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14-3 September 2009

WEB SITE MAINTENANCE

I noticed on some of the pages of the new web site that some of the unusual characters have somehow mysteriously been replaced by gobbledy-gook and some more has appeared out of nowhere. This apparently has something to do with switching servers. I have repaired several that I have come across and will continue to do so. If you notice similar issues, or anything else that needs attention, please let Glenn know by clicking on Contact Us in the Main Menu.

ZICHYDORF HISTORY BOOK NOW ONLINE

Helmut Kaiser has obtained permission from the family of Johann Achtzehner to publish his two books, Geschicte der Gemeinde Zichydorf and Nachtrag zur Geschicte der Gemeinde Zichydorf , on the Internet. These books are in German, but they are loaded with pictures and contain detailed genealogical information on the residents of the village in 1944 and their addresses in the 1975 time frame. WARNING! These are very large PDF files that take a long time to load. Please be patient.

Remember that there is an authorized English translation also, available from Liz Hugel at bhugel@accesscomm.ca. Note, however, that Liz did not include all of the detailed genealogical and contact information at the back of the original. Even if you have her translation, you may find additional data of interest in the German version.

Thank you Helmut and Liz for your continued valuable assistance to all of us.

ON THE WEB

Here is a site compiled by Dr. Franz Metz. He has taken pictures of interiors and exteriors of churches in the Romanian Banat. Click on the index picture to go to a page with more information and photos. The focus of this section of his site is on church organs, but the village pages often contain data on when the church was built and other things. It is in German, but you might find interesting information if you paste the URL into Google translator. The site is at http://www.edition-musik-suedost.de/html/organologie.html

NEW MAP OF NORTHERN BANAT

The Hoefer Verlag in Germany (www.hoeferverlag.de) has recently published a 1:200,000 tourist roadmap of the Northern Banat containing all Banat village names in the official language of the respective country (Romania, Hungary and Serbia) and in German! This is the really great feature of this map. It also has, of course, up to date roads, railways, rivers and so on. It also shows the historic borders of the Banat. The most southern locations are Neu-Betsche, Detta, Tschakowa, and Moritzfeld. This line is about 20 km north of Zichydorf, so it and the nearby surrounding villages are not covered. However, if you have traced your ancestors back to some of the northern Banat villages, you may find this map interesting and useful.

The map is US$ 22 or Can$ 25, including postage, from Günther Philipp at guenther_e_philipp@yahoo.de.

ZVA BBQ IN REGINA

Several Regina area Zichydorfers gathered at Glenn’s place for a barbecue and pot luck on August 22. A good time was had by all. I have posted some pictures on the ZVA site.

ZVA LIBRARY LIST

New members are asked to contribute a one time donation of $25 to our library fund. We use this money to purchase materials for our special collection housed at the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society in Regina. Many of these items are available through inter-library loan and for look ups by local members. The main goal is to ensure that someone, somewhere in North America has a collection of many of these rare volumes, most of which are from Germany. However, our collection also includes many English books and many other media. I have added a series of new pages to our site listing our resources with a review or description of each one. You can access these pages via the SGS Library Resources link in the Main Menu of the ZVA site. You can also check the SGS Library Catalog here.

BANAT TOUR 2010

Glenn is planning another Banat tour from May 15 to June 6, 2010. We will travel by bus from Frankfurt through Alsace and Lorraine, stop at the Donauschwaben museums and libraries in Sindelfingen and Munich, and visit villages in Hungary, Serbia, and Romania that are requested by the tour participants. We need 12-13 participants to maximize the value. This is a preliminary call only with no commitment. If you indicate your interest, you will receive further information and we will work our way towards a decision early in the New Year. If you think you might be interested, click Contact Us in the main menu on the left side of the web page. To get a taste of what to expect, go to zichydorf06.blogspot.com and zichydorf08.blogspot.com.

RUDOLFSGNAD HISTORY

Frank Dornstauder has completed the translation of the Rudolfsgnad history and Glenn Schwartz has completed formatting it for print and the web. It will be posted on the web page and placed in the SGS library in the next few days.

HOCHBANS OF ZICHYDORF

Ken Hohban’s family web page has a new address at http://kenho.50webs.com/

NEW AT THE LIBRARY

Genealogical Gazetteer of the Kingdom of Hungary compiled by Jordan Auslander is based on an 1877 gazetteer with improvements to facilitate navigating through the name changes resulting from the division of Hungary after World War I. It also contains a brief history of Hungary, a discussion of record keeping, and a religious breakdown of each location listed. In cases where the community did not have its own church, the book lists the nearby churches that served the community in 1877. This can be very helpful when you are looking for your ancestors’ records. Locations are listed by their Hungarian names while an index matches the current name to the listing. Unfortunately, German names are not listed. This should not present too great an obstacle, as usually a researcher will also know one of the other names. I noted that I could not find some very small communities regardless of the name or spelling I used. These seemed to be very small, predominantly Serbian communities, but I suspect you would find the same result in Romania. Also, of note is the fact that this work was compiled with Jewish research in mind, although this is not an obstacle for anyone else who wishes to use it.

ZICHYDORF MEMORIAL IN REGINA

You may remember that we purchased plaques for Zichydorf and Georgshausen on a pioneer memorial to be erected by the City of Regina. The memorial will be unveiled in front of City Hall at 10 a.m. on Monday, Septmebr 21, 2009. I will also investigate whether it is still possible to purchase a plaque for Setschanfeld.

ZVA REGINA BRANCH MEETING

Regina Branch will meet at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 18, at Access Communications, 2250 Park St. (north door by the ball diamonds). Frank Dornstauder will speak about the settlement of the Schildgebirge area, west of Budapest, which was a temporary home to many of the people who later settled the Banat. Also, Glenn has ordered several copies of a large format map of the Banat that will be available for purchase at the meeting. Please mark your calendar and bring along a Zichydorf friend.

Zichydorf Village Association News

 

edited by: Glenn Schwartz

2274 Baldwin Bay, Regina, SK, S4V 1H2

Internet: http://zichydorfonline.org

&

http://www.feefhs.org/members/zichydorf/frg-zva.html

email: gschwartz@accesscomm.ca