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

More Weddings and Fewer Divorces in Burgenland: According to data from Statistics Austria, the number of marriages in Austria declined and the number of divorces rose last year relative to 2022. However, Burgenland is an exception: Whereas Austria as a whole had 5.3% fewer marriages, and all other provinces declined, Burgenland had 0.5% more. As for divorces, Austria was up 0.3% while Burgenland was down 1.3% (as were 2 of the other 8 provinces).

There were 1,420 marriages in Burgenland last year. Of those marriages, 1,393 were between a man and a woman, 13 were between two men and 14 were between two women. This breakout, percent-wise is very similar to Austria as a whole, with same-sex marriages each being slightly under one percent of the total. There is also a legal relationship known as a registered partnership; 49 male/female and two male/male couples established those in Burgenland in 2023. In the opposite direction, there were 444 divorces in Burgenland in 2023 and 1 registered partnership was dissolved.

As for births, there was a significant decline in births in all federal states compared to 2022, with Burgenland tied for second highest with a 7.8% decline.



Which is the Deadliest Month? The Washington Post usually has a full-page article in its Sunday edition authored by what they call their "Department of Data." These articles take a deep dive into public data on a particular topic. A recent article explored the 66.8 million US deaths since 1999 (data as collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). They specifically looked at differences in deaths by month and discovered a generally U-shaped curve when months are displayed left to right from January to December, with January, February, March and December (in that order) being the months with the higher proportions of deaths.

Given I had just put up a transcription of death records for St. Michael for 1794-1827, and we already had a transcription of deaths for years 1895-1924, I decided to see what that data showed... and to the right is the result in chart form:

I think it is fair to say that the St. Michael data reflects the same behavior but is shifted a month or two later in the year. Rather than January, we see for St. Michael that February and March are the deadliest months (with March being for the earlier dataset). Clearly, had we started with the peak month on the far left for each period, the U-shape would be more evident.

The Washington Post article dug deeper into its data, breaking the deaths into categories based on age at death. That analysis showed that the U-shape is age dependent, only becoming visible in age 45 and older deaths (the younger ages show essentially no pattern).

I decided to try to break out the St. Michael data similarly, however, given the relatively small number of deaths from 1895 to 1924 (just 791) and, compared to the millions in the US dataset, also a relatively small number in 1794 to 1827 (2,325), the pattern for the St. Michael data is less evident. Still, it is evident in the older groups (wider lines) in our larger data set:



Even our smaller dataset (1895-1924) gives a hint of the U-pattern, though you have to look past the "noise" in the data. You may also note that I used few (five) and varying age ranges for the categories in my data, as there was just too little data to use the decade ranges that the Post article used. In my case, I divided the 1794-1827 data into 5 categories of nearly the same size (i.e., equal number of deaths) then I imposed that same categorization on my smaller dataset.

Lastly, I'll note that the Post analysis tried to determine why there is seasonality in elderly death rates. They were able to look at specific causes of death in their huge US dataset, which quickly showed that it was respiratory illnesses (flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, respiratory infections, even colds) that drove the seasonal variation, and partly because they also drive heart attacks and strokes by provoking inflammation that blocks and hardens arteries, and by making it harder to breath, which reduces oxygenation of the blood. Cancer, accidents, suicides, murders, etc. were unrelated. Our two datasets are too small for this type of analysis, but I suspect the same causes influenced the seasonality we see.

St. Kathrein Birth Records Have An Issue: Back in February, the BB staff tried to help a new member, Cindy Smith, who had indicated that she had run into "a brick wall finding out about the Rauer family and Andreas Rauer and Anna Vich (Maria Palffi), parents of Katharina Rauer." Part of her problem was that Andreas and wife likely came from (and married in or near) Pausram, Moravia (now Pouzdřany, Czech Republic) some years prior to Katharina's birth in St. Kathrein. One can find the Rauer surname in the land surveys (Katasters) there, as well as a 1921 census, but because church records are not online, there is little connective tissue to help her go back further for this couple.

However, even in Burgenland, and specifically in the St. Kathrein records, there was an issue that raised the question of exactly who was Katharina's mother and Andreas' wife?

The problem is that there are two entries in the St. Kathrein Catholic birth records for the birth of a Katharina Rauer to an Andrew Rauer. The birth dates are the same but the mothers differ: Maria Palfi (Palffi) and Anna Vich.

There are 16 records (among church birth, marriage and death records) involving Andrew Rauer and his wife and, when the surname of his wife is listed, eight times it is Palfi and three times it is Vich. When her given name is shown, eleven times it is Maria, four times it is Anna, and once it is Maria Anna. (There is also a Teresia Pum married to an Andrew Rauer but this appears to be an earlier generation.) When you count the various name combinations, this is what you get:

One possibility is that Andrew remarried... but there is no marriage record for Andrew to either woman. Further, the Vich entries appear time wise between Palfi entries, so that wouldn't make sense.

Another possibility is that were two Andrew Rauers in St. Kathrein in the same era and they married these named women... but the fact that both women are shown on birth records with a daughter Katharina Rauer born on the same date to the same-named father just stretches coincidence too much for me, and both female surnames appear with both given names... so I can't make myself believe this!

Instead, let's get back to the problem in the St. Kathrein records... that problem stems from the fact that the birth records for years 1867 to 1870 appear twice, being on film images 71-78 and 82-90, and they are different. One can look at the pages for each year and quickly see that it is not a re-filming, rather it is a re-writing of these years.

Most of the 151 birth entry pairs in these twice-written years can be clearly matched to each other, even though the hand is different, one using Latin given names and the other German given names, and there are the typical spelling and typo errors.

However, 7 entries differ in critical ways like the Maria Palfi / Anna Vich issue noted above. In addition, there are 9 records in image 73 that do not appear in the corresponding page(s)—83, 84 or both—in the other section.

Separate from this, there is a transcription of the St. Kathrein birth records that was done by Frank Teklits and is on the BB website. To the best of my knowledge (but I haven't been able to confirm this yet), Frank transcribed the original records (obtained from the parish), not the copy on FamilySearch that represents the duplicates sent to the Hungarian archives. For the duplicated years in the images, Frank's transcription matches the records on images 82-90, not 71-78. This also means he does not include the extra 9 records that appear on image 73.

As you might expect, I have added the 9 records that Frank did not include and have kept both versions of the 7 record pairs that differ in critical ways (i.e., they are quite similar but still have at least one significant difference), adding a note marking these as "Similar records found on different pages." I also added image numbers, to make it easier to find entries in the duplicates, and the within-year sequence numbers when they exist on the records.

More Fuss About Infrastructure: I confess, my attitude will never make dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists happy. I believe there is often an unavoidable cost to the environment caused by humanity trying to live the lifestyle it desires... and I'm usually willing to accept that cost. Yes, I believe we should make an effort to avoid avoidable costs, but I'm not willing to give up everything we want to avoid every cost.

Well, Burgenland finds itself in yet another environmental tussle, but one of a style I particularly hate. Here's the story:

There is a railroad line known as the Pottendorfer Line that runs from Burgenland up to Vienna. It is a commuter route (see map) that rolls north through Neufeld an der Leitha (in northwest Burgenland) but then turns back south into Ebenfurth, Lower Austria, where it pulls into a switching yard, in which yard the engine is moved to the other end of the train so travel can continue to the north. Likewise, trains in the opposite direction are forced to do a similar engine switch.

Investigation began back in 2006 into how to avoid this awkward and time-consuming effort, with a mile-long section of new track, known as the Ebenfurth Loop, proposed as the solution with construction intended to start in 2025. Like all infrastructure changes, an environmental impact assessment of the detailed plan had to be carried out, and the impact was recently deemed insignificant. However, this new track would need to pass through the Natura 2000 wildlife area in the Leitha River floodplain... and that provided opportunity for objection. A group known as the "Schleife Ebenfurth/Unter Au" had been actively campaigning to prevent any route through a Natura 2000 area in Lower Austria, but, with that effort seemingly blunted, they immediately proposed an alternative route that would be four times longer, also pass through the same Natura 2000 area a few miles further along the river, run through productive farm land elsewhere, create many more road crossings, and require a new station be built in Hornstein.

While I'll confess that I have not carried out a detailed examination of the two routes, my initial impression is that it seems unlikely that this new "preferred" route can be better for the environment (in fact, my impression is that it must be worse and that they can't be serious!). Thus, I interpret this proposal as merely a stalling tactic designed to further delay construction.

I find that disgusting, as does the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways). They have refused to consider it and instead stated that "the approval procedure will therefore go to the next instance, namely the Federal Administrative Court." Unfortunately, even this is a "win" for the IG group, as it also will delay construction (though not as much as restarting the design/approval process).

Completion of the loop is expected to cut 11-20 minutes travel time along this section of the route and allow trains to operate in a more environmentally-friendly manner than churning excess and inefficient miles though populated areas at low speed pulling into and out of the switching yard. But the anti's refuse to see value in this.



Section of S7 Expressway in Burgenland Opens for Traffic: The western section of the S7 Expressway, also known as the Fürstenfeld Expressway (Fürstenfelder Schnellstraße), opened for traffic in March. This expressway, when completed in mid-year 2025, will connect the A2 (Süd Autobahn) in Styria to the M80 motorway in Hungary and will pass through the Lafnitz Valley in southern Burgenland.

This is another infrastructure effort that has earned an "endless project" title. The first discussions about a road replacement took place in the mid-1970s, as the need for a solution to the increasing through-traffic in the valley was already apparent then. The shoulderless local highways (B65 in Burgenland, 319 in Styria) and the narrow village streets they pass through were never designed for significant traffic. However, these roads are part of the E66 (European route 66) that begins in Italy and runs halfway across Hungary, so are an undersized component of an international route. Yet it took until nearly 2000 before an official effort was undertaken to do something about that, and there have been continuous objections, protests and delays since the start of the actual planning.

The S7, when complete, will be just under 29 kilometers long (17.7 miles) and will run between the A2 autobahn near Großwillersdorf, Styria, and the border crossing at Heiligenkreuz, Burgenland, where it will join the M80 motorway in Hungary. It will bypass five Burgenland villages and three more in Styria, allowing their streets to go back to local use. Further, the new road is being built to a safer, quieter modern highway standard, with typical road restraint systems (concrete barriers and steel guardrails) to reduce head-on collisions and off-road excursions, and with noise protection measures, including sound barriers and an almost three-kilometer-long tunnel near Rudersdorf that is intended mostly to protect that village from road noise.



The section that just opened (shown in red) is 14.4 km long and largely in Styria; the remaining 13.6 km (shown in orange) is all in Burgenland and is on schedule. Meanwhile, there is a connection to the B65 near Dobersdorf that will be removed when the eastern section opens to traffic in mid 2025 (permanent nodes [connections to other roads] are shown by the filled circles). The route includes two tunnels, the Rudersdorf one mentioned above, which is the first road tunnel in Burgenland, and a 1 km tunnel north of Fürstenfeld.

Burgenland SPÖ State Councilor Heinrich Dorner attended the grand opening, calling it a "milestone in transport policy." He stated that it will bring significant relief for the communities in the region and a better quality of life for the population, and, at the same time, will create an important economic impulse because it will encourage establishment of companies along the route.

The Burgenland Greens, on the other hand, remain very critical of the S7, calling it an "ulcer in the landscape." They argue that traffic is the biggest problem in Burgenland's climate balance and the S7 and its traffic will "torpedo" the country's goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2030. While I understand their theoretical point of view, the existing traffic was already excessive, inefficient, dangerous, and noisy as it traveled though populated areas; the new route should allow cars and trucks to operate in a safer, quieter, and more environmentally-friendly manner... but, again, the anti's refuse to see value in this... but something tells me that they drove theirs cars to their many protests against the S7 to say so.



Deutsch Tschantschendorf Mini Record Set... Revisited: Last month I included a bit reporting that BB member Patrick Kovacs had made available a transcription of the fourteen original 1873 Catholic marriage records from Deutsch Tschantschendorf, as he had not found year 1873 among the duplicate record images.

That bit caused BB member Catherine Polenz Stallone to write to Patrick, saying (in part), "[I] was just reading the most recent BB newsletter and [the note about] your transcription of the Dt Tschantschendorf marriage records. ...marriage records for 1873 are found between years 1857 and 1858."

This (out of order) issue is not uncommon, though usually they are not moved so far from the expected order. After confirming what Catherine said, I added a note on our FamilySearch page indicating their placement, but I also retained Patrick's transcription.

For curiosity, I also compared Patrick's transcription of the original records to what is found in the duplicate images. I have reported many times that the "duplicates" are not a perfect copy of the "originals" (no copy machines back then!). What they are is a handwritten copy, where someone went through the originals record-by-record and tried to accurately transcribe what was there... although that statement is not always true: I have seen numerous examples where the transcriptionist has clearly chosen to write names of people and places according to his preferred usage. Thus German village names are "duplicated" with their Hungarian names (or vice versa), as are given names, and surnames are spelled using preferred phonetic conventions. These things do not materially change the record... but the records are different.

In this case, I suspect Patrick may have imposed his personal German-language preferences on the transcription. I say this because he provides the current German village names rather than the Hungarian ones as found in the "duplicate" images, as well as German given names rather than the Latin versions in the "duplicates" (that likely were the priest's preferred versions).

Despite all those different-by-design changes, I think there are other differences that make my point about inaccuracies stemming from the by-hand copying process. For example, Patrick provides occupations for 13 of the 14 grooms and 7 for the brides... the "duplicates" report an occupation for one groom only (and skip all the rest). Also, for one groom, his village does not match between Patrick's transcription and that found in the duplicates (i.e., Punitz vs. Deutsch Tschantschendorf); the house number is the same but not the place.

In addition, a village notation is used in the "duplicates" that Patrick makes no mention of. For example, "Pr. N. Csencs 83" appears ...but what is this "Pr." at the front? "N. Csencs" is an abbreviated version of the Hungarian name for Deutsch Tschantschendorf, but why add the "Pr." preface? Does anyone know what it stands for and, if so, why it is attached to Németcsencs? There are three other usages of this preface, with two tied to Tobaj and another as above.

Lastly, there are nine records where the surname of bride or groom or both differs between Patrick's transcription and the duplicates. These differences all appear to be consistent with the phonetic differences in how they would be written in German versus Hungarian... but I don't know if Patrick switched the surnames found in the originals to his preferred current German versions, or whether our 1873 transcriptionist moved them in the opposite direction.

PS: Patrick reviewed a draft of this bit and confirmed that he did standardize spelling for given names and surnames to the current German form, noting it makes filtering in Excel easier. I'll note it also improves sorting when items have consistent spelling (and I tend to standardize too). Patrick also proposed that "Pr." could be praedium = estate. This seems reasonable, as the word indicated the presence of an aristocratic estate with a noble residence, farm or farm buildings located in the village hotter. Indeed, Prince Filup Batthyány had estate property in both villages. I was aware of the word and its meaning, but had not seen it used in 19th century Burgenland church records.



Roma in Welgersdorf, Burgenland: Phil Snow wrote to me this past month with a short question... but it quickly became an extended conversation (which I've edited below for clarity and to keep to main points). Phil's initial question concerned the history of the Roma (Gypsy, Czigány, etc.) settlement in the village of Welgersdorf. I know next to nothing about that specifically but have done some general reading in the past about Roma in Burgenland. Using that, I tried to answer Phil. However, I've never organized my thoughts nor the facts about the Roma so I can't say I recalled everything correctly, but below is where the conversation went. If you see anything incorrect or can add to the discussion, please share your thoughts with me.

Phil writes: Do you know if there are any good histories on the Roma in Welgersdorf?

Tom: There is not even one good history on Roma in Burgenland as a whole, much less in a single village. The Roma themselves did not document their lives, as they did not have a written language, and references by the governments had more to do with restricting them (from being there, from owning land, even from raising their own children).

First references to Roma on the territory of today’s Burgenland date back to the 15th century, but only as wanderers and itinerants.

First documents about Roma settlements date back to the second half of the 17th century, specifically 1664 and 1674 when Christoph Batthyány, Earl of Németujvár (Güssing), initiated the settlement of Roma in today’s southern Burgenland. While I do not know, I suspect Welgersdorf’s Roma community may have been part of this [ed: later discussion indicates the settlement started much later].

In contrast, the imperial policy on Esterházy and Church territory was to prohibit residency, leading to "Gypsy hunts" under Charles VI in the first half of the 18th century.

Maria Theresa and Joseph II had a policy of assimilation that called for registration, forced settlement, forced adoption of children, prohibition of language, etc. While conditions improved slightly in the early 19th century, the general attitude of the authorities remained severe, as they were not allowed to be citizens so had no legal rights.

I have never seen anything specific to Welgersdorf (other than its Roma name, Velegaja) but there are some short bits about other Burgenland Roma settlements that can be found. One “overview” article is the following (despite Austria in the title, much of it is about Burgenland): The Roma in Austria - A Historical Perspective (econstor.eu)

In the past, I’ve considered trying to write about Burgenland’s Roma but haven’t found enough to build an article around (unless I went the persecution route… lots out there about that, especially during WW-II… but I’d prefer to write something more positive about their lives).

Phil: Well, I have two Horvath lines from Welgersdorf in my family. When I look up Horvaths from Welgersdorf, it doesn't mention Roma/Cigany/Zigeuner etc., but when I look up Horvaths from every other village/town in the surrounding area, they all list them as cigany. [ed: other terms for Roma in the records were újpolgár (new citizen) and újmagyar (new Hungarian). These terms came about as part of the forced settlement efforts.]

I have located two houses in Welgersdorf where some of my family lived and was hoping to get a better idea of if or where there were any gypsy "settlements" in town or if they assimilated early and were just among the population. I recently learned that Welgersdorf had a huge fire in 1860 and 1900 so the house numbering is different than it used to be but we have figured out where the original houses were. I've come to a dead end in my research because the information listed is sparse which makes me believe something may be afoot.

I have read about the four decrees from Maria Theresia and I'm about at the era where the children being taken is happening. So I'd also like to know how that worked. Did the kids keep their name or did they just call them like "Horvath" or something. Things like that.

Tom: Horvath is the Hungarian word for Croatian, and I have seen many, many Horvaths who were not Roma... almost certainly many more who were not Roma than who were Roma. The Roma did not use a lot of different surnames and, while Horvath is one, others were more common, and quite distinctive.

I’d suggest you look at the (Catholic) church records to see if there are any births listed as Roma (Czigány). If there are, and your Horvaths are not so listed, then I’d bet they are Croatians with the Horvath name.

Also, I found something that said the Roma presence in Welgersdorf did not start until the 1880s, so if you are looking at Horvaths from before this, then they also are not Roma.

As for where the Roma were located, the most common thing I found was that they were given space in the community pasture areas on the edge of town to build a small settlement; they were not integrated into the town proper. Given most of them were deported or murdered by the Nazi’s in WW-II, those settlements were destroyed and the land returned to pasture, so the modern layout of the town won’t help. Likewise, the cadastral maps we have are from the 1850s, before Roma arrived in Welgersdorf, so again those won’t tell you anything. Given where they were usually located, no house number (conscription #) would be shown in church records, as their places did not fit the “rules” for having a house number.

I do not know how the naming of “adopted” Roma children was handled. Rather, I know that the Roma quickly adapted and didn’t have children baptized, so the authorities didn’t know about them. Also, I think this forced “adoption” thing was from before a Roma presence in Welgersdorf took place.

Phil: Yeah, the Hungarian Catholic Church Records at familysearch.org have become my best friend lately. That's where I have found most of this information.

I've also seen 1869 for the Roma settlement.

Tom: I jumped into the church records and quickly found line 24 on this page: Hungary, Catholic Church Records, 1636-1895; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-KD8Z-D?cc=1743180 [ed: these are the records for Hannersdorf, the parish for Welgersdorf]. The czigány designation was used.

Phil: There really are Roma all over the place. I don't think the "settlement" of the Roma is as definite because of how they consider themselves or by others.

Tom: The major influx In southern Burgenland was because the monarchy banned them from the Austrian half of the Empire and the Hungarians didn’t want them wandering, so forced them to settle down immediately. The Burgenland area was most adjacent to Austria so the Roma groups were forced to stop there and the local villages were instructed to give them an area to build huts. Eventually, they became an accepted but separate, second-class part of the communities, doing ironwork, sharpening knives and providing items for purchase. They didn’t want to settle but had no choice. They still wandered a bit to do “business” but maintained a home base too. Prior to all this, they did wander freely, setting up camps for a while then moving elsewhere. Most villages had no “public” lands so that caused strife, as the locals did not want to have any of their limited land removed from production. Roma mostly camped on the land of the nobility during this time, as they often did not fully utilize all they had.

Phil: When my mom was in high school, she wanted to get her ears pierced. My great grandma who came here from the region told her "That's what the gypsies do!" Now, I don't know why an 80 year old woman who hadn't been in the Burgenland since she was 8 cared what the Gypsies did. At first, I thought it was hatred. Then, lately I thought what if she wanted to hide it. I'm still clueless about it.

I know that Welgersdorf was considered "part" of Großpetersdorf and all of the Horvaths in Großpetersdorf were shown to be cigany. I just find it odd that in the one village, there is no designation listed in the church records. It could be that they weren't there yet but the area of Oberwart was known for being the highest number of Roma in all of Austria and in the Burgenland.

Tom: The Catholic parish for Welgersdorf was in Hannersdorf, so records are there… and most Roma were Catholic.

Phil: Most of my ancestors were Lutherans but the Hungary Catholic Records do a great job of including everyone. I've also had to learn a little Hungarian too to make it easier to translate.

Tom: Lutheran records were in Großpetersdorf, so that makes sense for you. However, the Lutherans got the right to keep their own records quite soon after the Austro-Hungarian government required keeping records. The only Lutherans you should find in Catholic records thereafter are in the mixed families (Catholic/Lutheran) but those mixed records are usually in the Lutheran records too, as both wanted to claim them for themselves.

I’m surprised you are finding Czigány in Lutheran records… I’d expect them to be rare.

Phil: So there could be mixed families?

Tom: Lutheran / Catholic yes. Czigány / non-Czigány, far less likely.

The Catholic church thought an unmarried mother (or a starving widow and children) was a greater problem than a mixed marriage, so allowed it for the greater good (and as lesser offence against their teachings!). I’ve never seen any documentation as to why the Lutherans allowed it, but I suspect their reasoning was similar.

A marriage to a Czigány was a major social/economic step down for a non-Czigány, so those were not condoned and seldom happened

Phil: This is why I thought there would be more.

"The fourth decree, issued in 1773, prohibited marriages between the Roma. Mixed marriages were encouraged by subsidies. Permission to get married, however, was bound to an attestation of “a proper way of life and knowledge of the Catholic religious doctrine”. Since the empress and her counsellors were of the opinion that the “civilisation” of the “Gypsies” was the basis for a successful “domiciliation”, she ordered that all children over the age of five should be taken away from their parents and be handed over to Hungarian farmers’ families who were supposed to take charge of their Christian upbringing against payment. The children should grow up isolated from their parents in different comitatuses, go to school and later learn a trade or become farmers."

Here is the website: https://rm.coe.int/austro-hungarian-empire-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b19ed

Tom: Yes, that speaks of the time before Welgersdorf is known to have a Roma settlement. Further, I think it over-claims success for the measures of Maria Theresa and son Joseph, even in Burgenland. The Roma got around the marriage thing simply by not marrying at all; they just lived together. Children were very often baptized as “illegitimate” with no mention of a father’s name.

In the other direction, “adoptions” in Burgenland were largely treated as free money; adopting families fed their own kids better and, correspondingly, the childhood death rate for adopted children was extremely high. Being an orphan was dangerous for a child, Czigány or not, especially when they were sent to families rather than kept in an orphanage.

I can see perhaps a small portion of adopted Czigány children marrying into “mixed” marriages, but villagers knew they were really of Czigány origin and largely resisted such marriages. If they moved away, Czigány had a better change of marrying into the mainstream population… but that presumes they survived to adulthood.

Later I wrote: I looked at a 1913 Hungarian gazetteer, which lists ethnic make-up of the villages. I found 373 villages that either were Czigánytelep (Gypsy settlements) or had enough Czigány in the village to bother to count. While I did not separately count settlements vs. presence in a village, my guess is there was 20 or so Roma-dominated villages; the rest just had a countable presence. Of those 373, I recognized 7 as being Burgenland-precursor villages. Welgersdorf was not so listed, so its count by 1913 had to be insignificantly small.

The two earlier gazetteers I looked at did not include Czigány in their ethnic make-up listings.

My take from this “only 7 in Burgenland of the 373 Roma-containing villages” is either 1) that the presence in Burgenland was not sustained, or 2) “assimilation” was so successful that, by 1913, Roma were no longer identifiable in most villages.

I lean toward the first interpretation, as I know there was a large exodus when “serfdom” rules were relaxed in the 1860s.

Ed: Later, I discovered that in the Hannersdorf Catholic parish records, 1870-1895, there is just one Roma couple from Welgersdorf having children in the 1870s. In the 1880s, more Roma names appear and the residence is always given without a house number (only the village) or as czigánytelep (Gypsy settlement) or czigánylak (Gypsy residence).

In the Großpetersdorf Lutheran parish records, 1880-1895, no Welgersdorf births are indicated as Gypsy (in any form, czigány, újpolgár, etc.).

These data are consistent with what I had expressed previously (i.e., Roma strongly tended to be Catholic; their homes were not in the village proper; their major presence in Welgersdorf occurred after 1880; etc.).



Apetlon Transcriptions: BB member Rebecca Chamberlain has contributed transcriptions of the 1771-1826 birth records and the 1746-1826 marriage records from the Catholic parish of Apetlon (Hungarian: Mosonbánfalva, Bánfalu), with the originals as found on matriken.at. Copyrights for the transcriptions remain with Rebecca. The databases consist of 3,853 birth records and 989 marriage records and can be found here: Apetlon Catholic Records - 1746-1826.

Rebecca plans to continue transcribing Apetlon records, so we are adding the following sets to our "pending" listings: Birth 1746-1770, and Deaths 1746-1826.

On behalf of the BB community, I thank Rebecca for providing this data and for her continuing transcription efforts!



A Chicago Resource?

Tim Hermesdorf wrote saying: Hi Tom, I don't know if this information can be used in "Bits and Pieces," but here goes.

I had the pleasure of giving Patrick Kovacs a tour of Chicago during his visit. One stop was the site of the old stockyards. In 1910, a massive fire broke out in the yards resulting in the deaths of 21 firefighters. We viewed a monument dedicated to them and all CFD [ed: Chicago Fire Department] members killed in the line of duty since 1858.

Patrick recognized a name, Michael Drobitsch, killed in 1997. He was sure Michael was a descendant of Burgenländers. Upon returning to Austria, he determined that Michael's grandfather, Joseph, had immigrated from Rotenturm an der Pinka in 1912.

This led me to wonder how many Burgenländers or their descendants might have served on the CFD. I have attached a resource website for The Fire Museum of Greater Chicago, a non-profit of which I am a member [ed: Tim is a retired firefighter/paramedic]. The personnel routinely help members of the public find records for their ancestors that served on the CFD.

I fully understand that the BB's main focus is on Burgenländers that immigrated to the US and not on their descendants born here. This however, could be a resource to aid in backtracking a family tree. What do you think? firemuseumofgreaterchicago.com

Editor: My take is that it is relevant, as I'll bet that at least one Burgenländer immigrant has served on the CFD! And Tim's point is relevant too. While our emphasis is on the immigrants and tracking back in time from them, no genealogical effort is complete without going forward also. If this resource helps do that, I'm glad to make mention of it!



Editor: I noticed from above (and I'm sure you did too) that Patrick Kovacs, a BB staff member and a BB Facebook page administrator, graced the US with a visit sometime in the near past. I decided to ask more about this trip and what follows is Patrick's reply:

Patrick writes: Chicago was the last leg of a road trip with my two friends Stefan and Melanie in August '23. We started in Vegas with stops in Death Valley, Los Angeles, Point Lobos, San Francisco, Yosemite, and Yellowstone. This was my 7th trip to the US and I managed to visit my 25th state during this vacation.

We stayed with my distant cousin Patti in Darien [ed: a suburb of Chicago]. Her paternal grandmother was from my hometown, Olbendorf (emigrated in 1906), and her paternal grandfather was from nearby Litzelsdorf. We had the pleasure to meet Patti and her 3 siblings, James, Janice, and Dan, in 2022 during their vacation in Austria. We showed them around Vienna and southern Burgenland and they kindly invited us to visit them in Chicago.

On our first day, we had traditional Chicago deep-dish pizza and the next day we went to a White Sox game, including a proper tailgate party.

On the third day, we met with my distant cousin, Tim [ed: Hermesdorf], who graciously took us on an informative and amusing tour around Chicago. We started at Chicago Portage, where the foundation for Chicago was laid, followed by the South Side, where Little Burgenland and the slaughterhouse district used to be, the University of Chicago, where the first nuclear chain reaction was achieved, Jackson Park, site of the 1893 World's Fair, and St. Michael’s Church. At the end of the tour we had lunch at a German restaurant. We said our goodbyes to Tim and spent the rest of the day at cousin Janice’s pool, with cigars, cool beers and White Castle sliders.

On our last day we took a river cruise and the hop-on hop-off bus to drink in the architecture of Chicago. I was particularly impressed by the John Hancock Center, Tribune Tower, and Marina City. We had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern, saw Buckingham Fountain (which is well-known in Austria due to the popularity of Married with Children), and Navy Pier.



Bad Tatzmannsdorf Civil Recording District: Patrick Kovacs has detected another change in civil recording location, this time for Bad Tatzmannsdorf (Tarcsa). We had it listed as part of the Oberschützen district, however that is true only for after 1906. Prior to that (1895-1906 inclusive), it was part of the Mariasdorf civil recording district. This location change has been added to our FamilySearch listings. My thanks to Patrick for pointing this out.

As I've mentioned before, we know there were a number of reshufflings of villages among recording districts in the 1907-1910 era, however, I've never been able to find a document itemizing all these changes. Thus we depend on you to point out such issues... even if it is merely that you are baffled about why you can't find records for your village in this era. It may well be that we are documenting the wrong place for the era you are searching. If so, we want to fix this! So please contact me.



Additionally, Patrick noticed that a few outlying houses in Rauchwart consistently are documented in the Olbendorf Catholic records (as opposed to the official parish, Sankt Michael). These are Rauchwart houses 75 & 76, which are on the northwest boundary of its hotter but socially much more a part of nearby Olbendorf village. I have added a note about this in our FamilySearch listings.



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

Wishing everyone who is celebrating a very Happy Easter! This month, we welcomed 25 new members to our Facebook group, bringing our membership count up to 2,183. Please join us if you haven’t already! facebook.com/groups/TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL.

Member Martha Orlovits added 110 photos of the memorials found in Cemetery Punitz, as well as 88 photos taken at the cemetery in Eisenhüttl. She also added an album featuring 169 photos from the cemetery in Heugraben. Many thanks to Martha for taking the time to photograph these memorials for our members!

Member Rebecca Chamberlain added her Apetlon Baptism Transcriptions from Matriken for 1771-1826. Thank you for sharing these with us, Rebecca!

Member Daniel Weber shared this sweet video of Ms. Meitz, a 99 year old lady who talks about her relatives in the USA who emigrated from southern Burgenland to Chicago before WW-I. Ms. Meitz comes from Neuhaus am Klausenbach and is related to the “Halb” and “Jud” families (the video has English subtitles): youtube.com/watch.

Member Janet Kroboth-Weber shared photos commemorating the 500th Anniversary of Güssing Castle, where special exhibition opened in its recently-renovated museum.
Janet also shared a link to a great site with information about Güssing: guessing.net

Member Franz Stangl shared lots of great photos and videos showcasing the Holy Week festivities in and around Güssing.

Member Herbert Pensenhofer shared some very interesting photos and history regarding the remnants of the Roman Empire aqueducts, which can be seen near Szombathely (Vas). Szombathely was formerly known as Savaria. Here is a link to some more information about Szombathely and its history: britannica.com/Szombathely.

Member Brigitte Kurz was very helpful to several members looking for photos of Deutsch Ehrensdorf. She also shared some beautiful photos of Wasserschloss Eberau. Thank you, Brigitte!

Member Megan Corcoran shared some great photo memories from her trip 25 years ago showing sites around Gerersdorf bei Güssing.

CONNECTIONS:

Member Stephen Von Hitritz writes, “I will be staying in Eisenstadt in October. My Pfaffelmeyer family is from Oslip. Family names in Oslip are Pfaffelmeyer. Pantner. Schindler. Höld. I’d like to make contact with someone in Oslip and meet them when I am there. My Deutsch is pretty good. Just starting to learn Croatian. Any help appreciated. My family name is Hitrec.”

If anyone has any information for Stephen, please contact me at HooftyRN@msn.com and I would be happy to forward it on to him!

Have a great month - stay safe and healthy!

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 1769 copies, as an interested person purchased 1 book during this past month.

As always, the book is available for online purchase at a list price of $8.89 (which is the current production charge for the book, as we purposely choose not to make any profit 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!).

The book is an excellent read for the Burgenländers in your family... get theirs now!



Burgenland Recipes: (none this month... can you share one?)



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, whenever we use up our unpublished recipes, this recipe section will become dormant. 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: This is an Austrian political cartoon from a few years ago... and that is Hans Peter Doskozil saying, "A social democratic Burgenland, with federal political lowlands." I also provide a translation of the explanation that was included:


The state of the SPÖ in Austria: Successful in three federal states,
becoming weaker and weaker in the federal government.

Once the terraced vineyards of the modest range dignified by the name of Leithagebirge are left behind, the whole northern Burgenland is merely a corner, divided from the main part by a barrier which is purely political, of the Lesser Alföld of Hungary.

He also notes that, "Northern Burgenland has been an immemorial channel both for trade and invasion."

Of southern Burgenland, he has less to say (at least at this point); however, the following description will lead into more interesting comments later in his chapter:

Broadly speaking, the frontier marks the line between the hills, today assigned to Austria, and the plain, which has been left to Hungary. In medieval times the whole of this area must have been densely wooded, and although much has been cleared for pasture and arable land, large forests still remain. The population is sparse, and there are no towns larger than small market centres.

§ 1 of Macartney's chapter considers The People and History of the Area, beginning with the Romans, then the Germanic tribes, the Avars, the Franks and finally the Magyars in the 900s. He states:

The Leitha appears as the Austro-Hungarian frontier as early as A.D. 1043 while in the south the Lafnitz seems to have become the line between Hungary and Styria about the same date. Thereafter the frontier remained remarkably stable, the gains made by each side at various times seldom proving long-lived.

He backs that last sentence above by describing the temporary changes in the border, all of which eventually reverted to the "historical" border described in the first sentence. Given this, he argues that Hungary's claim to most of the Burgenland was unquestioned, and to the few disputed areas, it was at least strong. However, he has the good grace to say:

Ethnographically, on the other hand, the Burgenland had been mainly German for quite as long as it had been politically Hungarian. The German tribes who succeeded Rome in Noricum and Pannonia were probably swept aside without a trace by the Avars; who themselves occupied the open country in the north, while if any non-Avar population existed in the forests farther south, it was probably of Slovene stock.

When, however, Charlemagne destroyed the Avars at the end of the eighth century, he cleared and colonized part of the land with German settlers. Steinamanger (Szombathély), Oedenburg, and Pinkafeld (Pinkafõ) already appear in the records of the ninth century. The Magyars probably swept away these colonists from the open country in the north, which they occupied themselves or settled with the kindred nation of the Petchenegs.

Their own kings, however, acting either directly or through the agency of various monastic orders, afterwards recolonized the whole open space on both sides of the Neusiedlersee with German settlers, apparently of the same Bajuvarian [Ed: Bavarian: German tribes from Bohemia that populated Old Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol in the 5th Century] stock as most of the Austrians. This colonization lasted through the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries and the descendants of the settlers still make up a large proportion of the population of the Wieselburg district, and still preserve their distinctive dialect and habits.

The villages between the Neusiedlersee and the Danube were almost wiped out in the Turkish wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the country was again re-colonized, mainly by Germans -- in this case, Protestant Suabians [Ed: Swabians], driven from their homes under the Counter-Reformation. These 'Heidebauern' form another distinctive group of the population.

In the Middle Burgenland a few Germans probably survived the first Magyar onslaught. The country was settled more fully in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with yet another group of Germans, the so-called 'Heinzen' or 'Heanzen', who appear to be of Frankish stock, and differ widely in dialect and manners from their neighbours in Styria and Lower Austria. In the Raab Valley the colonization was carried out largely by the Cistercian monks, and the population is akin to that of Styria.

So, Macartney argues, as so many historians have, that the Avars wiped out all of the German peoples in the area, though he adds that any remaining non-Avar population in the south was likely Slovene. Further, he also states that the Magyars cleared the north of Frankish German peoples before restocking it a few hundred years later with Bavarian Germans, then restocking it again after the Turks with Swabian/Heidebauern Germans. In middle Burgenland he believes the Magyars stocked that area with Frankish "Heinzen" (he states in a footnote in his original text that no "satisfactory" explanation of the "Heinzen" name had yet been given) who differ from their neighbors in Styria and Niederösterreich. However, the south he claims was repopulated by Germans "akin to that of Styria."

This is a pretty concise summary of the Germans of Burgenland and it strongly suggests that one must pay attention to the area within Burgenland before searching for roots elsewhere in the German-speaking world.

He then speaks of the Magyars, saying they "...never coveted the hills and forests, and their settlement stopped short where the plain ends." He argues that the line of demarcation between the two peoples had remained practically unchanged and clear-cut, except for two or three German villages in the plain and a tiny group of Magyar villages in the Pinka Valley. "Apart from the latter, the only Magyar element in the countryside, within the German line, consists of a few large landowners and their staffs", he says.

He next speaks of the Croats, saying:

The third element of some importance in the population consists of the Croats. These are comparatively recent arrivals, their ancestors having fled from Croatia and Bosnia (for the most part in the sixteenth century, although a few came earlier and one colony was established as late as 1793) before the Turkish advance. They were settled, partly by the Government, partly by private landowners, on lands laid waste by the Turks....

The Croats, who still speak an antique seventeenth-century dialect (or rather, variety of dialects) of Croatian, heavily interspersed by German and (to a lesser extent) Magyar terms, are practically all Catholics, and are a people of peasants, with a small intelligentsia and modest literature. Their speciality is poultrykeeping and dealing, and the characteristic carts in which they were wont to bring their stock to Vienna were well known in that city before the age of the lorry. Some of them also followed the traditional Slovak calling of besom-binders [Ed: makers of birch-twig brooms] and hawkers [Ed: itinerant peddlers], while many emigrated in the nineteenth century to the U.S.A.

In passing, he mentions Jewish in northern Burgenland, Slovenes in the south and the Gypsies along the Neusiedlersee, who he says "adopted the Magyar in preference to the German."

Next, Macartney speaks of the Economic Ties of the People, saying:

The central Burgenland, which gravitated naturally towards Steinamanger, formed an exception, and incidentally remained economically the most backward part of the country. The southern districts, on the other hand, tended increasingly to look for their markets in Graz and the industrial towns of Styria, rather than in the small and undeveloped towns of South-Western Hungary, while in the north a similar orientation towards Vienna and Wiener Neustadt was even more clearly marked. Even Hungarian writers admitted that the population of Pressburg [Bratislava], Oedenburg [Sopron], and the surrounding districts stood economically and culturally far nearer to Vienna than to Budapest.

In speaking of the north, he states that "the dairy and garden produce and the wines in which the Counties of Wieselburg [Moson] and Oedenburg [Sopron] excelled went almost exclusively to Vienna..." and that immigration of West Hungarians into Austria, especially Lower Austria, was quite significant.

He lists 1890 census results showing ~221,000 Hungarian citizens living in Austria, the great majority of which were German, with ~131,000 in Lower Austria and ~97,000 of those coming from the Hungarian counties of Pressburg (Pozsony), Wieselburg (Moson), Ödenburg (Sopron), and Eisenburg (Vas) counties.

He also states that "a large number of the immigrants were gardeners, builders, or domestic servants... [and] many of the workers in the new factories [in Wiener Neustadt and other localities in the plain south of Vienna] came from the Burgenland, and travelled in by train to their work either daily or for the week, returning on Sundays to their homes."

In § 2-4, Macartney addresses what he calls The Movement for Attachment to Austria, saying that:

The active German national movement in Hungary, of which the West Hungarian movement is only a part, began only towards the end of the War, under the influence of the wave of nationalism then sweeping over Europe and, in particular, of the personal contact into which the War brought the German soldiers of West Hungary, for the first time in their lives, with their German and Austrian kinsfolk.

He argues, however, that (speaking of all, not just West Hungarian Germans), the "national reawakening" came too late for many Hungarian Germans and that "a considerable proportion of them, confronted for the first time with a choice of loyalties, decided in their hearts for the Magyar ideal, and must be counted henceforward, as Magyars."

Of the remainder, he says they fell into two opposing groups: one, the 'Deutscher Volksrat,’ found most strongly among the Transylvanian Saxons; the other, the 'Deutsch-ungarischer Volksrat,' found more among Swabians. The Deutscher Volksrat considered its members German nationals, and was prepared to come to agreement with whatever State offered it the most favorable terms from the national point of view. If that State were Hungary, the price was far-reaching autonomy for the whole German 'nation' in Hungary.

The 'Deutsch-ungarischer Volksrat,' however, accepted being part of the Hungarian State and was prepared to accept the best terms within that limit. It did not wish for 'national' organization nor even so much "German education" as would impair the cultural unity with Hungary.

However, the Deutscher Volksrat quickly became the stronger of the two organizations. Although West Hungary had two representatives in the Deutscher Volksrat, one, representing the northern districts, supported national autonomy within Hungary; the other, representing the southern districts, advocated separation from Hungary and union with Austria.

Interestingly, although the southern districts were more active, holding meetings and organizing plebiscites in favor of union with Austria or Styria or even an independent 'Heinzenland Republic,' Macartney says it was the north that grew impatient when the promised autonomy for the Germans failed to appear. After the Czechs occupied Pressburg and the Serbs advanced in the south, a general meeting of the Germans of West Hungary, led by those in the north, was held January 20th, 1919, at Sopron and sent the Government an ultimatum "demanding the immediate enactment of the autonomy; failing which West Hungary would proclaim either its independence or its union with Austria."

What follows next in the chapter is a long description of Hungarian responses, their ultimate breakdown, and the increasing agitation prior to the peace conferences that eventually decided Burgenland's fate, as well as a discussion of activities at the peace conference and the resulting Sopron plebiscite. I'll only extract two items from this section...

Macartney says that, when the peace conference turned to discuss the treaty with Austria, it was proposed to leave the frontier with Hungary untouched; "no action was to be taken unless either Austria or Hungary raised the question."

However, Austria did raise the question and asked "that if the inhabitants, through a plebiscite, declared this to be their wish, she should be given the German-speaking districts of the Counties of Pressburg, Wieselburg, Oedenburg, and Eisenburg," which was an area with a population of about 495,000, 325,000 of which were Germans. Macartney said that:

She [Austria] argued that the majority of the population was ethnographically and linguistically German, and that, while under the old system the frontier had been unimportant, if Hungary became a strange and 'possibly hostile' State the strategic position of Wiener Neustadt, Vienna, and even Graz would be dangerous; a barrier would be interposed between the Neustadt factories and the workmen from Hungary; and the food supplies of Vienna and Graz would be endangered, while their factories would lose important markets. Budapest had ample alternative sources of supply.

He also says that the "cession of the Burgenland was conducted in a manner very different from that of Northern, Eastern, or Southern Hungary." He states that what Austria received was "given her grudgingly, with strict regard for the principle of nationality and with none of the concessions to economic advantage so generously lavished elsewhere. It is hardly probable that Hungary would have retained Oedenburg had the rival claimant been Roumania or Czechoslovakia, nor that the frontier would, in such a case, have run so closely along the edge of the hills."



► Remainder of review to be presented next month...

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 © 2024 by The Burgenland Bunch
All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided.