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

Rather than write something specific to Covid as a start to my comments this month, I'll let Article 2 speak for me on that instead... and, since I need to apologize to our members who joined in September, this seems to be a good place to do that.

As part of our Members pages, we have a page dedicated to themembers added each month. Their membership entries are (normally) featured on that New Members page for a full month, making it easier for other members to see who joined and to honor those new members just a little. The problem is, I forgot to upload the changed pages at the end of September... sure, I prepared them... but did I upload? Nope. I only found out on October 25th when fellow BB editor David Hofer pointed it out. Did I feel stupid? Yep! ...and I quickly uploaded the September Member pages. So, as an apology and a little make-up, I'm running both September's and October's new members for the full month of November... and I'll try to assure I do the upload in the future. So, sorry, please accept my apology.

Hi Tom,

I hope all is well. I have a happy update for you on my sister Molly's search for a kidney donor. Molly received a new kidney from a living anonymous donor on July 22! Technically, she had two donors: one, another anonymous donor, who donated their kidney to someone else in Molly's name because this donor and Molly were not a blood-type match. This put Molly on the fast-track to receive a kidney that did match - the kidney from the second donor. It's still early days, but so far the kidney is functioning well and Molly is working toward resuming normal life.

I want to thank you so much for including Molly's story in the BB Newsletter. The donor was anonymous so for all we know, they could have come from the BB Bunch community! There were also several generous donations to Molly's GoFundMe from surnames I recognized as coming from Burgenland. A big thank you to those folks for helping Molly cover her medical expenses.

Thank you, thank you, thank you again.

Sincerely,
Sarah

Franziska Illitchmann, Revisited (Yet Again): In a number of BB Newsletters, I've writen about Emilie Illitchmann, born illegitimate to Franziska Illitchmann in 1874 in Vienna. As part of that effort, I discovered that her mother Franziska was likely from the Moravian town of Herautz, now Heroltice, Štíty, Czechia, and I discovered a number of birth records there that might have been for her.

More recently, in fact, last month, I reported that Ingrid Schuster had sent me additional information about said mother, Franziska, that she found at the Wiener Landesarchiv. She discovered that Franziska had five more illegitimate children at the Vienna birthing facility and provided additional confirmation that Franziska's origins were in Herautz... but did not find a birth record there for "our" Franziska.

Ingrid also copied me on a clip from a document of a type I'd not seen before. Because it contained many abbreviations, difficult writing and generally cryptic entries within it, I struggled to understand it, especially because no column headers were included to help me understand what was expected in a box or by an abbreviation. Thus I had written back to Ingrid a couple of times, first thanking her for the new information and later asking for more information on this document, and I noted in last month's bit that I was waiting for Ingrid's reply.

Well, it turns out that my wait was because my replies to Ingrid were marked as "spam" somewhere on their travels across the internet and they were thus tossed in the great "bit bin" in the sky. After last month's Newsletter was published, I received a message from Ingrid saying I could have emailed her for a follow-up, rather than putting that "request" in the Newsletter... and that was when I discovered we had a communication problem! Thus I replied again using another of my email addresses, and our communication was restored!

Meanwhile, another reader had also taken up the cause: Christian Fuchs of Vienna wrote to say that he also did not know what type of document it was but he was able to read most of it, so he sent me a transcription and translation. Later, I received another message from him concerning additional research that he had done, including finding a birth record for Franziska and the marriage record of her parents.

Meanwhile, Ingrid followed up with her own transcription and translation of the original document, as well as providing column headers, so I had two versions to compare and column headers to help me understand what should have appeared. It turns out that Christian and Ingrid mostly agreed... but there were a few differences and some areas where one could read the document but the other could not. Regardless, between the two versions, I had a complete document! While I will not cover the full details it held, I will note the following found in the translations:

Franziska was the 35-year-old daughter of Franziska and Vinzenz Illitchmann, a laundress living in Neulerchenfeld (a village later incorporated into Vienna district XVI) at address "Hiebgasse Nr. 34/13" ...but phonetics strike again! ...the street name spelling should have been Hippgasse. The document indicated that Franziska had provided evidence indicating that she was from Herautz, Schildberg, Hohenstadt, in Mähren, being geb u zustdg = geboren in und zuständig nach = "born in and responsible to" that place. Her father had died in 1871 but her mother was living at Hernals Kirchengasse Nr. 3 (today called Kalvarienberggasse in the XVII district of  Vienna). The document went on to list her six children along with their birth dates, indicating all were born in the Alservorstadt hospital.

With this information in hand, Christian Fuchs went on to discover, as noted above, the birth record for Franziska and the marriage record of her parents, both events occurring in 1839 and in Cervená Voda (Rothwasser), a village 8 km north of Herautz and the home of the mother and wife, Franziska Müller; father Vinzenz was the only one from Herautz. It was clear that daughter Franziska was born illegitimate, though quickly claimed by Vinzenz. In fact, the dates involved were June 5th for the birth, June 24th for the paternity claim and November 25th for the marriage. And that sequence of legal events is how Emilie Illitchmann and her illegitimate children became zuständig nach Herautz.

And I am truly going to let this research thread end here!



Kukmirn, the Apple Village: As part of Burgenland's 100th Anniversary Celebration, ORF News has been running a "100 years - 100 places" series. A recent edition was about Kukmirn (which also features below in this edition of these BB Newsletter "bits" because we had to correct our "translation list" between its old house numbers and modern street addresses).

Apparently, fruit growing has a long history in Kukmirn... as well as schnapps distilling, as fruit provides the sugar to be converted into alcohol in a schnapps (a fruit brandy or liquor). ORF reports that fruit is grown on 420 hectares (over 1000 acres) in the Kukmirn Gemeinde, most of which hectares are in apples. But, it is also apparent by looking at the street names in our "translation list" that there are other types of fruit grown there also: Apfelstraße = apple road and Apfelweg = apple trail hold an obvious place, but the presence of Holunderweg = elderberry trail, Himbeerweg = raspberry trail, and Erdbeerweg = strawberry trail speak to the variety of fruits grown! To go along with these, there is also a Blütenweg = flower trail (perhaps to provide special flavors or colors to the schnapps!) and a Genussplatz = pleasure place (to sample the wares!).

ORF states that "fruit growing in Kukmirn was first mentioned in a document as early as 1339" ...that the apple harvest is a highlight of Kukmirn's annual cycle, with little changed in the process over the centuries. However, the laborious work is made easier today by the use of modern technology.

Further, ORF reports that southern Burgenland has very good soil and climatic conditions for apples and fruit to thrive. "In Kukmirn, for example, we have heavy clay soils that can give the fruit or apples enough moisture. Burgenland has the most hours of sunshine in Austria, which also helps the fruit to develop a pronounced aromatic taste,” says Nina Nikles, the reigning fruit queen of Burgenland.

As for schnapps distilling in Kukmirn, Kurt Lagler's brandies were known throughout Austria. Langler, who died in 2009 in a distilling accident, was a pioneer who consistently focused on quality and had great success. Now Obsthof Zotter, Edelbrände Freismuth and many others compete with Langler in the Kukmirn area. However, the number of distilleries is falling, largely because the consumption of schnapps has declined in Austria.

Regardless, “Schnapps distilling is still very popular in Kukmirn. It is an adequate way to further process the Kukmirner fruit. Our fruit growers have received a lot of awards for our schnapps, not only in Burgenland but also throughout Austria,” says fruit queen Nikles.

On the schnapps pleasure mile, guests have the opportunity to extensively taste fruit and brandies, an event held in Kukmirn that was twice cancelled recently due to coronavirus.



Kukmirn Translation List, Follow-up: We recently discovered that the 1850s-era house numbers (Konscription numbers) in Kukmirn were apparently replaced (renumbered) in the 1936-1947 era, meaning our Translation List for that village may have provided an incorrect connection/correlation/translation of some or all old (pre-1936) house numbers to modern street and orientation numbers. In fact, that proved to be true, as only one house existing in 1857 had the same number in 1947 (House 2). An additional 11 houses that were built between 1857 and 1936 also had the same house number in both 1936 and 1947... but, from a practical viewpoint, the list we previously provided was largely useless, as we had tied our street/orientation numbers to post-1947 numbers rather than the intended pre-1936 numbers.

As noted last month, I (rhetorically) asked why we intended to tie street/orientation numbers to the pre-1936 house numbers... and the answer was: it is the pre-1936 numbers that are the same as the house numbers that appear in the available church and civil records, all of which records are for pre-1921 years. So if you want to see which modern house your 1870s ancestors lived in, we must provide street/orientation number connections to the older set of house numbers, and we did not do that!

With much credit to Patrick Kovacs (and support from Klaus Gerger and myself), we now have a list that meets the goal we had intended for this list: it related the 1857 house numbers to the modern street and orientation numbers... and, as a bonus, relates the 1936 and 1947 house numbers to street and orientation numbers too, as well as providing the names of owners in 1936 and noting where the 27 houses demolished by 1936 once stood. Connie Schield is still credited with providing the connection of 1947 house numbers to street and orientation numbers (as those were always correct... just mislabeled by us when we made that list available).

We were not able to determine the exact year when the Konscription renumbering occurred, so there is fuzziness about the 1936-1947 period. If you have a document from that period that references a house number, you will need to proceed cautiously, verifying as much as you can about which house number you actually have.

Meanwhile, we again apologize if we have misled anyone. Our "incorrect" Kukmirn Translation List had been online since 2015... if you used it to attempt to tie a pre-1936 house number to a modern street address, you will need to verify whether we led you to a wrong street address (and we almost certainly did!). However, if you were working with a post-1947 house number, the list should have given you the right street address.

Separate from all this is our House List for Kukmirn. That list ties the 1857 house number to its owner at that time, and that remains a correct connection, however, we added a few more entries to it, as they were somehow skipped when that list was first created.



The Protestant Church AB in Burgenland has a New Superintendent: A formal inauguration and reception was held in Mörbisch in October for the new Protestant Church AB (Augsburg Confession) Superintendent in Burgenland, Robert Jonischkeit.

The 47-year-old Jonischkeit, previously a pastor in Kufstein, Tyrol (in southwestern Austria), received 48 of the 64 delegate votes on the first ballot of the Superintendent election in Oberschützen in March (a two-thirds majority, 42 votes, was required for election). He officially took over the office on September 1st, becoming the leader for the next twelve years of the approximately 32,000 Evangelical Lutherans in Burgenland.

After the election, the outgoing Superintendent, Manfred Koch, said that the new Superintendent, will have “a view from the outside into the diocese” and brings with him broad experience as a long-time parish priest, a participant in church-wide bodies, as well as "great ecumenical openness and commitment in interreligious dialogue."

Aegidius Zsifkovics, the Eisenstadt Diocese Catholic Bishop, also congratulated the new Superintendent, saying he was looking forward to future cooperation between the denominations, the development of which had already been carried out in recent years, and he thanked the outgoing Superintendent Manfred Koch for his “friendly and trusting ecumenical cooperation” with the Catholic Church in Burgenland over the past 18 years.
 
The Protestant Church in Mörbisch was chosen for the formal inauguration because it offered enough space for the inauguration and because the Jonischkeit family had fond memories of Mörbisch, as they had spent a vacation at Lake Neusiedl two years ago.

The guests included the Jonischkeit family, the pastors from all the Protestant congregations in Burgenland, as well as guests of honor from politics and society. After the festive service, there was an open invitation to an agape in the community hall, with a band from Oberschützen, culinary delicacies from the Lafnitz valley and a glass of wine from Mörbisch, so guests were able to get to know the new Superintendent in a relaxed atmosphere.

On behalf of the BB, I welcome Superintendent Jonischkeit!



Die Salzlacken des Seewinkels (The Salt Lakes of the Seewinkel): If you have ever traveled in northern Burgenland in the area around Illmitz and Apetlon (the region generally known as the Seewinkel = lake corner), you may have observed the many small lakes (Lacken) there (a 2012 report claimed 59 distinct lakes). These small lakes, along with the Neusiedlersee to the west and the Hanság swamp to the south in Hungary, serve as home to numerous animals and as a resting and breeding place for migratory water birds and waders, such as geese and cranes. The area is recognized as a bird sanctuary of international importance.

The Lacken, a word that can also translate to Paints (more on this later), were formed when the larger salt marshes were drained to create arable land starting about 1828. Now there is about 115 km of drainage channels in the area, though they remain dry most of the time because the irrigation-intensive crops (and the wells that support those crops) keep the groundwater levels low. However, if it rains “too much” and flooding becomes a possibility, the excess water is rapidly drained off through the channels (meaning this rainwater has little opportunity to refresh the groundwater table).

Recently, however, groundwater levels have become "too low" and the Lacken are drying out... even "dying out" ...and this is a significant concern for the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). They cite three reasons for the low groundwater level: the drainage of the former wetland, global warming, and excessive irrigation in agriculture. According to biologist Bernhard Kohler from the WWF, the most important thing is to “leave the groundwater alone.”

Why are they concerned? Because the Lacken dry out too often and that is putting the ecosystem in danger. No water means no sanctuary for the birds and so they find new resting and breeding places. Already thousands of birds no longer come, with populations of some species falling by ten to thirty percent over the last 20 years.

I put "too often" in bolded italics in the above paragraph for a reason: occasional drying out is necessary for the Lacken to maintain their character and ecosystem. For this statement to make sense, I must give you a little background. The Lacken are home to reeds, vegetation, algae and bacteria that grow well in somewhat salty water and/or soil, as well as bugs and amphibians that thrive in that environment. Together, these work to maintain the ecosystem and provide physical protection and food for the birds. However, since the Lacken maintain their water levels only from incoming rainwater (or the runoff from such rains), the salty water is diluted and, as the surface waters sink through the sand layer lining the lake basin on its way to the groundwater table, the salt is trapped in the sand and the filtered water moves on. When the Lacken partially dry out in summer, capillary flow pulls water up from the groundwater present in the sand layer and brings salt back into the surface waters of the Lacken, thus replenishing the salt level. However, if the groundwater level falls too low, beyond the sand layer, capillary flow cannot lift the water nor bring salt back up. If this occurs too often or for too long, the very nature of the Lacken is changed.

Not surprisingly, Burgenland has set up a task force to address this problem, and it wants to keep as much water as possible in the region. But that poses challenges, says Christian Sailer, the head of the task force: “Simply closing the locks would be the easiest option, but that would not be very effective, because, if there is heavy precipitation, it must also be ensured that the water is diverted from the area so that settlement areas and infrastructure are protected and there is no damage from the water. That is why it is so difficult to bring a meaningful system, because the water retention in these trenches also leads to an increase in the groundwater level, and existing settlement areas, cellar buildings and houses can be damaged by the higher groundwater level." Nonetheless, the task force believes that the currently unimpeded outflow of water from the channels in the region must be regulated by controllable systems.

The WWF is calling for a change in agriculture: where current crops such as sugar beets, cucumbers and salads have to be watered intensively, plants that are adapted to drought, such as pumpkins, should be grown in the future, they say. Alfred Brasch, district officer of the Chamber of Agriculture, is critical of that: “It makes sense, of course, if you could cultivate crops that have to be managed less intensively. The fact is, however, that the crops that are cultivated intensively in the crop rotations are the crops that help our farms to make ends meet."

A third solution is also being discussed: a water supply from the Moson-Danube. Various proposals have been put forth on how to use that water, but the most sensible idea seems to be to use it directly for irrigation on the farms (and stop pumping up groundwater). Some have proposed using it to refill the Neusiedlersee in order to preserve it as a landscape element, but others point out that the See is much like the Lacken and needs dry years to maintain its salinity.

Bernhard Kohler from the WWF also believes that the best solution would be to distribute the water directly to the farms. “The Neusiedlersee is a steppe lake that has to dry out again and again for its long-term survival. On average over the last centuries this has been the case about once or twice a century—only in the 20th century it did not dry up."

Back in March, it was announced that an existing irrigation canal in Hungary was to be extended in order to direct water from the Moson-Danube into the Seewinkel. “We are participating in the construction of this canal with three million euros. The goal is clear: The water should be preserved in the region for as long as possible in order to improve the current hydrological situation," said Provincial Councilor Heinrich Dorner.

Task force leader, Christian Sailer, said also: “...the water is suitable for feeding our systems ...for enriching the groundwater ...and also for doping the lakes and Neusiedler See if necessary." It was estimated that around 45 million cubic meters of water (12 billion gallons) could flow each year into the groundwater table of the Seewinkel, thus having more water available for agriculture, tourism and the ecosystem.

I noted above that the word Lacken can also translate to paints. Although that is likely just a coincidence, it is an accurate one: as the salt levels vary, algae types change and new plants bloom, often leading to a colorful change to the Lacken. Likewise, when the water levels fall, the shoreline quickly adapts with new growth, like purple salt asters, ringing the remaining waters with lines of colors. Nature truly paints the Lacken with oft-changing colors.



Conservative Wins Hungary Opposition Race as Anti-Orbán Parties Unite: Conservative Hungarian politician Peter Marki-Zay has won the race to become the opposition's joint candidate for prime minister, as anti-Orbán parties unite in an effort to oust the sitting premier.

Marki-Zay, currently serving as the mayor of Hodmezovasarhely, beat Klara Dobrev, a vice president of the EU parliament, in a second-round election. Dobrev has since pledged support to Marki-Zay.

Marki-Zay will now face off against Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán in a general election that is set to take place in the spring of 2022. The race will be the first time Orbán, who first assumed power in 2010, will face a united group of opposition parties vying to oust him from his post.

Six different opposition parties joined forces with the goal of expelling Orbán from office. The coalition has also coordinated primaries to pick joint candidates in local electoral races. The groups coalesced in response to the current electoral structure, which was designed by Fidesz (Orbán's party) to make it difficult for a single opposition party to challenge the prime minister on their own.

Opposition polls currently show Orban's Fidesz party and the opposition coalition are neck-and-neck.



Commuter Travel For Burgenländers Now Less Expensive: Two "Climate Tickets" (KlimaTicket) were announced in October for public transport in Burgenland and elsewhere in the east region of Austria. The KlimaTicket Metropolregion lets riders use all lines of the Verkehrsverbund Ostregion (Transport Network East Region) in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. The KlimaTicket Region is valid in Lower Austria and Burgenland. For those already using annual passes for commuting, the new tickets are generally less expensive and often significantly so.

The tickets are an arrangement through Austria's BMK (Bundesministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Mobilität, Innovation und Technologie = Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Innovation and Technology). Given the name of the tickets, it appears to be an initiative to improve environmental quality (fewer commuting drivers means less air pollution, noise and environmental disruption due to road building).

An annual full-price ticket for the larger Metropolregion costs €915 per year; it is just €550 without the within-Vienna option (though the ticket will get you to a Vienna Bahnhof, where you can access the Vienna system separately). There are correspondingly further-discounted rates for seniors, youths and special needs.

According to Provincial Councilor Heinrich Dorner, Burgenland commuters will save a lot with the new tickets: Those who commute between Eisenstadt and Vienna will pay €633 less per year. Those who commute from Güssing to Vienna will save €1532 a year.



Updated List of Digitized Church Books (Matriken): Patrick Kovacs shared with me the 3rd quarter notice of newly available digitized church books available at  https://matriken.at (the Eisenstadt Diocese churchbook website).

That list indicates that the most recent additions are for these parishes:

Eisenstadt Dompfarre zum hl. Martin
Markt St. Martin
Mitterpullendorf
Neuhaus am Klausenbach
Nikitsch
Tadten

That prompted me to look up and provide a complete list of digitized books currently available. You will find that as Article 3 in this newsletter.



Andrew F Burghardt, Burgenland Geographical Historian, Has Died: In reading the latest edition of the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft Newsletter, I noticed a four-sentence paragraph on the passing of Professor Andrew F Burghardt, who was, as the BG paragraph says, "...the first to write a scientific work in English on the recent history of Burgenland."

That notice caught me by surprise, as I knew the Professor was getting quite old so I semi-regularly searched for his obituary... and never found one. However, the four BG sentences did not say when he died, so I was surprised yet again when I discovered through my own research that it was already eleven months ago.

In 1956, Burghardt was a graduate student in geographical history working toward his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. Given his parents had emigrated in 1922 from western Hungary (Magyarpolány, Veszprém, Hungary, near Pápa, about 50 miles east of central Burgenland; Burghardt himself was born in New York City in 1924), he had a personal interest in the region, so it was a natural extension to carry out scientific research about western Hungary for his dissertation. He snagged a sponsorship from the Geography Branch, Office of Naval Research, to carry out field research about Burgenland under the auspices of the Foreign Field Research Program of the Division of Earth Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of the National Research Council. That initial research was published in 1958 as both his dissertation and a National Academy of Sciences publication, # 587, called The Political Geography of Burgenland.

In 1961, he returned to Burgenland to expand his research, being supported then by a US Government Fulbright Research Grant. That effort resulted in the book, Borderland, A Historical and Geographical Study of Burgenland, Austria, published in 1962 by the University of Wisconsin Press.

The two works, although both being about Burgenland, have very different goals and natures. The first is clearly a government report on the physical and political issues that affected Burgenland in the 1950s. The second is pure historical and geographical research going back to the prehistoric era and working forward, describing how the geography of the area influenced both the peoples who came there and the lives that they led. Only in the final third of the book (the modern era) is there overlap in the nature of the content between the two publications, though clearly even that is a complete rewrite and enhancement.

The BG completed their short paragraph with two sentences about the book. The second one read: "This is interesting because, as a non-Burgenländer, he often had a different approach to events."

Below is his 2020 obituary.



Burghardt, Dr. Andrew Frank (Emeritus Professor, McMaster University), at St. Joseph's Villa, Dundas, Ontario, on Friday, November 27, 2020, at the age of 96.

Loving husband for 64 years of Mary (née Farrell). Loving father of Maryanne (Dr. Romeo Bruni) of Toronto, Paul (Paula) of Oakville, Margaret (Dr.) (Dr. Mark Rosati) of Orillia, Madeline (Dr.) (Richard Marshall) of Toronto, and Barbara (David Wilson) of Cambridge. Dear Poppa of Meghan (Mark Trifunovic), Alison (Adam Fore), and Sarah Bruni, Catherine and John Burghardt, Owen and Esmee Rosati, Seph, Tonnán and Raphael Marshall, Erin, Kate, and Emma Wilson.

Predeceased by his sister, Madeline and his brother Robert.

Andrew was born in New York City on April 5, 1924, the son of Hungarian immigrants Anthony Burghardt and Mary Weiss. He served in the US Army in the Philippines in World War II, taking part in the invasion of Luzon. He received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard University, and his Masters and Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). He taught at Stanford University prior to his appointment at McMaster in 1961. He was a visiting professor at the universities of Minnesota, Victoria, Guelph, and the Free University of Berlin.

He specialized in political and historical geography, was a councilor of the Canadian Association of Geographers, and was awarded an Austrian medal of honour for his writings on Burgenland.

Locally, he served with the County Planning Board, the Urban Renewal Committee, Commissions on Regional Government, and CAPIC. He was a member of the Bach-Elgar choir, Hamilton Right-to-Life, the Serra Club, and the St. Augustine's parish council.

After retiring in 1989, he wrote the history of his McMaster geography department, and served as archivist and historian, as well as lector and teacher in the RCIA program at St. Augustine's in Dundas. He also wrote the histories of St. Augustine's and the McMaster Newman Alumni Association.

Visitation will be held at Turner Family Funeral Home in Dundas. Details will be on the website (turnerfamilyfuneralhome.ca). Due to Covid-19 restrictions of assembly, the funeral will be by invitation only. Internment will be in St. Augustine Catholic Cemetery, Dundas. In lieu of flowers, please donate to: Students for Education, Empowerment, and Development (seedkenya.com), Keys to Inclusion (westtorontokeys.com), Larche Canada (larche.ca), or the St. Joseph Villa Foundation (sjvfoundation.ca). "I will sing to the Lord all my life I will sing praises to my God as long as I live". To Plant Memorial Trees in memory, please visit our Sympathy Store.

Published in The Hamilton Spectator on Nov. 28, 2020.



Corona Virus in Burgenland: Austria continues with no entry restrictions for travelers arriving from the United States other than a proof of vaccination, proof of recovery from COVID-19 or a negative Covid-19 test result that must be presented upon entry.

The rolling seven-day incidence of new infections in Burgenland continues in the 90-100 range, meaning the count of currently infected is staying in the 300-400 range, with double that number being in officially-ordered temporary domestic quarantine because of suspected close contact. Mid-month there were only 13 people being treated in isolation in a hospital, with one more in intensive care.

However, Burgenland has one of the lowest rates of infection in Austria, with provinces Salzburg and Upper Austria having rates two and a half times higher. Because of this, Vienna has already imposed increased restrictions and the federal government is planning additional country-wide restrictions should the utilization of intensive care beds continue to rise. The proposed initial increased restrictions would limit access to gastronomy, hotels, events and hospital and care visits. A second stage may call for a lockdown on unvaccinated people. The goal, nevertheless, is to avoid a lockdown, so there is to be a renewed vaccination push. Overall, only 62% of eligible Austrians are vaccinated (Burgenland is over 75%), thus more effort will be made, as infection rates are highest in the least-vaccinated provinces.

Perhaps the most notable Burgenland-specific news was a mid-month report of 20 confirmed cases in the Jennersdorf Middle School, forcing face-to-face teaching to be suspended for at least two weeks. Numerous other suspected cases in the school are still being clarified and people with symptoms, as well as all contact persons, were being quarantined. The school is being disinfected.

Burgenland leads Austria with the highest rates of vaccinated teachers (89% vs 84% average) and of 12 to 18-year-old students (54% vs 43% average). Among school children in Austria, vaccination rates rise progressively by age, with 22% vaccinated among 12-year-olds and 60% among 18-year-olds.



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings Burgenland Bunch!

Here is a quick recap of what we’ve been up to this month in our Facebook group. We now have 1737 members, a gain of 21 since last month. Please join us if you haven’t done so! Help is always available! facebook.com/TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL/

The Burgenland Bunch Gedmatch Ancestor Project has hit a milestone! We now have 201 kits registered! Congratulations to Ingrid Schuster for all of her hard work on this endeavor!

Member Karl Sarkozi reported an issue he encountered while researching Kirchfidisch on matriken.at. He stated “FYI for all users of FamilySearch and Matriken.at: This concerns the birth register book for Kirchfidisch between ~1850 and 1870. The book on matriken.at is missing entries, even though the pages are all intact. If you look on FamilySearch, you will see many more entries for those years.”

BB staff member Patrick Kovacs shared some interesting information regarding the availability of old maps which are currently being scanned and made accessible to the public. He writes, “As I've mentioned in another topic, the Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying is currently scanning old maps (most of them from the late 1930s). The status of the project can be viewed here: bev.gv.at/KATASTERARCHIV.PDF

"Each village available can be downloaded for 0.80 Euros (but the process is a bit complicated). Based on the Kukmirn map from 1936, I've made a list of the house owners at that time. I've only checked it randomly but it appears that the house numbers and locations in 1936 are identical to the 1858 house list [Ed note: three are different]. Between 1936 and 1947, the whole village was renumbered and in 2012 street names were adopted.” geni.com/projects/Kukmirn-1936/

The Coplay Sängerbund hosted its Weinlesefest on October 17, 2021. A wonderful time was had by all in attendance. The Emil Schanta Band provided the entertainment and our own Bob Strauch leading the sing-a-long. I have added 6 new videos from the Weinlesefest, so if you’d like to check them out, head on over to the Lehigh Valley Burgenland Ethnic Events YouTube channel: youtube.com/channel/

CONNECTIONS:

Member Jude Marie writes “Searching for descendents of: 1. Anna Poeltl (1857-1941) and Johann Gerger (1851-1944) from Rosenberg, Güssing; and 2. Ferenz Muik (b. 1856; Rosenberg, Güssing) and Rosalia Rökker/Recker (b. 1860 Tschantschendorf, Tobaj - 1936, in Troy NY). Klaus Gerger has been a big help but I'm hoping to hear from others. I'm working on a family history and I would like to either fill in blanks or, if I have included your family, a review for accuracy (census records, newspaper articles, obituaries, etc aren't always accurate). Many of my grandfather's cousins remained in Güssing, many immigrated to the US - mostly to Allentown, PA area - and some to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Thanks for any help!!”

Member Dave Humphrey writes “Hello all from London, Canada. Sincere thanks to the admins for allowing me in to seek your help! My wife's paternal great-grandmother and great-grandfather were Franz and Maria (Schuperschitz) Berger. Franz was born in Donnerskirchen and Maria was born in Oslip. We are looking for some help in tracing further back on both sides as we have come to a dead end with their crossing from Bremen to Quebec City in 1930. If anyone has any guidance or information that would help us along, please feel free to reach out to me directly!"

Member Jean Kosits is seeking help tracing the roots of her maternal grandfather Tibor Willischitz from Kleinpetersdorf.

If anyone has any information for Jean, Dave, or Jude, please contact me at HooftyRN@msn.com and I will be happy to connect you with them!

As always, I wish you good health and happiness. Take care,

Vanessa



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

Current total sales are 1620 copies, as interested people purchased 2 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!).

Getting the book and reading it is an excellent way to pass the time should the  coronavirus impose yet another round of "house arrest" ...and even if not "arrested," it should still prove to be informative!



Burgenland Recipes: Member Gus Maikish remembered some fantastic Burgenland recipes in an old issue of Gourmet Magazine. After some intrepid detective work he managed to locate the July 1987 issue on eBay, and we now have a number of recipes from the article, Gourmet Holidays: Austria's Burgenland.

Beef Goulash with Capers and Peas / Esterházy Gulyás
(from BB member Gus Maikish/Gourmet Magazine 1987)

Ingredients:
. 2 lb. boneless beef chuck, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
. salt, to taste

. 2 lb. onions, chopped
. 7 Tbsp. lard
. 1/4 cup paprika (preferably sweet Hungarian)
. 1 tsp. distilled white vinegar
. 1 tsp. water

. 1 garlic clove, minced
. 1-1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
. 1-1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
. 2 cups water, added in 1/2 cup portions as needed

. 1 carrot, cut into 2-inch julienne strips
. 1 green bell pepper, cut into 2-inch julienne strips
. 1/4 small celery root, peeled, cut into 2-inch julienne strips, and kept in a bowl of cold water acidulated with the juice of 1/2 lemon
. 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
. 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
. 2 Tbsp. small capers

. 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
. 2 cups water

Preparation:
Sprinkle the beef cubes with salt and set aside. This will draw out some of the moisture for firmer texture (like a grilling rub).

In a large kettle cook the onions in the lard over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until they are golden.

Stir in the paprika, the vinegar, and 1 tsp. water, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add the beef cubes, the garlic, the caraway seeds, and the marjoram, and simmer the mixture, covered partially, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

Stir in 1/2 cup water and continue to simmer the mixture, covered partially, adding more water, 1/2 cup at a time, as needed to keep the mixture liquid, for 2 to 3 hours, or until the meat is tender.

While the mixture is simmering, in a skillet cook the carrot, the bell pepper and the celery root (drained), in the butter over moderate heat.

Stir until the vegetables are just tender, remove the skillet from the heat, and stir in the peas and capers.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour and 1/2 cup water. Add the flour mixture to the kettle in a stream, stirring, with 1-1/2 cups water, and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring.

Simmer the mixture for 15 minutes, stirring, and stir in the vegetable mixture.

Notes:
Serves 6.



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

However, we have now used up our unpublished recipes... thus this recipe section will be dormant whenever we have no recipe to publish. So, if you have a favorite family recipe, please consider sharing it with us. We will be happy to publish it. Our older relatives, sadly, aren't with us forever, so don't allow your favorite ethnic dish to be lost to future generations.

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



Cartoon of the Month:

VAERS accepts reports of adverse events and reactions that occur following vaccination. Healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public can submit reports to VAERS. While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Most reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.

The disclaimer also said:

VAERS data available to the public include only the initial report data to VAERS. Updated data which contains data from medical records and corrections reported during follow up are used by the government for analysis. However, for numerous reasons including data consistency, these amended data are not available to the public.

So, in multiple ways, they warn you that the vaccine being investigated may not have any relationship to the outcome being reported on.

As I mentioned above, I generated a report for Hospitalizations across the US related to Covid-19 vaccines.

Below is that report:

Age	Events Reported	Percent (of 2,393)
< 6 months	6	0.02%
6-11 months	1	0.00%
1-2 years	3	0.01%
3-5 years	1	0.00%
6-17 years	1,153	3.42%
18-29 years	2,188	6.49%
30-39 years	2,748	8.15%
40-49 years	3,241	9.62%
50-59 years	4,593	13.63%
60-64 years	2,964	8.79%
65-79 years	9,755	28.94%
80+ years	5,264	15.62%
Unknown	1,786	5.30%
Total	33,703	100.00%

Query Criteria:
Event Category:	Hospitalized
State / Territory:	United States
Vaccine Products:	COVID19 VACCINE (COVID19)
Group By:	Age

Note: Submitting a report to VAERS does not mean that healthcare personnel or the vaccine caused or contributed to the adverse event (possible side effect).

Again, as you can see, they add yet another “disclaimer” directly with the report... and it is probably good that they do.

One thing you should immediately note from the table above is that the first four rows document 11 hospitalizations that were supposedly related to the vaccine yet in children totally ineligible for the vaccine... so these must be in error. Also, one can’t fully interpret the 5^th row (the 6-17 years category) either, because some of that age group are not eligible for the vaccine... and, based on the errors from the first four rows, assuming all these reports are only for the eligible 12-and-up age group is questionable. From what I could tell, there is no way to specify that you want a 12-17 age group. There is only the “report by Age” option, which gives you the groupings shown above.

Nonetheless, let’s assume that all 1,153 reports in the 6-17 age group are legitimate and for vaccine-eligible children. If so, given a US population of ~330 million and a Santa Barbara County population of ~450,000 and an assumption that reports are received equally from all parts of the US, that calculates out to 1.57 reports from Santa Barbara County. Thus is seems either 1) the statistics you report are based only on one or two hospitalizations (of somewhat questionable cause), or 2) Santa Barbara County is behaving substantially different from other locations in the US. Either way, I see nothing that, with any reliability, suggests as you write, that the “covid vaccine in my county of Santa Barbara has proven to cause more harm (per the VAERS database) than good.”

If someone in your county claimed this in a public forum, then I’ll argue that they did so for their own “political” purposes, because no good scientist would ever make such a claim based on the level of data available!

The data I reported in the BB newsletter was based on CDC data and I have at least some basis to believe it is reliable. And if it makes you question what appears to be totally exaggerated “facts” like the ones you quoted, then perhaps there is reason to continue placing reasonably-supported evidence in the BB newsletter.

I’ve chosen to provide a “Covid in Burgenland” section because I think it is pertinent to our understanding of what is happening there and whether we might choose to visit. It also gives a viewpoint on how one other location is choosing to respond to Covid. My blurbs on the US situation are also pertinent in that there are Burgenland enclaves (especially in PA) that hold ethnic events, though most of those were shut down during the worst of the epidemic and are only now slowly reopening. If my writings inform some members on the risks of attending those events, then I’ve done a public service.

As for 25% of the cases now being in children, that is “scary” because the percentage was much smaller, in fact almost nonexistent, in the recent past. Are the recent variants more infectious in children? Or have we opened up the schools too much and now are putting children at greater risk? I don’t know but I consider either answer as scary; I’d rather see children protected!

Yes, I have made the choice to get vaccinated (I thought that was a no-brainer given my age). My son and his wife have also chosen to get vaccinated but their children are too young, not yet eligible... still, they (the parents) have decided to get them vaccinated whenever their age group is approved. I agree with that decision but I have done nothing to push them to decide either way; they are the parents and must make that choice.

Vaccines throughout their short history have proven to be far more beneficial than harmful; I see nothing to suggest the Covid vaccine is any different. Sure, there is likely some small risk... but the benefits have clearly proven to be far greater. To deny this is simple silly.

So far, “evidence” (in the form of messages from members) also suggests that my Covid notes in the BB newsletter have met with far more approval than disapproval. I’m glad you feel the BB newsletter and website are wonderful; others feel my Covid messages contribute to that... so, for the time being, I’ll probably continue to write about Covid in the US. I’ll try to make sure I stick to science (and not politics) and I’ll hope that doesn’t ruin the newsletter and the whole BB for you. I do hope you choose to continue participating.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

Sincerely,
Tom Steichen



Additional Comments and Analyses:

In the above reply, I chose to run the report that I did (covering the full US) because it was impossible to run a report specific to Santa Barbara County, CA, the county in question. The VAERS data system (at least as available to the general public) simply does not allow this level of specificity. However, later I realized that I could run a report just for California, so I did so. I won't include the table here but I will comment on what I saw.

First, it also included hospitalization reports (3) for children under 6 years of age. So it also reported hospitalizations supposedly due to vaccination in children clearly ineligible for the vaccine. This leads one to suspect that some of the reported hospitalizations in the 6-17 year-old group in California are also among children ineligible for the vaccine (the 6-11 year-old group).

Nonetheless, as I did for my initial analysis, I assumed that all reports in the 6-17 age group were legitimate and for vaccine-eligible children.

With that, I could project the number of vaccine-related hospitalizations in Santa Barbara County under the assumption that all such hospitalizations were equally distributed across the state of California. Thus given...

California State Population: ~39,600,000
Santa Barbara County Population: ~450,000

...I calculated the number of hospitalizations in the 6-17 age group in California that would be projected for Santa Barbara County. The answer was 1.74 (nowhere near the 42 claimed! ...and not very different from the projection based on the full US data in my reply above, 1.57).

Again, the difference between the projected less than 2 hospitalizations and the claimed 42 (if correct) indicates that Santa Barbara County is behaving substantially different from other counties in California... do I believe that? No, I'd presume instead that the claimed 42 is wrong.

However, if 42 is the correct count (and I don’t believe it is!), then 26.9% of all vaccine-related hospitalizations in California in the under-18 age group were among children from Santa Barbara County, which has less than 1.14% of the California population. That would be amazing and the county would be swarming with investigators trying to understand how that happened.

So where did the claimed "42" come from?

I went to the Santa Barbara County Public Health website and discovered they put out quarterly reports on Covid... however, the most recent report available on the website was dated April 2021. In that report, they indicate a cumulative 2,427 hospitalizations in the county due to Covid infections among all age groups, with 2% (clearly rounded to a whole percentage point) being attributed to the under-18 age group. Multiplying those two numbers together yields 48.54 total hospitalizations due to Covid infections in the under-18 age group. Given they used rounded-to-whole percentages, this really implied a range of 1.5 to 2.5%, so yields a range of hospitalizations in children due to Covid infections of 36 to 61. Our 42 fits very nicely in that range. Thus I suspect the quoted number referred to hospitalizations due to Covid infections, not due to Covid vaccinations.

As a side thought, if one believes that 42 hospitalizations among children in a single county are enough to prove something is dangerous, perhaps it is time to also take seriously the idea of vaccinating children to keep them safe from that danger.

Please everyone, given the politicization of Covid and its vaccine, and the resulting avalanche of misinformation, exaggerations, and outright lies on the topic (and both sides of the political divide are guilty of some of this), proceed with great caution in believing any number that seems "off." It is your life that is at risk if you are misled... or maybe mine, or maybe your child's. Regardless, I don't want to see any of us dying due to Covid.

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