The News
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 315
December 31, 2020, © 2020 by The Burgenland Bunch
All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided.

Editor: Thomas Steichen (email: tj.steichen@comcast.net)

BB Home Page: the-burgenland-bunch.org
BB Newsletter Archives: BB Newsletter
BB Facebook Page: TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL

Our 24th year. The Burgenland Bunch Newsletter is issued monthly online.
The BB was founded by Gerald Berghold, who died in August 2008.

Current Status Of The BB:
* Members: 2996 * Surname Entries: 8884 * Query Board Entries: 5848 * Staff Members: 13

This newsletter concerns:

1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER

2) THE YEAR IN REVIEW: ORGANIZATION

3) THE YEAR IN REVIEW: NEWSLETTER

4) ETHNIC EVENTS

5) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch)

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

A Happy 2021 To You!

This annual, abbreviated, year-end review and summary report newsletter is provided to gather together information about the BB organization and its newsletter during 2020. Our regular essays and features return next month, however, our sections reporting Ethnic Events and Burgenland Emigrant Obituaries are included in this edition.

Again, we thank you, our members and readers, for your interest in the history and genealogy of the Burgenland and wish you great joy during this holiday season and many successes in the new year.

And, to the BB Staff, I extend my personal thanks for all you do, as well as thanks from the membership. You are always helpful and knowledgeable! I'm wishing you well in this holiday season and in the new year to come! May it be much better than 2020!



Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Year’s Day Concert: Christoph Fertl, of Land Burgenland contacted the BB to say that the government has lots of projects planned for Burgenland’s 100th birthday. The first event they are hosting is a New Year’s Eve concert, which will feature a segment on the history of Burgenland. It will be airing on most PBS stations on New Year’s Day at 9 pm. Here is a link if you’d like to read more: www.burgenland.info/new-years-day-concert.

In the US, the concert will be broadcast as a PBS Great Performances episode. For details in your area, go to www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf. While it is clear that the concert will be broadcast on PBS, no mention was made in the preview about the Burgenland video, so we will have to wait to discover whether it is included in the US broadcasts; let's hope so!



Check, Update E-mail Address: This is a new, now-regular feature of my year-end BB wrap-up newsletter: an annual request that you review your e-mail address on our pages and, if it is no longer correct, that you send in a correction using the BB's Change Form found here: the-burgenland-bunch.org/change.

Your e-mail address is the only way other BB members (even BB staff) can contact you; if it is invalid, you may as well not bother to list your family data with us. The Change Form also allows you to update your other information... but the starting point is a valid e-mail address, so please check it!

How do you check it: Go to our Members Pages at the-burgenland-bunch.org/Members, select the correct section of the alphabet, find your entry in the alphabetical listing, then click your name; that should open a blank e-mail with your e-mail address on the "To:" line. If the listed address is obsolete/wrong, copy it then go to our Change Form and paste that wrong address into the 3rd box on the form (we want the wrong address so we know we are fixing the right problem!). Then fill out at least boxes 1, 2 and 4, answer the "human-verification" question at the bottom of the form, then click the "send" button. We'll take care of the rest!



Post-1921 Research in the Rotenturm Recording Office: For those of you with family from Rotenturm an der Pinka, Siget in der Wart, Spitzzicken and Jabing, a great opportunity awaits.

BB Member Christian Saurer, who works for the Rotenturm municipality, has offered to provide look-ups in the civil records recorded there, at least to the limits allowed by Austrian law. What this last bit means is that Austria limits vital records open access to births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 years old, and deaths over 30 years old. For research in 2021, that will mean births that occurred in years 1895 to 1920 (we start in 1895 as that is the first year for civil recording of vital events), marriages that occurred in years 1895 to 1945, and deaths that occurred in years 1895 to 1990. The terminal year in each of these time ranges will increase by one each subsequent research year. An exception is Jabing, as it remained in the Rotenturm recording district only until 1970, so that year is the current limit for deaths and a future limit for marriages and births.

Christian tells me that he only needs a name and possibly a year, as they have an index he can use to speed his research. However, if you do not have the exact year for an event, I suggest you provide a probable year range to help Christian minimize his effort, and also provide any "confirming" data you might know: names of parents for a birth or marriage, spouse for a marriage or death, etc., to help him know he found the right record.

As you know, the 1895-1920 civil records are available online in image format. Therefore, you can search those records yourself ...or the BB staff can help you search them. We recommend you use these approaches when researching these earlier civil records, with Christian only as a last resort. That way, he can concentrate his efforts within the records we cannot access ourselves.

You can reach Christian via email at christian.saurer@gmx.at.



Burgenland Church Records: The long-awaited Eisenstadt Diocese Church Records website opened in late December 2018, sort of as a Christmas present to the world... but, even though it is now in its for-pay, operational form, it is still a rather incomplete site. The German-language website (still the only version) is here: matriken.at (I found that GoogleTranslate did well enough that I could understand everything). Do note that you must register and pay a fee to access actual record images.

The website opened with only 58 of the 172 parishes in the diocese available; it has since grown to 69 parishes. The list of available parishes is here: https://matriken.at/node/24, along with a pdf file, Digitalisierte Pfarrmatriken, detailing the record sets available in each parish. There is also another pdf file, Pfarrmatriken in Bearbeitung, which notes corrections for available parishes are underway; it also lists the ten parishes expected to become available in 2021.



Corona Virus in Burgenland: Burgenland (and apparently much of Austria) carried out a free Corona-virus mass-testing program from December 10th to 15th. Participation, which was voluntary and free of charge, was of the "rapid antigen test" style and offered to Burgenländers at 25 fixed locations and via two testing buses that served 9 more locations. To keep crowding down, the testing was done by fixed appointments, with nearly 23,000 registering within the first day registration opened, December 7th.

In addition to children under age 6, other groups not allowed to take the tests included people then-current: with symptoms of Covid disease; on sick leave; in official isolation (quarantine); having regular tests for professional reasons; live in old-folks and nursing homes; or, have had Covid in the past 3 months.

The information site explained that the testing was offered because the province of Burgenland wanted to enable as many people as possible to have a carefree, quarantine-free Christmas and to find people who were then-currently infected but not showing any symptoms, so they could be isolated before spreading the virus right before the holidays.

By the completion of testing, there proved to be 128 antigen-positive results among the 81,501 people tested (~30% of eligible Burgenländers tested). That worked out to just under 0.16% positivity. These people will have a PCR test to confirm (or not) their status.

All in all, it seemed like a good use of government monies to me!



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings Burgenland Bunch!

I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy! It has been quite a year, hasn’t it? Here’s hoping that 2021 brings healthy and happy times for us all. We have a lot to celebrate in 2021. Burgenland is turning 100! We will do our best to bring you updates about all of the upcoming birthday festivities- hopefully Covid takes a hike so we can all get together again soon.

We had a great year in our little group. We now have 1511 members! We gained 350 new members this year. If you haven’t joined yet, please consider doing so. We have a lot of great posts and many friendships have been made here. We’d love to have you!

Chris Wilkinson shared two excellent blogs with us:
Part 1: Conceived in Chaos: Burgenland: conceived-in-chaos
Part 2: Forced Separation: German West Hungary and Burgenland: forced-separation

New BB Facebook member Rudolf Schabl has done extensive research on Pilgersdorf (Pörgölény) and has created a database containing 11,500 people. The database contains births, deaths, marriages, and emigrant records. If you’d like more information, we can put you in touch with Rudi.

Member Janet Kroboth-Weber shared a fantastic link. It features the villages situated along the Austria-Hungary border. The video is in Hungarian, but the views of the castle and surrounding countryside are gorgeous, youtube.com/watch.

For Burgenland’s 100th birthday, member Karin Tomisser is looking for members to share a few lines about “What Burgenland means to me...” for a school project. She is looking for old photos, articles, stories, etc. If you would like to participate, please let me know and I will put you in touch with Karin.

BB Staff member Patrick Kovacs shared an index of birth records from St. Michael’s between 1895-1920.

We had an interesting discussion about mtDNA haplogroups found with our family trees. We shared lots of delicious cookie recipes and heard lots of beautiful traditional Austrian Christmas music. It was a very different kind of Christmas, but our little group feels like family, so it wasn’t as lonely as it could have been.

CONNECTIONS:

Siegfried Wolf is looking for Pamela Terwilleger, daughter of Robert Terwilliger and Frieda Wolf. Her grandparents are William Wolf and Frieda Prem of Mühlgraben.

Jan Harrison is looking for Mayer descendants with ancestors from Némétújvár, Vas, Hungary or after 1920, Güssing, Burgenland.

Kellie Steiner is searching for information on her husband’s great-great-grandparents Fransiscus Polczer and Maria Binder of Kirchfidisch.

Karen Alonzo is looking for family members from Burg. Surnames include Muhr, Dorner, Prangl, and Wacholder.

Franz Ganzfuss is searching for relatives from the Ganzfuss family. His father was born in Jabing and later moved to Würnitz.

Elizabeth Ann Miller is looking for information about the family of Franz Gassler, son of Frank and Mary (Stoicits) Gassler.

Arnaud Sagar is looking for descendants of Josef Sillaber of Bruck an der Leitha.

If anyone would like to contact any of these members, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will be happy to pass along the information! My email address is HooftyRN@msn.com.

Wishing each and every one of you a very happy and healthy new year! Stay safe!

Vanessa



Words for Thought (compliments of BB member Meir Deutsch):

Once you understand why pizza is made round, packed in a square box, and eaten as triangles, then you will understand 2020!

2) THE YEAR-IN-REVIEW: BB ORGANIZATION

The BB, as an organization, is alive and well, still attracting members, surnames, questions and even new staff members! The statistics below document the changes in each of these areas:

2020 Beginning Status Of The BB:
2,914 Members, 8,850 Surname Entries, 5,786 Query Board Entries, 13 Staff Members

2020 Ending Status of the BB:
2,996 Members, 8,884 Surname Entries, 5,848 Query Board Entries, 13 Staff Members

2020 Growth:
    82 Members,       34 Surname Entries,     62 Query Board Entries,   0 Staff Members

My one comment on these numbers is that the increase in 2020 Surnames was so low because we removed during the year a fair number of old entries that showed no relationship to Burgenland.



As for a Year-End Count of BH&R Honorees documented on the BH&R sub-site, the count last year at this time, was 24,238. Over this year the team added 772 honorees, raising the total to 25,010. My congrats to project leader Frank Paukowits and teammates Bob Strauch and Margaret Kaiser.



As for a Year-End Count of BB Facebook Members, Vanessa Sandhu reported the current membership count above (1,511), and also that 350 members joined the Facebook page in 2020. While this is a far larger growth than that of the BB membership (~2%), it is also a slowing of growth relative to the previous year: ~31% increase versus ~51% in 2019, a result that is expected as a group matures. My congratulations to the BB Facebook administrators and members for creating a welcoming and productive knowledge-exchange environment!



As for Access to the BB website, below are various monthly statistics for 2020 (substituting December of 2019 so I can present a complete 12 months).
 
2020 Unique Operating System Browser
Month  Visitors Windows Macintosh Linux Other Chrome Firefox Safari MS/IE Other
Dec-19 8317 60% 22% 17% 1% 49% 30% 18% 1% 2%
Jan-20 9841 60% 23% 15% 2% 55% 23% 19% 1% 2%
Feb-20 10312 62% 21% 16% 1% 58% 23% 17% 1% 1%
Mar-20 8126 57% 22% 18% 3% 55% 19% 20% 3% 3%
Apr-20 6101 59% 25% 14% 2% 52% 25% 21% 1% 1%
May-20 6150 59% 24% 15% 2% 54% 24% 20% 1% 1%
Jun-20 6150 58% 28% 13% 1% 56% 21% 22% 1% 0%
Jul-20 6769 60% 25% 14% 1% 57% 20% 20% 1% 2%
Aug-20 6143 59% 27% 13% 1% 59% 18% 21% 1% 1%
Sep-20 5885 58% 25% 15% 2% 58% 20% 20% 1% 1%
Oct-20 6099 63% 23% 12% 2% 60% 19% 19% 1% 1%
Nov-20 5831 62% 23% 13% 2% 55% 22% 20% 1% 2%
Average 7144 60% 24% 15% 2% 44% 30% 19% 2% 5%

A quick look at the Unique Visitors shows that the number per month was greatly affected by Covid-19 this year. We showed growth through February but March and April each showed significant drops, after which the number of visitors largely stabilized. Comparing to the average of the first four months, we see average visitors dropped from 9,149 to 6,141, or a 3,008 decrease in average visitors per month after Covid-19 fully took hold. To be honest, this was the opposite of what I expected! I presumed people would have more time to fill so would be more inclined to visit our site... but I was wrong.

Nonetheless, we still averaged more visitors/month in 2020 compared to 2019: 7,144 vs 6,936 (about 208 more per month), a very nice increase! The concerning question, though, is whether the Covid-19 impact (a daily decrease of over 100 visits!) will continue, as our visits per month are currently substantially decreased over any recent pre-Covid period.

As for Computer Operating Systems, our visitors continue to predominantly use Windows-based computers (60% on average) and Macintosh computers (24% on average), with the Linux (Unix) and "Other" operating systems still trailing quite distantly with 15% and 2%.

When looking at Web Browsers, Google Chrome continues its ascent, gaining 8 percentage points whereas Firefox decreased by that same percentage. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) continued its slide into oblivion, dropping to just 1% after two years at 2%. I'll note that my visitor stats generator does not provide a separate entry for the Microsoft Edge browser. As it is a Chromium-based browser, I suspect it is counted within the "Google Chrome" category.



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.

In a rare circumstance, the BB staff membership stayed exactly the same this year! The current 13 staff members remain: Tom Steichen, Klaus Gerger, Bob Strauch, Margaret Kaiser, John Lavendoski, Frank Paukowits, Alan Varga, Wilhelm Schmidt, Terry McWilliams, Johnny Santana, Patrick Kovacs, Vanessa Sandhu and David Hofer (listed in order of joining the staff).

In addition, we remain blessed to have ongoing assistance of additional individuals who, though not on the formal staff, still provide regular service to the organization and its members. Current such individuals include Réka Kiesz, Julia Szent-Gyorgyi, and the leadership of the BB Facebook page.

I'll close this section by saying that the BB would not exist without the giving, knowledgeable people named above! My sincere thanks go to all our BB staff members and supporters, both former and current.



BB Website Events: Here are the more significant items from 2020:

►House Number Translation Lists: 2020 was a decent year for adding to our translation lists. Burgenland has been transitioning from the old house number system to a modern street and number format. The old house numbers were called Konskriptions-nummern (conscription numbers) and the new numbers, which start over on each named street, are known as Orientierungs-nummern (orientation numbers). Generally, the available vital records list the conscription number; if you want to know where a house is now, you need to translate to the new nomenclature, thus these lists.
  ■ In April, we announced new house number translation lists for Apetlon and Mariasdorf, both created by a labor-intensive approach using the online mid-19th century Hapsburg Empire Cadastral maps that are synced to and overlaid on modern maps that show the current street names and numbers and the associated "Parzellen Protocol" documents that tie parzelle numbers on the maps to conscription numbers and to the property owner names.

►FamilySearch Digital Records Corrections: Our "FamilySearch (FS) Microfilms and Digital Collections" (at the-burgenland-bunch.org/LDS/LDS.htm) continued to be refined as we made needed additions or edits for a number of villages. These include:
  ■ Apetlon's RC Births, dated 1865-1869 inclusive, were indexed incorrectly by FamilySearch; the search index reports years 1895-1899 (30 years off) ...but the month and day are correct. It was also determined that images for Apetlon RC Marriages, 1865-1866, are missing. There is nothing we could do to fix these problems, but we could warn you. With that thought in mind, a note was added to the BB's FamilySearch listings for Apetlon warning you about both problems.
 ■ Unterschützen Civil Records: Credit goes to Karl Sarkozi for noticing that the civil recording location for Unterschützen (Alsó-Lövö) was wrong. Karl noted that we listed Oberschützen (Felsö-Lövö) as civil recording location for Unterschützen (Alsó-Lövö), whereas Oberwart (Felsö-Ör) is correct.
 ■ Other Civil Records: BB staffer Patrick Kovacs set off a cascade of changes when he reported that we had the wrong year for the switch of civil recording districts for village Harmisch. We had listed the switch, from the Eberau (Monyorókerék) recording district to the St. Michael (Pusztaszentmihály) recording district, as occurring at the start of 1910; however, 1907 was correct. What he didn't notice was that all the other villages previously recording at Eberau switched at the end of 1906 too, leaving Eberau recording just its own events. So, not only did Harmisch (Hovárdos) switch at the end of 1906, but so did Edlitz (Abdalócz), Höll (Pokolfalu) and Sankt Kathrein (Pósa-Szentkatalin), which all went to Deutsch Schützen (Németlo/Németlövo), plus Deutsch Ehrensdorf (Némethásos) and Kroatisch Ehrensdorf (Horváthásos), which went to Strem (Strém).

Further, that led us to discover that our BB records indicated that Deutsch Schützen was not a recording district! Quite the contrary, we indicated that Deutsch Schützen's civil vital events were recorded at Pornóapáti, Hungary (also known as Pornó)! After some research, we confirmed that FamilySearch had incorrectly cataloged Deutsch Schützen (Nemetlövő) books as Pornó books. In fact, all of the civil record sets listed for Pornó dated before 1921 actually belong to Deutsch Schützen.... yet were cataloged and accessible only under Pornó. Our BB FamilySearch pages have been edited to properly index all of these record sets. The Deutsch Schützen records are under its name and Pornó has lost a bunch of (incorrectly cataloged) record sets.

►Vital Record Transcriptions on the BB Site: During 2020 we were pleased to add a number of vital record transcriptions to our collection.
  ■ BB Member Ed Marx has kindly provided a transcription of the birth/baptism records for the Catholic parish of Strem (Strém). These records cover the 1877-1895 era. Strem was also the official recording location for Sumetendorf (Szombatfa) during this time. Prior to 1877, records for both villages were in parish Heiligenbrunn.
 ■ BB Member Ed Marx and I, jointly, made available a transcription of birth/baptism records for the Catholic parish of Güssing (Németujvár) for the 1861-1895 era. Güssing was also the official recording location during this time for villages Glasing ([Kis-]Kolozsvár), Langzeil (none), Neustift bei Güssing (Gödörfő, Ujtelep), Rosenberg (Rosáhegy, Rozsáhegy), Urbersdorf (Orbánfalu, Orbánfalva, Úrbér) and, after 1874, Tobaj (Tobaj).
 ■ The Austrian Jewish Museum (Österreichischen Jüdischen Museum, OJM, at www.ojm.at) announced the availability of transcriptions of birth, marriage and death records from the Jewish Records at Eisenstadt (Kis-Marton) for the period 1895 to 1938. We provide links for this resource.
 ■ BB staff member Patrick Kovacs provided civil marriage records transcriptions for Großpetersdorf and Mischendorf for 1895 to 1921. The Großpetersdorf recording district also included the villages of Kleinpetersdorf and Miedlingsdorf. The Mischendorf recording district also included the villages of Badersdorf, Großbachselten, Kleinbachselten, Kleinzicken, Kohfidisch, Kotezicken, Neuhaus in der Wart, and Rohrbach an der Teich. In addition, Patrick has shared with me his transcription of the St. Michael (Puszta-Szent-Mihály) civil marriages records (1895-1920), however, I have yet to convert those records to the BB online format.

►Two Other Changes to the BB Website:
 ■ In April, the BB website was moved from an insecure HTTP:// site to a secure HTTPS:// site. What that means is that all communication from and to the site is encrypted and carries a locked symbol. The site was set up with what is known as a 301 Redirect, which forces any reference to an unsecured (or unspecified) version of our site name to the secure site.
 ■ The other change is that we have modified a number of BB pages to be more "mobile friendly." The changes are intended to make our pages display better on mobile devices, especially on the smaller displays of phones, while also maintaining most of their usual appearance on lap- and desktop computers.

►"The Burgenländer Emigration to America" (by Dr. Walter Dujmovits): As expected following the outstanding 2014 first-year sales of 763 copies of the book, the sales rate slowed but with a still encouraging 189 copies purchased in 2015, 163 in 2016, 111 in 2017, 129 in 2018, 105 in 2019 and now 101 in 2020. Current total sales is 1568 copies.

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 late Christmas present for yourself!

3) THE YEAR-IN-REVIEW: BB NEWSLETTER

The newsletter had yet another productive year but, again, I am most proud of the contributions from BB members.

Members Richard Potetz, Patricia Nemetz-Mills, Joseph Francis Reich and John Lostys each provided an interesting article for your reading pleasure.

As always, BB staff members provided ideas for articles or have had parts of their communications with members turned into reports or news items that I wrote.

When totaled up over the eight full and three abbreviated editions published this year (counting this one as abbreviated), there were:
►   9 formal articles, of which 4 were provided by BB members
► 12 "updated" historical BB Newsletter articles
► 63 news items
► 12 BB Facebook reports
► 11 "humor" or "thought" items
►   4 Burgenländische recipes
► 33 emigrant obituaries
► 21 ethnic events (none after February).

As Editor of this newsletter, I know that providing a year's worth of articles would not have been possible without all the contributions of those I mention above. I am indebted to them and hope you have been entertained and enlightened by their efforts. Again, I say thanks to each and every one of them!



The list below shows the breath and magnitude of a year of the BB Newsletter. If you wish to review any of them, click on the "(Month:Number)" link to go to the appropriate newsletter.

Basic Information
(Jan:305) A First Tutorial for Matriken.AT
(Feb:306) The Rules for Keeping Catholic Church Registers
(Mar:307) 1918 Spanische Grippe in Burgenland
(Apr:308) ORF: The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation
(Jul:311) A Post-WW-II Emigration Story
(Dec:315) The Year in Review: Organization
(Dec:315) The Year in Review: Newsletter

Member-Contributed Articles
(May:309) Using the Burgenländers Honored and Remembered Memorial List to Restore Lost Connections to Burgenland (by Richard Potetz)
(Jun:310) Culture, Nostalgia, and Modern Migration – A Century Later: A Study of Burgenländers and Their Descendants (by Patricia Nemetz-Mills)
(Aug:312) The War in Burgenland (by Joseph Francis Reich)
(Nov:314) An American’s First Time in Burgenland (by John Lostys)

Historical BB Newsletter Articles
(Jan:305) Homepage Surname List Volunteer Still Needed
(Jan:305) Hungarian Reformed Church - Oberwart Region
(Feb:306) Travel Time, Burgenland to New York
(Mar:307) Heanzen - A Question of Identity
(Apr:308) Ports of Entry
(May:309) World War I Ethnic Cleansing
(Jun:310) Source of Name Tschida [Extract]
(Jun:310) Translating Names to Evolve Possible Romantic Ancestral Stories
(Jul:311) House Names
(Aug:312) Comments Concerning Duplicate Records (by Fritz Königshofer)
(Sep:313) Professor Traces Austrian Music in Lehigh Valley
(Nov:314) America's Immigration Crisis (by G. J. Berghold)

4) ETHNIC EVENTS

(none)
 

5) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES (courtesy of Bob Strauch)

Emma Lahner (née Schatz)

Emma Lahner, 96, of Northampton, Pennsylvania, passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 29, 2020 at Renaissance Home, Northampton.

Emma and her husband, Joseph, would have celebrated 61 years of marriage on Dec. 12th.

Born November 21, 1924 in Glasing, Austria, she was the daughter of the late Ambros and Theresia (Neubauer) Schatz.

Emma worked at Cross Country Clothes for 30 years until her retirement in 1987. She was a member of Queenship of Mary Catholic Church.

In addition to her husband, Emma is survived by daughter, Wilma; grandsons, Louis, Joseph and his wife, Christine, and Michael and his fiancé, Christine; great grandchildren, Brian, Michael, Justin, Joseph, Courtney, and Shannon; great-great grandchildren, Alexander and Alessandra; and several nieces and nephews. Emma was predeceased by her son-in- Law, Louis, and her siblings, John, Robert, Alois, Frank, Gustl, Anna, and Rosie.

Private services are under the direction of Reichel Funeral Home, Northampton. Online condolences may be offered at www.reichelfuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be presented to Queenship of Mary Church, 1324 Newport Ave., Northampton in loving memory of Emma.

Published in Morning Call on Dec. 1, 2020



Berta Kiehstaller (née Deutsch)

Berta Kiehstaller, 94, of Whitehall, Pennsylvania, entered God's Kingdom on December 11, 2020.

Born in Rábafüze (Raabfidisch), Hungary on January 15, 1926, she was the daughter of the late Robert and Maria (Mild) Deutsch.

Berta was preceded by her loving husband, Josef Kiehstaller, whom she was married to for 47 years; her brother Emil Deutsch, and sister Gisela Winkler.

Berta was a silk weaver in the silk mill upon immigrating from Germany to the United States in 1952. What Berta loved most in her life was being a loving Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother who enjoyed spending all her time with her family. Berta loved to garden, feed the birds and squirrels, play cards, go to the casino, and enjoy her German beers, family picnics along with walks in the park with her family.

She is survived by her daughter Ingeborg and her husband Terry Hentzel; son Josef Kiehstaller and wife Kristin; granddaughter Ericka and her husband Michael Shoemaker; great-grandchildren Travis & Lindsay Shoemaker; sister Marie Heidenwolf; brother Robert and his wife Terry Deutsch; many nieces and nephews throughout the US and Germany.

Calling hours will be Tuesday, 12/15 12p - 1p at Weber Funeral Home 502 Ridge Ave. Interment immediately following the service at Laurel Cemetery. Contributions can be made in memory to the Sanctuary of Haafsville, c/o the funeral home, PO Box 190, Breingigsville, 18031. www.weberfuneralhomes.com

Published in Morning Call on Dec. 14, 2020



Frederic Jost

Frederic Jost, age 82, in Chicago, Illinois. Born in Rábafüzes (Raabfidisch), Hungary to the late Ferdinand and Gisela (Fischl) Jost. Beloved husband for 60 years of Carol nee Rossini. Loving father of Edward (Mary) Jost, Lisa (Patrick) Kirchens, Joseph (Paula) Jost and stepfather of Michael (Debbie) Lemen. Dearest grandfather of Amber (Wyatt) Tosi, Brandon (Marguerite) Kirchens, Morgan Jost, Stephanie Jost, Clayton Jost, Olivia Jost and step-grandfather of Taylor (Luke) Azzarelli and Brandon Hartman. Great grandfather of Arlo Tosi. Fond brother of Albert (Toni) Jost and brother-in-law of Edward (late Arlene) Rossini. Dear uncle of Rebecca (Brett) Amburgey and Jonathon Jost.

Forty-year employee as a Pressman for the Chicago Tribune. He was also an active member of St. Edward Church since 1965 and helped with their youth sports programs. He loved the Chicago White Sox and the Bayern-Munich F.C.

In lieu of flowers donations C/O St. Edward Church for the St. Edward Youth Program appreciated. A Funeral Mass will be held Saturday December 19th, 11:00 AM at St. Edward Church 4350 W. Sunnyside Ave. Chicago, IL 60630. Following the Mass interment will take place at Maryhill Cemetery 8600 N. Milwaukee Ave. Niles, IL 60714. More information is available at 773-685-4400 or tohlefuneralhome.com

Published by Chicago Tribune on Dec. 18, 2020



Caroline M. Gurga (formerly Lorek, née Vesselits)

Lindenhurst, Illinois

Caroline M. Gurga, (formerly Lorek), beloved wife of the late Henry Gurga and the late Joseph Lorek; loving mother of Janice (Pete) Eichler, Beth (the late Larry) Stalec, the late Karen (Mike) Sullivan, the late Jim (Judy) Gurga, and the late Bob Gurga; dearest grandmother of Tracy, Lisa, Catherine, Carrie, Paul, Christy, Missy, Michael and also Scott, Robyn and Peter Eichler, great grandmother of 15; devoted sister of the late Helen (the late Ray) Miller; fond aunt of many.

Caroline was born in Narda (Nahring), Hungary in 1923 to the late Andrew and Antonia (Bencsics) Vesselits. She came to the United States in April 1929 with her mother to join her father in Chicago.

Caroline and her husband Joseph moved to Niles in 1955 with their daughters Karen and Janice and had many great neighbors and friends. Carol and Joe enjoyed 26 years of marriage until his passing in 1972.

Caroline and Henry Gurga were married in 1975 and blended their families to create a loving group of five children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. The family bond they fostered remains strong today, a testament to their love and devotion to family.

Carol lived in Niles for 60 years until moving to the Village at Victory Lakes in Lindenhurst to be closer to her daughter Jan. She was a member and past President of the Polish Legion of American Veterans Ladies Auxiliary, Chapter 4 and enjoyed doing charitable work for the veterans.

Services and Interment are being held privately. Those wishing to attend Caroline's Funeral Mass remotely by watching a video live stream from St.Juliana Church on Friday December 18, 2020 at 11:30 AM might log in through http://stjuliana.org/. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the American Heart Association.
END OF NEWSLETTER (Even good things must end!)

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