Burgenland government delegation visits to North America, and to the later for all he has done for Burgenland and its emigrant communities. If you should wish to write, you can address your letters as follows:

Landeshauptmann [Hans Peter Doskozil or Hans Niessl]
Landhaus
7000 Eisenstadt, Burgenland, Austria



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 1384 copies, as interested people purchased 11 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 month's recipe is from ongoing contributor Ed Malesky. An Internet search for pictures of kipfels leaves room for your own interpretation; some look like mini jelly rolls, some like small crescent rolls, some like almond crescent cookies, and some like kolachkys. The appearance isn't important; it's the taste we're ultimately interested in, so use the design you like and enjoy.

Kipfels (from Ed Malesky)

Ingredients-dough:
1 lb. butter (room temp)
6 egg yolks
1/2 lemon, zest of
2 Tbsp sour cream
4 oz. semi-sweet white wine (e.g. Riesling)
6 cups flour
2 packages yeast

Ingredients-filling:
apricot jelly

Ingredients-other:
powdered sugar
beaten egg white (optional)

Preparation-dough (day 1):
Separate the egg yolks into a large mixing bowl and cream in the butter, lemon zest, sour cream, and half of the wine. Mix flour and yeast then fold into the creamed ingredients. Knead the dough to mix well, adding more wine to moisten, if needed, but the dough should not be sticky. Roll into 3-4 balls and refrigerate overnight.

Preparation (day 2):
Working one ball at a time, dust a table or breadboard with powdered sugar and roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8" - 3/16". Cut into two- to three-inch squares, fill middle with apricot jelly and roll from corner or edge, then seal together by pinching dough or with beaten egg white. Place the kipfels on a dry baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar (but don't store them that way long-term... the sugar absorbs moisture and makes them soggy).



Note: We again have a "regular" source for Burgenland recipes.

Nonetheless, if you have a favorite family recipe, please consider sharing it with us. 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:

Side Note: If you look above, you should see that there are three major sections in the Sankt Michael listing:
· the first section has the available Catholic (RC) records;
· the second section has the available Civil (GV) records; and
· the third section is an independent scan of the available Civil (GV) records.

The difference between the second and third sections is that the third section is from a direct digital scan of the register books while the second section comes from a digital conversion of the earlier microfilm of the books. Thus these two GV collections may differ slightly in arrangement, clarity and content.

There is also a wonderful little note in the Catholic records section, that being that "a transcription of these records is located here: SanktMichaelRecords." That note is a reference to a searchable/sortable database of Catholic church records for Sankt Michael (Pusta Szent Mihály), consisting of 6,787 birth records, 1,355 marriage records, and 5,368 death records from 1828 to 1895. It is courtesy of BB member Margaret Roosdahl, who transcribed and shared them with us.

I'll say more about this database in a little bit but, as it won't help find a post-1895 marriage record, we have to look elsewhere first.



Given the strong likelihood of a post-1903 marriage, I'll look in the GV Marriage collection for 1904-1920 (in the first digitization), that being digital collection number 005036305. Sure enough, page 113 of that collection (see here) has the 30 Apr 1904 marriage record for Konrad and Gizela, confirming the parentage for Konrad and adding lots of useful information. As a generality, marriage records are an excellent way to leap between generations, as they usually give information about both the bridal couple and about their parents.

In this case, we see that Konrad was born 17 Feb 1880 to Ferencz/Franz and Anna (Erkinger) Graf in Rábort (Rauchwart) and that Gizela was born 17 May 1885 to Ferencz and Magdolna (Marx) Eberhardt, also from Rauchwart.

And, as the three italicized surnames in the above paragraph are the "related" ones that Karen had mentioned, it seems evident that she had successfully followed the trail this far.



The next step is to see what more we can learn about Konrad and Gizela's parents... though, alternatively, one could also spend some time in the post-1903 civil birth records to see if Konrad and Gizela provided some siblings to Karen's grandfather, Gustav Graf. Regardless, we will move back a generation (as that is the part of the research that I really want to talk about!).

Normally, that would mean looking first for the birth records for Konrad and Gizela (we have the dates from their marriage record). We would do this to see if we can learn the ages and house numbers for their parents, as this should help find their marriage records and give information that might be confirmed in those records. However, thanks to Margaret Roosdahl's transcriptions of the Sankt Michael church records, we have a shortcut... we can quickly look for the marriages of the parents, bypassing a step. We know the two parental pairs were married sometime around or before 1880 for the groom and 1885 for the bride.

Jumping to BB page .../SanktMichaelRecords.htm and selecting Marriages, 1828-1895, the easiest thing to do is sort by either the Husband or Wife (the default sort is by Date (of marriage), but it can be changed by clicking another column header). Doing so by Husband and scrolling down to Eberhardt (Gizela's parents were Ferencz and Magdolna [Marx] Eberhardt, which, when sorted alphabetically by husband, comes before the groom's parents, Ferencz/Franz and Anna [Erkinger] Graf), we can see that three spellings of that surname appear: Eberhardt, Eberhart, and Eberharth, but only version Eberharth has a Ferencz (or Franz, Franciscus, etc.). Sure enough, on 23 Feb 1870, a surprisingly long time before Gizela's birth (which is why it was useful to sort by Husband), there is the marriage of Franciscus Eberharth, age 30, and Magdalena Marksz, age 27. The spelling of her surname is odd but still phonetically correct, so I'm sure this is the right couple.

Likewise, scrolling down to Graf, we see there are two surname spellings but only one with the right first name: Franciscus Graf, age 24, married Anna Erkinger, age 20, on 28 Jan 1874. Almost certainly, this is the right couple too.

But here is where things become difficult... and why I wanted to write about this research: the marriage records do not contain parental names, so making a firm link back another generation is suddenly uncertain! Unfortunately, this is a common problem in earlier church records, as little information is provided in the records. Sure, the current residences of the brides and grooms is provided in the 1870s marriage records ...but, go back to 1843-1854, the period of birth for these people, and it is unlikely that even residence numbers are provided in the birth records. But let's check...

The marriage records show that all four individuals were living in Rauchwarth at the time of marriage, with house numbers 53, 51, 61 and 4. We'll now jump to the birth records, looking around 1840 for the birth of Franciscus Eberharth (he was 30 in Feb 1870, per his marriage record, so born 1839-1840... assuming the age is correct, that is). Unfortunately we do not know his parental names. I'm going to do my search by using the default Date of birth/baptism order (not all records have date of birth), going to February 1840, and searching back in time from there. I'll do the search using my browser's search tool looking for text Eberhar in the Father column (which I hope will find all the variations of the surname). Unfortunately, the search tool will find that text string in other columns too... but I'll just ignore those.

My first hit is for the birth of a Ferentz Eberharth on 29 Nov 1839 to Janos Eberharth and Anna Erdkhinig of Rauchwarth (unfortunately, no house number given, as feared). This birth record is consistent with the expected birth date, given the information in the marriage record... but are there more possibilities? Looking for Eberhar... births before this one, I find no possibilities going back over three more years. Likewise, going forward three years from the above birth, no possibilities there either. I also checked for illegitimate births for a Ferencz, Franz, Franciscus, etc., in the right time period and found no possibilities (the easiest way to do that is to sort by Father and then by (given) Name, as that will bunch together the records you want to consider). So it seems quite possible we found the right birth record... though we must concede that Ferencz may have been born elsewhere.

So what do you do from here? One choice is to see if there are siblings to Ferentz; that is, other children born to the same parents in a sensible surrounding time period. If so, finding the marriage records of the siblings and seeing the same house number for one or more sibling in his/her marriage record as we found for Ferencz in his would be confirmatory evidence of the correct parents, and therefore of the correct birth record. However, one must consider all possible spellings for the parents' names... as Erdkhinig for the mother certainly seems like a nonstandard spelling! So is that the correct name?

One choice is to go into the images of these church records and see if you would transcribe it the same way that the compiler of these listings, Margaret Roosdahl, did. [In fact, and no offense to Margaret is involved here, you should always look at the original record yourself!] Here it is...



Yep, I'd transcribe it as Erdkhinig too (note: that és above the surname is not an edit to it; rather it is the Hungarian "and" that appears between parental names in all these records). Still, just because the surname was written that way this time does not mean it was always spelled that way. Going through the birth records and pulling possible other births for these parents (regardless of exact spelling of surnames) leads to this list:

These are the only reasonably possible births (that is, in an acceptable "birthing" time frame, adequate gap between successive births, name spellings close enough, etc.). As you can see, the first and fourth records are tied together by the matching witnesses, but the fourth record add a surname spelling variation for Anna: Erdkinig. That spelling then ties us to the fifth record (as does, less strongly, the "Vagner" surname of a witness). But look at records two and three... the second witness seems to be the same person... so is Erkinger another, possibly more reasonable, spelling of Anna's surname? It is a spelling that goes forth into more recent times (whereas the other two variations do not). If it is a reasonable variation then it raises the possibility that the last two records are also for these same parents.

None of my comments above resolve the question of whether any or all of the above are siblings... but taking some of these children forward to their marriage records may give some assurance of a relationship... that is, if house numbers match or the more recent marriages also include parental names.

Unfortunately, this is the type of analysis that is needed if you wish to extend research back into this time period. It is also why I titled this article, "A Simple Request... A Less Than Simple Answer." I won't run you through it, but the same process could be used for the other three people in this family tree... and I suspect that similar, less than satisfying, conclusions will be reached about potential parentages.

But here is the thing about this situation that really stinks... if you check the marriage records for the marriage of the above parental pair, Janos Eberharth and Anna Erdkhinig, you'll find one on 2 Feb 1839. They were ages 24 and 20 ...and the parents are listed as Josef and Margita Eberharth and Marton and Anna Erdkhinig! So not only do we remain unsure about this generation, we can't conclusively connect to a well-documented additional generation!

Regardless, enjoy your research (it's the only research you have!).
 

NOTICE (Informal Terms and Conditions): The Burgenland Bunch (BB) was formed and exists to assist Burgenland descendants in their research into their heritage and, toward that end, reserves the right to use any communication you have with us (email, letter, phone conversation, data upload, etc.) as part of our information exchange and educational research efforts.
    ● If you do not want your communication to be used for this purpose, indicate that it is "confidential" and we will attempt to abide by that request.
    ● Correspondents who communicate with the BB without requesting confidentiality retain their copyright but give a non-exclusive license to the BB allowing us to forward to BB members, publish in our monthly newsletter or on our website, and/or subsequently and permanently archive all or parts of such communications.

The formal Burgenland Bunch Website Usage Agreement can be found here: Agreement

The Burgenland Bunch homepage (website) can be found at: the-burgenland-bunch.org

Burgenland Bunch Newsletter, copyright © 2019 by The Burgenland Bunch
All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided.