Unzählige Burgenländer und deren Nachkommen in Amerika sind bemüht, ihre Wurzeln in der alten Heimat zu erforschen. Sie erheben die Daten und erstellen so den Stammbaum ihrer Familie. Damit begreifen sie auch die Lebensumstände früherer Generationen. Im folgenden ist so eine Arbeit abgedruckt. Es geht dabei um die Familie Mühl aus Kleinmürbisch bei Güssing und um den Auswanderer Josef Mühl (1875), der 1903 nach Pennsylvanien kam und dann die Familie nachkommen ließ.

My maternal grandmother Hedwig Mühl was born in Kleinmürbisch, (Hungarian Kismedves), 15 August 1885. She an d her twin sister Francisca were baptized on 16 August 1885 in the Roman Catholic Church in St. Nicholas (Szt. Miklos). Her parents were Josephus Mühl (born 6. March 1834 in Grosspetersdorf) and Johanna Pöltl (born 1845 in Rosenberg bei Güssing). Josephus, a carpenter died of pneumonia in 1885, age 51, 3 months before the birth of the twins. His parents were Mihaly Mühl (born 1797), schoolteacher at Neustift and Urbersdorf and Maria Vukits (born 1803). Mother Johanna was the daughter of Josephus Pöltl (born 1816), potter from Rosenberg and Theresia Sammerl (born 1821 in Krottendorf).

As if the death of husband and father Josephus Mühl was not tragedy enough, the Mühl house in Kleinmürbisch burned down shortly after the birth of the twins and the family (which included elder brother Josef) moved to a house owned by an uncle in Güssing, near the Fisch Teich. Situated on the south side of the castle hill, the house has since been torn down. It was located slightly below what may now be the Fabiankovits Gasthaus. Life was hard for the fatherless family with mother Johanna supporting her family through sewing and housework. Hedwig spoke of poor meals and gifts of firewood and rabbits from her gamekeeper uncle and a once a year orange, some nuts and a gift from the Draskovich Schloss at Christmas time. She remembered cold, bone chilling walks in Winter and dusty barefooted walks in Summer to the Maria Heimsuchung Church in Güssing for Sunday services. She also spoke of the large apricots, plums and other fruit in season and the joyous Spring following a winter of hardship and cold. Joseph was fortunate enough to be apprenticed at an early age to a tailor and the twins then both went into service as maids, also at an early age.

Hedwig worked for the family of a lawyer in Szt. Gotthard. She always said Frau Lawyer (name unknown) treated her very well and taught her to cook. She finally had more than enough to eat. After World War I, the Lawyer lost his money, home and livelihood and Hedwig sent the family money and clothing.
Brother Joseph (born 1875) became a journeyman tailor. He then immigrated to Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1903, where he worked as a tailor. He rented a house at 166 Chew St. and sent his mother and sisters steamship and railroad tickets as well as money to join him in Allentown. The family took a train to Antwerp and connections to the SS Kroonland (Red Star Line on New York to Antwerp immigration service) as second-class passengers. The ship of 12.760 tons was built in Philadelphia in 1902, carried 343 passengers first class, 194 second class and 1000 steerage. Second class travel was above their normal station in life and Hedwig told me she felt like a princess and her mother began acting like a great lady. Hedwig was introduced to food that she had never had like pineapple and bananas. She didn’t know whether or not one was supposed to eat the skin of the banana.

Mother and daughters landed in New York on 28 February 1905 and took the ferry to Newark where they found the train for Allentown. As second-class passengers, it was not necessary for them to clear through Ellis Island. Immigration processing took place aboard ship.
After a joyous reunion with brother Joseph in Allentown, the three women found work at what became the White Owl Cigar Factory at 4th & Green Streets in Allentown. The twins did not remain there long. Young Burgenland girls were in great demand among the immigrant men seeking wives.

Franciska married Samuel Wallitsch (born 1878 in Neusiedl) on 18 March 1905 and joined him in operating a tavern in Northampton, then later one at Ruch & Oak Streets, West Coplay (Stiles).

On 16 October 1905 Hedwig married widower Alois Sorger (born 1879 in Rosenberg), whose wife (Maria Pöltl, born 1882 in Rosenberg) had died giving birth to daughter Maria Theresia. They established a home at 537 N. Fourth Street. In 1907, Alois and brothers Steve and Charles Mankos (from Szombathely), all three being bricklayers working in construction, built homes in the 600 block of N. Jordan Street. These homes (three story brick, 10 room, eventually 2-bath with full cellar, porch and yard with grape arbor) were to be occupied by their growing families for over eighty years. Gaslight was used with electricity replacing it in the early 1920’s. Heat first came from a coal furnace and the kitchen stove burned both gas and wood. An icebox sat on the back porch. Alois and Hedwig had a first daughter, Frida born 1907, and then son William, born 1910. They lost another son, Edward (born 1909) as a young child. Hewig was a good stepmother to Alois’s daughter Maria Theresia.

During this period a number of south Burgenland „cousins“ appeared in Allentown, from the families Pöltl, Tretter and Gerger, in addition to the family of Alois Sorger’s sister, Cecilia Sorger Hadle. A brother, Richard Sorger (1886) died in Troy, N.Y. in 1918, necessitating what must have been a traumatic trip for Alois. The Burgenland „connection“ expanded with marriages into Burgenland Berghold, Zwickl, Wallitsch, Mirth, Burkhardt, Fabian and Krautsack families.

Husband Alois eventually worked at the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Bethlehem where he was employed as a foreman of a crew replacing firebrick in open-hearth furnaces. Family social life mostly revolved around visits to relatives and neighbors and the weekly trip to the Turner Liederkranz Social Club on Second Street. The familiy did not have an automobile or a telephone until 1942. Alois suffered a series of strokes beginning in 1937 and he died on 22 June 1940, after a lingering illness.

Joined by her daughter Frida’s family in 1942, Hedwig went on to live a long life, dying in 1978 at the age of 93. She was instrumental in helping raise her two grandsons and „Mom“ could always be relied on for „spoils“ for young children. She was a member of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, Allentown and is buried with her husband and infant son in the Sacred Heart cemetary in Whitehall, Pennsylvania, along with many other Burgenländers.

Hedwig corresponded with her Burgenland cousins for a number of years and was even visited by one of them (Gerger Family). She always spoke of the „Heimat“ with nostalgia and fond memories, even though her childhood was difficult.

Hedwig’s father Johann Mühl had eight brothers and sisters, and her mother Johanna Pöltl had nine. While some Pöltls emigrated, it is not known which Mühl did. The spelling of the names changed, Mühl becoming Muell and Pöltl becoming Poeltl. Hewig’s mother Johanna did not remarry and died in Allentown in 1931, never completely reconciled to the good fortune which snatched her from a life of hardship to one of relative ease and plenty. Hedwig’s grandfather Mihaly Mühl died at Nr. 231 Rosenberg on 17 Febuary 1873. Grandfather Pöltl at Nr. 217 Rosenberg on 21 November 1890.

Hedwig’s son William never married and died in Winchester in 1987 at the home of his nephew Gerald Berghold. Thus ended that branch of the Sorger tree. Her daughter Frida married the son of an immigrant from Poppendorf (Julius Berghold). Frida died in Allentown in 1974, survived by two sons, four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Step-daughter Maria Theresia married the son of another immigrant from Heiligenkreuz (Zwickl) and had three children. There are grandchildren.

So, this was the life of another Burgenland immigrant, a fine and gracious lady, loving mother, grandmother and g-grandmother. Her legacy comprises many descendents who have benefited from her courage and foresight in emigrating to the new world. At least in this one grandchild, she also instilled a lifelong interest in the Heimat. It has been my good fortune to uncover her genealogy allowing me to burn candles in her memory in the churches in which she was baptized and confirmed.

Gerald Berghold