When looking for records of Burgenland ancestors, the church records are the best place to start followed by the Hungarian Census of 1825. The church records will run out about 1770 although some go back to the 1600’s (archived in the Diocesan Archive in Eisenstadt). Earlier records are the tax and land registration Urbare. Unfortunately all they provide is a family name,sometimes property holdings, village names and money owed or pledged.

They do however provide proof that a family name was present in a village at the time of the Urbar. For a common name (like Horvath) this can be almost meaningless. With an uncommon name, it can be very meaningful and can help track family migrations. These records are found in the libraries in Eisenstadt or Vienna, but they are not easy to read. They are often written in Latin script, but some have been translated to German. With the help of Dr. Albert Schuch, the Burgenland Bunch has translated and published a number of these in English. They can be found in our BB Village List as well as in our newsletter archives. Many were translated from the Latin by Pater Gratian Leser in the 1930’s.

An „Urbar(ium)“ is a description of a village, drawn up for the purpose of collecting dues and taxes. The domain owners (the local aristocracy) wanted to know how many people lived on their land and how wealthy they were. They used this data to assess the amount of money, labor and agricultural products they could get from their subjects. Usually the Urbar was compiled for the whole domain, listing one village after the other. Most 17th century (and some 16th century) Urbaria include the names of the „house fathers“ (the property owner). Usually the farmers are listed first, then the Söllners (people without land other than their home plot) with a house of their own, then the Söllners without a house (subinquilini or pauperes in Latin, Inwohner or Holden in German). The Urbar also tells us how many animals the people of a village own, as well as the number of houses deserted or destroyed.“

Following is a translated example:
Urbar of 1716 for Grieselstein: (located few kms north west of Jennersdorf-source is Burgenländische Heimatblätter 1966, page 73):
32 houses are deserted.
The names of the farmers are: 4 Thomas, 3 Forjan, 2 Dornfeld, Wagner, Rauscher, Weiss, Herzeg; 1 Temmel, Pammer, Lipp, Berghold, Neubauer, Kalowitsch, Binder, Brückler, Meier, Unger, Leiner, Müllner, Steirer, Soldat, Seidl.
„Söllner“-names are: Thomas, Wagner, Kummer, Weber, Mandl, Gumhold, Fröhlich, Gerger, Knittl, Dornfeld; „Huiden“ (Söllner inrented houses) names are: Knittl, Unger, Lipp, Thomas, Weiss, Dornweber.

We also have an older Urbar of 1677 for Grieselstein (source: as above, page 72):
Farmer-names: 8 Dornfeld, 5 Thomas, 4 Lex, 3 Kiesner, Unger, Prosser; 2 Wolf, Pammer, Leiner, Knittl, Weiss; 1 Binder, Zaidl, Müllner, Tessl, Mandl, Krobot, Steirer, Wagner, Strodner, Rott, Massl, Nopp, Tauss, Pauker, Lipp, Rauscher, Munder, Lenz.
„Söllner“-names: 2 Rauscher, Hedl; 1 Binder, Weiss,Munder, Schwarz, Unger, Wagner, Kummer, Müller, Knittl, Dornfeld, Fehringer,Lipp.
Gerry Berghold, Editor BB News
 

by G. Berghold <GBerghold@aol.com>
     Albert Schuch, Burgenland Editor