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

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

My random bits and pieces (Article 1) starts with the type of piece I truly hate to write... a staff-member obituary: Frank Paukowits has died. I follow that with feedback I received on the prior newsletter... but for just for a few items. Thereafter, I tell you about 1) increasing unemployment, 2) school closings and consolidations, and 3) hail and flooding damage, in Burgenland. We follow that with our monthly update on the status of Lutheran records being placed online... sadly, still no change. The next bit is about FamilySearch ending its volunteer indexing program. Read the bit to see why. My next bit summarizes an Ancestry.com blog article that addresses strategies for learning about female ancestors, as they are often more difficult to track than male ancestors... but I'm not impressed as it is way too US-based and somewhat naive. My final bit is about 23andMe... Regeneron Pharmaceuticals won the bankruptcy auction and should close the deal in the third quarter.

Our regular tidbits include the monthly BB Facebook report, book sales, and some Words for Thought.

We conclude with our standard sections: A Historical BB Newsletter article, Ethnic Events and Emigrant Obituaries.



Frank Paukowits Has Passed Away: It is with great sadness that I report that BB Staff Member Frank Paukowits passed away on May 9th in New York at age 82. Frank was born in the Bronx, NY in 1942 and lived in Bayside, NY for 51 years. He worked as an auditor for the NY State Comptroller’s Office and Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He and wife Elsie Bodisch raised three children and were blessed with eight grandchildren.

Frank's relationship with the BB started when he joined in December 1999, listing six surnames from the Güssing district that settled in the New York City and New Jersey areas in the 1920s. By 2003, discussions with his father-in-law, Anton Traupmann, about deceased relatives and friends who left Burgenland and settled in the NYC area, led to a listing of names of deceased NYC-area Burgenländers that quickly swelled to several hundred. That led to the idea of a database on the web, which quickly became a reality with the help of webmaster Frank Klepeis, so BH&R (Burgenländers Honored and Remembered) was born.

BH&R continued to grow, reaching over 4,000 names by early 2008, then disaster nearly struck. With just a two-week notice, AOL stated it was shutting down its user server farm, which was the host for the BH&R web pages. The BB quickly offered space on our server and ported it over to our pages, beginning BH&R's direct affiliation with the BB, where it has continued to grow and is now approaching 30,000 listed Honorees from Burgenländer enclaves across the US and Canada.

Frank joined the BB staff in charge of BH&R, but he also quickly contributed numerous articles for the BB newsletters, with many involving his Kroatisch-Burgenland roots. He became interested in DNA in 2011, starting a Y-DNA project via FamilyTreeDNA which later evolved to include mitochondrial (mtDNA) and autosomal (atDNA) sections. Frank started writing articles about DNA for the newsletter and advocated for DNA tutorial pages on the BB website, which were implemented in 2014. Along the way, he became a vital part of the BB staff, helping to make the BB what it is today. Thank you, Frank; we will miss you!



Member Richard Potetz read on the BB Facebook page about Frank's passing and wrote to me (in part):

"It was sad to read that Frank Paukowits passed away. I hoped that he would be with us for many more years. Frank was such a wonderful, enthusiastic Burgenland supporter, doing so much for all of us. My enjoyment and curiosity for all things Burgenland is 70% centered on me, my stories, my ancestors. Frank was bigger than that, extending the joy to include everyone. His Burgenland enthusiasm was centered on everyone. And what a great job he did. I know, for lots of people trying to build a family tree, BH&R made the US-to-Burgenland leap possible. He is missed."

Spargel Recipes? Pat Gangl Dolan wrote to comment on the last newsletter, saying (in part) that her favorite article was the Spargel one:

We experienced sparget season during our 2019 spring trip to Illmitz, Tadten, and many more small towns in this area. And we always ordered the sparget after our first delicious taste of their white spargel. I'm wondering if any of our BB members have any sparget recipes they could share with the group? Not that we have very much opportunity to find it here. I've seen it rarely in the grocery store, but rarely is next to never! After reading your article, it's no wonder we don't have much of it here in the USA. Between the weather constraints and adaptations for the plant itself requiring special attention and care, we were indeed super lucky to have spent time in Burgenland during the sparget season.

So, I've underlined the question that is the main reason I'm telling you what she said: Do you have an authentic Burgenland-based asparagus/spargel recipe that you can share? We have never published one so it would be a nice addition to our collection!

For curiosity, I did a little investigating via the web and failed to find any Burgenland-based recipes. However, I did find a Vienna-based, rather long and bawdy article that contained two interesting recipes. If I get no authentic Burgenländische ones, I'll pass these to our Recipes Editor to consider publishing.

As for that Vienna-based article, its title is "Freud’s Asparagus, the Vegan Wiener – Two Recipes: White French with Hazelnuts and Light Vinaigrette & Sautéed Green Italian with Olives and Lime." Freud apparently loved asparagus... but he also wrote about it in his Interpretation of Dreams: “No knowledgeable person of either sex will ask for an interpretation of asparagus.”

I give you the above quote to warn you of the general "flavor" of that article. So, if you are easily offended, don't look it up. But there is a lot of history about asparagus and some great tips on preparing it. Just don't blame me if you blush while reading it!



Bachelorhood Revisited (Again) and Ratchets: Richard Potetz also commented on some items in the previous newsletter and shared photos to support those comments. He wrote:

I had to smile at the photo of the men with cigarettes. A cigarette was quite the statement symbol, I think, a way of showing you were happy and successful. My dad said cigarettes could be bought individually, no need to buy a whole pack. For this reason you needed a place to put the two or three cigarettes you purchased, which for my dad was a thin metal cigarette case. My dad’s case looked like it would hold about 8 cigarettes, side to side.

Another way you could look successful and happy was to hold a drink. I’m attaching one of my favorite photos from Burgenland, a photo of bachelors showing my dad in full rock-star mode. He’s sitting on a keg playing his button accordion. The other men are holding glasses with a glass pitcher between them. I don’t see foam so I’m thinking they were drinking wine spritzers. Beer was not what the bachelors in Neumarkt an der Raab were drinking in 1932. Compared to the photo in the newsletter, the hat style is the biggest difference. I don’t know who the man on the left is but the man on the right is Raymond Gmeindl (1913-1995) who came to New Britain like my dad, married in 1944 and had two kids. Bachelor seems to be a temporary condition here like it is in Burgenland.

I sure can believe those “ratchets are much louder and harsher!” My dad made two wooden toy lawn mowers for us kids that were loud and harsh. I wonder if he got the idea from loud ratchets in Burgenland. I’ll attach an old photo of the one that remains. During the war metal was not available for toys so home-made wooden toys were common.

Thanks again, Tom, for stirring up all the memories.

Unemployment in Burgenland: The count of registered unemployed people in Burgenland in April was 7,597, which was an increase of 3 percent compared to the previous year. However, Burgenland remained well below the average Austrian increase of 6.7 percent. There were an additional 2,025 people participating in job training with the intent to land a position (not counted as unemployed), bringing the total to 9,622 people looking for a job. Job training participation was up almost 12 percent compared to April of the previous year.

Among those most affected by increasing unemployment were women, young people, people over 50, and the long-term unemployed. Comparing genders, unemployment among women was up 6.4 percent, compared to only 0.2 percent among men. Among people aged 50 or over, unemployment had risen by 7.2 percent. For the long-term unemployed, it was 10.8 percent and for young people 9.4 percent more than in the previous year.

There were strong regional differences in unemployment change in Burgenland, with southern Burgenland rising more than 7 percent contrasting with a 2 percent decrease in the Neusiedl am See district.



Burgenland School Closings: It was recently announced that the Pamhagen middle school is facing closure due to an inadequate number of children registering for the initial year of middle school. While 18 students will graduate from primary school in the combined Pamhagen-Wallern school association, only 3 students enrolled into the Pamhagen middle school, which will force its closure after its remaining classes graduate to high school. Ten students is the minimum number that justifies a teacher salary, making Pamhagen Middle the latest to face consolidation.

Over the past 10 years, 18 schools have been closed and consolidated into multiple-village educational campuses in the past ten years, all in middle or southern Burgenland (red dots in image to the right). Pamhagen's school is the first in northern Burgenland to suffer this fate (marked in yellow), as the town's total population drifts lower and its residents age. Only 181 of its 1,472 citizens are in the 0 to 17 age group now. Wallern, its partner in the school association, has a similar pattern, but it still retains 215 citizens in the 0 to 17 age group ...and is apparently attracting the bulk of the graduating primary students.

Kalkgruben (also marked in yellow), on the border of middle and northern Burgenland, has also acknowledged that one of its schools is facing consolidation, and the Burgenland Directorate of Education notes that it is in contact with at least 5 other schools in this regard, though the director does not yet wish to name them.

Pamhagen parents have collected almost 800 signatures advocating the preservation of its middle school, so have been given until the end of May to convince more parents to register their children. But with the downward spiral in population and the declining birth rate, eventual consolidation seems unavoidable.

A similar action took place five years ago in Henndorf, with 500+ people signing a petition for the preservation of the village school. Only this year has the municipal council decided to cede the former school to the state for a potential subsequent use for the building. Großmürbisch's primary school also closed five years ago, but there was no protest and the former elementary school classrooms were soon converted into seven apartments and the gymnasium became an event room and a library. School life continued, just in a different building.



Hail And Flooding (Again) In Burgenland: Southern Burgenland was hit by hail and thunderstorms in early May, causing crop and other damages. Rudersdorf experienced about 15 minutes of heavy hail, which both directly damaged exposed crops and destroyed plastic and foil coverings over protected row crops. In addition, local cars and roofs were affected by the hail and the ground was covered when the hail ended.

Elsewhere in southern Burgenland, heavy rain led to flooding in municipalities such as Rohrbrunn, Deutsch Kaltenbrunn, Neustift bei Güssing and Kukmirn, where fire brigades were called to pump out flooded cellars, remove mudslides, clean clogged sewers and clear roads of fallen trees. A total of 14 local fire departments were called to action. Kukmirn also experienced heavy hail before it turned into heavy rain. More than 40 liters of rain per square meter (about 1.6 inches) fell within 20 minutes there. The resulting flooding blocked culverts, filled ditches and silted up roads and paths, as well as inundated crop fields and low-lying areas.

The initial estimate by an insurance company for hail damage in the districts of Güssing and Jennersdorf was 600,000 euros, mainly involving fruit crops, but also grassland and arable crops.



Burgenland Evangelisch Record Images: I have been reporting for a number of months that the images of the matrikal records of the Burgenland Evangelisch churches (both classical Lutheran [Augsburg / A.B.] and classical Calvinist / Reformed [Helvetic / H.B.] confessions) were being placed online at data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/burgenland-ab-hb/. However, progress seems to have halted.

Over the first months of the year, 23 of the 29 parishes were uploaded. But since then nothing has changed. We still await five A.B. parishes (Kobersdorf, Nickelsdorf, Oberwart, Rechnitz, Siget) and one H.B. parish (Oberwart).



FamilySearch Indexing Ends: FamilySearch announced in late April that the initial indexing of records from historical documents will no longer be done by online volunteers, rather FamilySearch’s artificial intelligence capabilities will provide that service. Therefore, the FamilySearch indexing platform, in which volunteers manually recorded information from historical records to make them searchable online, will no longer be available as an online volunteer opportunity.

FamilySearch acknowledges that many of the genealogical discoveries available on FamilySearch.org have been made possible thanks to the efforts of volunteers. Volunteers helped with projects such as name extraction and microfiche, manually typing indexes for digital images of records, and, more recently, reviewing automated indexes that were first created by a computer. But, just as volunteer efforts have evolved over the years, rapid advances in artificial intelligence technology is creating evolution too.

Now volunteers will be asked to review these AI-generated indexes to catch mistakes, allowing indexes to be created at a faster rate than ever before. Indexing skills will still be needed as you review and refine indexes. However, the fundamental purpose of FamilySearch volunteer work—helping make records accessible for everyone around the world—remains the same.



Seven Strategies for Learning About the Women in Your Family Tree: Compared to tracking male ancestors, doing so for female ancestors can be far more difficult. The main reason is obvious: Female ancestors usually changed their surnames at marriage and then often became known only as “Mrs. [name of husband].”

Angie Bush, a professional genealogist with AncestryProGenealogists, wrote an article recently for the Ancestry.com blog where she presents her strategies for overcoming this inherent research disadvantage. I'll lightly summarize her strategies below, but will also note that her strategies seem oriented much more to families that have been present in the US for many generations rather than comparative few of our immigrant Burgenland ancestors. Given that, she fails to mention strategies I consider vital to our type of research and over-hypes some approaches I find are often not worth the effort.

Her first strategy is to start with family records and stories. She lists "records" such as bibles, journals and letters, photos and scrapbooks, and heirlooms, saying any of these may provide clues to a woman’s maiden name. She also says talking to older relatives can be invaluable, as they may recall maiden names or connections to specific locations that will help guide research. [Can't argue with this!]

The second strategy is to check common government and religious records. Here she lists marriage records, birth or christening records, social security applications, and death records. [Obvious items missing here are naturalization records and ship manifests.]

Her third strategy is to explore wills and probate records, land deeds, and other government records such as guardianships and military pensions. [While women could act as witnesses for some of these documents, or be the principal in or beneficiary of others, these types of documents are relatively rare for our recent ancestors. Further, these documents usually are not easily available online so require time-consuming onsite research in archives... I see these as last resort approaches.]

The fourth strategy is to search newspapers and social records. Here she lists historical newspapers as a source for obituaries, engagement and wedding announcements, community news, and county or community histories. [I've found these sorts of things useful for ancestors who came over before the 1880s and who settled in "frontier" areas. However, our Burgenland ancestors usually settled in well-established communities and were seldom the subject of "social" news. Only obits prove consistently valuable for our kind of research; the rest are seldom worth the research time required.]

The fifth strategy is to review census records carefully. She advises looking for in-laws such as elderly parents or siblings living with a married daughter, as their surnames can be a clue to hers. She also suggests identifying nearby families, claiming neighboring households might include her birth family. [I quite agree with the first recommendation, however I've never found the second to be of value... except as an ah-ha moment when you learn her birth surname via a different method.]

The sixth strategy is to investigate cemetery records. She says burial records and cemetery registers can reveal connections to family, and tombstone inscriptions may include maiden names. [I agree.]

Her seventh strategy is to use DNA testing. Here she lists both autosomal and mitochondrial DNA tests. [While I agree autosomal testing can reveal informative relationships within a useful time scale, I do not believe that mitochondrial testing can do the same... the time scale is simply too distant.]

Bush concludes her article by acknowledging that uncovering the names of female ancestors requires patience and a lot of creativity, saying don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. She lightly plugs the resources that Ancestry.com offers but has the good grace not to suggest hiring herself or the Ancestry company she works for. Since she did not do so, I will note that the AncestryProGenealogists webpage has a "Request a Research Estimate" box, and its sub-heading says "Pricing may start as low as $3,700 USD."



23andMe Acquired By Regeneron: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has won the bankruptcy auction for genomics firm 23andMe Holding for $256 million. It promises to prioritize the ethical use of DNA data from customers using its ancestry testing and other services. The second-highest bid, $146 million, was submitted by a nonprofit research institute founded by 23andMe's former CEO and cofounder Anne Wojcicki. 23andMe filed for bankruptcy after a decline in consumer demand and a 2023 data breach that exposed genetic and personal information of millions of customers.

New York-based Regeneron aims to bolster its capabilities in genomics-driven drug discovery by integrating 23andMe's database of more than 15 million customer DNA profiles that were collected via its direct-to-consumer saliva-testing kits. However, after the transaction, 23andMe itself is expected to operate as a wholly owned unit of Regeneron. The investments in genomics "make good strategic sense" for Regeneron but might take a decade or more to see a return, said analyst William Pickering.

The transaction, targeted to complete in the third quarter, puts the spotlight back on data privacy issues sparked by the data breach. Regeneron said it will uphold 23andMe's existing privacy policies and comply with all applicable data protection laws. Trial attorney Daniel Gielchinsky argued that Regeneron, with its proven track record, will do a better job in the long run of protecting consumer information safeguarded by privacy laws.



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

Here’s a quick rundown of the happenings in our Facebook group this month! We gained 11 new members, bringing our total to 2330. Please feel free to join us if you haven’t already! When doing so, please remember to answer the membership questions and agree to our group’s rules.
The questions:
1.) Are you a member of the Burgenland Bunch? (Yes or No)
2.) Which villages or towns did your ancestors originate from? (if known)
3.) Which surnames are you researching?

These questions help us to connect new members with others researching certain villages and families, and also help to keep the group free from spam and bot accounts.
We hope to meet you soon! facebook.com/share

We have some very sad news to report. Although I’m sure that Tom will also be making you aware in this newsletter, we in the Facebook group would like to pass along our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of BB Editor Frank Paukowits. Frank was integral in the development and enrichment of the BH&R and DNA Projects. He passed away on May 9, 2025 in New Hyde Park, New York. Thank you, Frank, for all that you have done for us. I can personally say that the information I found in the BH&R project is what started me on the road to finding my great grandparents. We are all extremely grateful for his contributions. May he rest in peace, and may his memory be a blessing to all who knew and loved him!

Member Fred Knarr shared an update about a new museum called Stadtvilla Eisenstadt. He writes “The new Stadtvilla Eisenstadt museum opened this month in Burgenland. One of the exhibits is a phone where you can dial the old fashion way on a 'shared 1950s telephone line.' Here are some of photos of that exhibit. If you are lucky enough to make it there, you’ll be able to hear my voice as the 'uncle in America.' I was also able to permanently donate my 1956 edition of 'Du und die Post.' The new museum is on my bucket list and I’ll be there very soon!” Here is a link to their website if you’d like to see it: stadtvilla.online/

Members Kathleen Sebastian and Herbert Pensenhofer shared photos of Maibaum festivities, past and present. Herbert’s photos were from this year in Bernstein, Burgenland. Kathleen shared some vintage photos of a celebration in Kohfidisch, circa 1997. It was great to see that these beautiful traditions live on!

Member Janet Kroboth Weber shared a nice link to the song “Glutrot sank die Sonn”, performed by the music club in Frauenkirchen under the direction of Michael Steiner. You can listen to it here: youtu.be/gY5tHuGMAsw

Several of us gathered at the Coplay Sängerbund on May 1 to enjoy the music of the Alex Meixner Band. Alex is of Burgenland descent, with his Meixner family hailing from Eisenberg an der Pinka. A great time was had by all! A button box jam wrapped up the evening. Here are some clips from the show!

youtu.be/78mMAmJ3r3E
youtu.be/aEc97OCR0rQ
youtu.be/gvUVTeRK8fk

For those on the East Coast or in the Lehigh Valley enclave, the Coplay Sängerbund is hosting its annual Stiftungsfest on Sunday, June 22, 2025. The choruses will begin their performances at 2:30 pm. Singers from the Sängerbund, the Reading Liederkranz, and the Lancaster Hobbychor will be there. The Emil Schanta Band will also perform. This event is open to the public and is a lot of fun! Check it out if you are looking for a wonderful afternoon of music, dancing, and delicious food!

Until next time, 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 1843 copies, as interested people purchased 5 books 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.

The book is an excellent read for the Burgenländers in your family!



Burgenland Recipes: (none this month... got one for us?)



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!



Words for Thought:

The thing that interests me most about family history
is the gap between the things we think we know about our families
and the realities.

In common with many people
who have experienced great disappointment in life,
[my grandmother] wasn't a liar; she just wasn't that fond of reality.

– Jeremy James Hardy (English comedian, 1961–2019)

From a 2010 article in The Guardian titled "Jeremy Hardy's Family Tree,"
where he writes about his then upcoming 2010 book, "My Family and Other Strangers."

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.
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    ● 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 is here: Agreement

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