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***** 5.0. PRIMARY SOURCES *****


Latest Update: 18 August 1996 (Links repaired)

***** 5.0. PRIMARY SOURCES ***** keyword: FindPrimary

Primary records are original records: birth certificates, death certificates, family bibles, parish records, census data, etc. Secondary sources are published genealogies, compilations of public records, data obtained from third parties, data obtained from electronic media, interviews with relatives, etc.

The principal form of primary data for the Banat (after you've interviewed Aunt Catharina and Uncle Mathias and rummaged through the old shoe box) are

*** 5.1. Church Records
keyword: FindChurch

Parish records in the Banat were microfilmed by the LDS in the 1930's. Usually, parish records are kept confidential for up to 100 years. Most parish registers start with the founding of the village (St. Hubert, for example, circa 1772). They end between the 1830's and 1860's, with the birth records ending earliest, and death records containing the most recent dates. Parish records are principally Roman Catholic, and are in three major groups: Baptism; Marriage; and Death.

(See the above section on German Archives for other sources of church records.) Use the Family History Library Catalog on computer or microfiche to look for the order number of the microfilm for the village you are researching.

To find the order number, go to Locality Search and look under Hungary. Then look for the sub-heading Banat, then look for the name of the town in the alphabetical listing. (Or if you feel sure you know the version of the name of being used, simply enter this name at the start of Locality Search.) The town names and some of the description of the contents of the microfilm will usually be in Hungarian, although there maybe some cross-references or further description in German and/or English. The index will list the years for which records are available.

For example, the microfilms for Johannisfeld begin in 1806, the year the village was founded, and end in 1852. The records for small villages will be contained on a single roll, but larger towns will have two or more rolls. The microfilms will usually arrive in two to three weeks. If you are new to genealogy, ask for help from the volunteer librarians for learning how to record data on a standard family history form.

Warning: parish registers are sometimes filmed out of order, film quality is poor, and always, always, the handwriting is in script.

The literacy and legibility depend on the educational level of the parish priest who was making the entries. However, besides being a wonderful source of data, it is fascinating to read the life of a community through its parish. Equally intriguing is the evolution of names and their spelling.

A recommended purchase for reading German script:

If I Can, You Can Decipher German Records Edna M. Bentz
13139 Old West Avenue
San Diego, California 92129-2406

Entries are made principally in German script. During periods of Hungarian rule, given names are often "Magyarized" (Johann becomes Janos, for example), and surnames are listed first, as is the Hungarian
custom.

Some birth registers will list mothers by their maiden names (of immense value), and sometimes just as Catharina, uxor (frustrating). Be cognizant of the witnesses and godparents: they not only may be relatives, but they give clues to the spellings of names, when other entries might be illegible. Some parishes list addresses (Haus #73 is the total address -- no street names and zip/postal codes as is the current practice).

Records from 1850 to 1900 are the most difficult to locate. One can usually find relatives to fill in the pieces from 1900 to the present. Parish records will cover the period from the founding of the village until 1830-1850. The interim period is slowly being uncovered in Romania and Hungary. The current war in the former Yugoslavia severely limits the chances of finding any direct sources in that country.

The records for the Romanian Banat are being held in a government archive in Timisoara. Representatives of the Mormon Church and the Arbeitskreis donauschwaebischer Familienforscher (AkdFf) have approached the government about this at various times in the past, but to no avail. Negotiations are currently underway with the new government in Romania, but so far no answer has been received. Many researchers are hoping that this current effort will be successful so that the "missing generations" can be documented.

*** 5.2. Ship Passage Records
keyword: FindPassage

Researching your Donauschwaben Ancestors on Ship's Passenger Lists through Branch Libraries of the Mormon Family History Library.

Step 1 - Ordering Passenger Index Films

To complete this step, you must know the port of entry and the general time frame for when the passenger arrived in the U.S. Look in the Subject Index under: U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Passenger Index. There are groupings by years of entry and port of entry. Most German-Hungarian immigrants from 1890-1920 entered the USA through the port of New York (Ellis Island). Find the Soundex Code listing and film numbers for the surname you are researching.

Example: the soundex code for Quitter is Q360; the Film Number is #1380053. More than one film will be listed for some soundex codes, e.g. there are two films for R100 (Repp): #1380054 contains R100 surnames with first names A-Gi, and #1380055 contains first names Gi-Z. If you need help with soundex codes, ask the librarian for a chart showing how to determine them.

Step 2 - Taking Notes from Passenger Index Films

The microfilm that you receive will contain photographs of cards which were made out by the Immigration Service for each passenger. The card will contain the name and age of the passenger, the "List" number and the "Group" number, along with other information. The "group" number refers to the page number of the ship's passenger list on which the name appears and the "list" number refers to the person's position on the page. Other information may include a "Volume" number (important for finding order numbers for actual ship's passenger list microfilms), and/or country of origin, name of the ship, name of the shipping line, and the date of entry at the port.

A copy of the book, Morton Allan Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals, is very valuable for verifying correct spelling of ship's names and dates of entry. This book was published in Baltimore, Maryland in 1987 by the Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.

Take complete notes for each card which you think might be a relative. You may find many persons with the same name you are looking for, but by process of elimination based on age or other information, you can determine the most likely persons to research. Note that firstnames may be spelled in German or Hungarian, e.g. Franz or Ferencz, Johann or Janos, Nikolaus or Miklos, etc.

To order the microfilm containing the actual ship's passenger lists, you will need the "Volume" number or the exact date on which the ship entered the port. Go back to the subject index and look again under U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Passenger Lists. They are listed by date of entry. If you have only the volume number, look under volume number index and you will find the date of entry. Find the microfilm order number for the date of entry.

For some dates, there may be more than one microfilm because so many ships entered the port that day. There is no way to know which ships are on which film, so you will have to order all that appear, or just take a guess and hope that you are correct. Also, sometimes you will receive a film and fail to find the ship you are looking for. This occurs because mistakes were made in the indexing process. You can try to find the correct ship by ordering the film for a day earlier or a day later.

Step 3 - Taking Notes from Ships Passenger Lists

The passenger list microfilm will contain lists for all ships which arrived on a given day. Look through the film until you find the name of the ship you are looking for. Consult your notes from the passenger index cards to find the page number and person you are looking for. Many typographical errors were made on the index cards, so page number 17 might be 16 or 27. If you don't find a person exactly where expected, look at other pages. It is advisable to look through the entire passenger list, as you may find useful information about other persons who were on the same ship. For example, the passenger list on which my grandmother was listed also contained the names of 29 other immigrants from the same town, including other family relatives.

The ship's passenger lists contain a bounty of information: name, age, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, town of origin (may be in German or Hungarian), how much money the immigrant brought into the country, the immigrant's destination in the U.S., and the name of a friend or relative at that destination.

*** 5.3. The "1828 Taxable Census of Hungary"
keyword: FindCensus

The "1828 Taxable Census of Hungary" is available on microfilm through the regional Family History Centers (FHC) of the LDS. The census lists the holders of all taxable property in that year along with the extent of their movable and non-movable property. Lists are organized by megye (equivalent to county) and village. Within each village is a list of the names of property owners by house number. This is a method of locating surnames in 1828. The census lists names of the property owner only, and has columns for the numbers of persons.

Several counties have been compiled in typewritten book form for easier reference by Ms. Martha R. Connor. The books are a replication of the names listed in the census, in the order they were entered, and cross-referenced with LDS microfilm numbers. Names are listed by village.

To order, write her at: 7754 Pacemont Court Las Vegas, Nevada 89117-5122

Counties currently available are:


*** 5.4. Schlafkreuzerrechnungen
keyword: FindSchlaf

In the Finanz and Hofkammerarchiv (HKA) in Vienna one can find more than 1600 pages of documents dating from 1766 to 1804 that are called "Banater Akten" ... A small portion of these documents are the "Schlafkreuzerrechnungen". Close study of the Banater Akten reveals that there are 93 individual documents. One document may consist of one or several pages in which are contained names and house numbers of homeowner-hosts and the names of settlers in 49 towns in the Banat.

The purpose for writing the SKR was twofold. The Austrian government who had called the new settlers into the Banat before their new homes were ready, had the newcomers move in with the already established settlers. The hosts were paid one "Kreuzer" (a small denomination of Austrian currency) per person per night for the length of stay of their guests. Hence the coining of the name "Schlafkreuzerrechnung".

The records vary considerably in content, but can be helpful to genealogists because they usually contain the name and house number of the host in the particular village, dates of arrival and departure of the new settlers, number of members in each family, and may contain ages and occupations, history of births, deaths, marriages, and the name and housenumber of the new residence of the settlers.

Towns mentioned in the SKR include Sackelhausen, Gr. Jetscha, Hatzfeld, Lenauheim (Csatad), Bogarosch, Grabatz, Jahrmarkt, Mercydorf, Bruckenau, Beschenova, Billet, Lippa, Neudorf, Guttenbrunn, Neu Arad, Albrechtsflor, Arad, Blumenthal, Charleville, Csakowa (Tschakowa), Detta, Engelsbrunn, Fatschet, Freidorf, Gertianosch, Gladna (Deutsch and Rumaenisch), Gottlob, Grabatz, Gross-Betscherek, Gross-Jetscha, Gr. St. Nicholaus, Heufeld, Klein Jetscha, Karansebesch, Klein-Betschereck, Koenigshof, Kutritz (Gudriz), Lowrin, Lugosch, Marienfeld, Mastort, Neu-Petsch, Uybecs-Ulmbach, Ostern, Rekasch, St. Andreas, Segenthau, Schoendorf, St. Huberth, Soultour, Triebswetter, and Werschetz.

Some settlers went to the following towns: Apatin, Adelbach, Daruvar, Denta, Fabrique (Temesvar District), Koeveresch, Kreuzstaetten, Liebling, Moravitza, Nitzkydorf, Orcydorf, Reschitza, Rittberg, and Temesvar.

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