I’m fortunate in being a Burgenland researcher who can remember talking to his immigrant grandparents. I’d sit at the kitchen table, taking notes and asking my Mühl-Sorger grandmother questions while she cooked some toothsome Burgenland specialty for me. I’d ask, „Mom tell me about where you were born, etc.“ „What do you know about Pop’s people“-(Alois Sorger- deceased)? „What village did the Bergholds come from?“ As a result, I thought my research start would be easy. How wrong I was! Mom told me she was born in Kleinmürbisch to Mühl -Pöltl (from Rosenberg) parents, moved to Güssing following the death of her father and emigrated with twin sister and mother in 1907, following her brother Josef. Names were then changed to Muehl and Poeltl in US. Her family had been small farmers and artisans, her father was a carpenter, one grandfather was a school teacher and an uncle was a game keeper on the Draskovitch estate from which he sometimes brought them rabbits and wood. The Bergholds were from Poppendorf, had a Gasthaus and were Lutherans (which information I ignored as of little value much to my later chagrin). Armed with all this good data and learning about LDS microfilm records, I started looking for Burgenland family. Weeks went by. No church in Kleinmürbisch or Rosenberg (no Rosenberg). Looked in Güssing records, lots of Sorger-Pöltls from a place called Rosahegy. Took a while to find that was the Hungarian name for Rosenberg. No grandmother baptism found. Maybe she wasn’t baptized, highly unlikely. Looked around various villages. No luck. Finally, months later, found a reference to Szt. Miklos (now part of Güssing), site of a church that inhabitants of Kleinmürbisch attended before the parish was incorporated with Güssing (1890’s). There she was, her sister and brother and her parents’ marriage as well! The start of one family thread. Likewise no church records for Poppendorf. Tried St. Gotthard. Found two Bergholds from a place called Mühlgraben. Spent weeks tracking those Bergholds. No links to mine. Tried Heiligenkreuz, lots of early Bergholds, but no link to mine. What was going on? Finally found a Berghold marriage witness from Patafalva (Hungarian for Poppendorf) who was listed as a Lutheran! Something clicked! Checked Lutheran churches, found that Poppendorf Lutherans went to church in Eltendorf (Okortvelyes), a couple of kms down the road. Checked Eltendorf records, there were my Bergholds, back to 1770! Another family thread.

These are the beginner’s main problems. (1) Changes in the spelling of names, (2) German -Hungarian names of villages and (3) location of church attended (also location of civil records post 1896). Before you order LDS Burgenland microfilm or visit Burgenland looking for Ahnen (ancestors) you must know this information! If you’re not absolutely certain, dig deeper. The BB can invariably provide the answers. A large percentage of the many queries I’ve received deal with these three problems. Some are easy, but changes in names, parishes and political status can create a maze.
 

by Gerry Berghold <GBerghold@aol.com>