The purpose of the Burgenland Bunch is to assist relatives and descendants of Burgenland immigrants in finding data concerning genealogical, cultural and historical data about the „Heimat“ (home) of their Austro/Hungarian ancestors. By doing so, we memorialize those courageous and intrepid immigrant family members, who left home and family in the old world to take up life in the new. In this way, we can insure that the story of the Burgenland Auswanderung will never be forgotten.

We publish a monthly newsletter and maintain an internet Web Page (Homepage) with much Burgenland family, village and internet data. We link to other web sites and provide a searchable archives facility to house our publications which now exceed 2000 pages.These archives contain Burgenland historical, genealogical and cultural data, some translated into English for the first time anywhere. We provide a world wide query service on the internet and also write articles for this important Burgenland publication (BG News) . We may be contacted through the BG web page as well as many other websites. We can only be reached via the internet as we do not use surface mail. There are no costs-we charge nothing for our service.

During the 10 years since our organization was founded, we have replied to new member queries in various ways and answered thousands of requests. Given the size of our membership (over 1200 and growing), it is no longer possible to provide as much individual attention as in the past. We have however, increased and enlarged our archive and member data list websites. New members can now more readily do their own thing. We are always available for questions.

THE MEMBERSHIP SIGNUP PROCEDURE IS AS FOLLOWS [ed. note: in 2005] 

Contact Gberghold@AOL.com by email. [ed. note: Please use form now!]

• You will then receive an Invitation Letter by return email explaining what to do next.
• You will find that all we ask you to do is to furnish your immigrant’s name and if known, their village of origin, place of settlement and date of immigration.
• You can also find the text of the Invitation Letter by going to our homepage at http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUBSEQUENT BB MEMBER ACTIVITY

1. check village, family name and member lists FROM THE BB HOMEPAGE;
2. contact other members researching similar data;
3. hyperlink to village articles from homepage and read short history of family village (we do not as yet have histories of all 400+ villages);
4. check Albert’s Village List and copy village data for your district-MOST IMPORTANT! (this shows the Hungarian village name and location of church and civil records);
5. check URL list for more web sites-visit them;
6. place a query in WGW Burgenland web site-read other queries;
7. search archives for articles concerning family name and village;
8. locate and scan LDS church and civil microfilm;
9. join the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft
10. visit the Burgenland - look for relatives and pre 1828 records;

We welcome new members.

G. Berghold <GBerghold@aol.com>, Editor BB News