SOME BANATERS IN THE SUBSCRIPTION LISTS OF THE DEUTSCH-
UNGARISCHER FAMILIEN-KALENDER
During the period 1900 to the first World War over 140,000 Banaters
immigrated to North America with ca 20,000 returning to Hungary during
this same time. Most Banat families had relatives who immigrated to
America during this period.
American records useful in tracking these immigrants for family history
work are the U. S. Federal census(taken 1900, 1910 and 1920), the U. S.
passenger ship records, naturalization records and First World War
draft registration(military conscription) records.
The census is organized by States and each state must be searched
separately. However, with a few exceptions in the 1910 census, all
these records are indexed. The census gives the names. ages, country
of birth and year of arrivel in the US for all family members.
The U. S. passenger ship records are organized by port of arrival, then
chronologically under the ship's name. The content of these records
changed over the TIME period 1900-1914 and records after 1906 give much
information. This includes name, age, nationally, ethnic origin, last
residence, who they are going to join in the US, after 1906 the closest
relative remaining in Hungary and place of birth. These records are
indexed for the ports of New York and Baltimore after 1896.
Not all immigrants to America took out naturalizations papers. This was
a multistep process and the most useful information is on the
Declaration of Intention and the Petition for Naturalization. These
papers were usually filed with the court at the immigrant's place of
residence. These records will give the immigrant's age, place of last
residence before coming to America, place of birth, arrival date in the
US , port of arrival and name of the ship. Later naturalization papers
can give the wife's and kids names, birth date and place of birth.
These papers can sometimes be difficult to find because the immigrant
moved and filed papers in different localities or one cannot easily
identify the court in which the papers were filed.
By 1918, all men in the age range 18-46 were registrated for possible
military service in the First World War. These records were on cards
arranged in alphabetical order under their place of residence and have
been microfilmed. About 20-25% of the cards give place of birth----all
give the age as well as other details.
All of the above records are federal government records and are
available on microfilm from the National Archives, or better, can be
ordered through any Mormon Family History branch library from Salt
Lake.
One last resource which has more recently been recognized to be of value
in tracking Donau Schwabs in America is quite different in origin. This
is the Deutsch-Ungarischer Familien-Kalender. This kalender was
published annually, initially in Chicago and later in Minnesota, from
1932 to 1954. The remarkable aspect of the kalender is that it contains
the name and address of all the subscribers along with their place of
origin in Hungary with the wife's maiden name and place of origin. The
list of subscribers averaged about 100 pages in each issue, ca. 6500
families. The change in the subscription lists was a little under 10%
from one year to the next.
As Bauer has pointed out(D. J Bauer, Bucks County Genealogical
Newsletter 15, (1995)) this list is a potential resource for
establishing the village of origin for Donau Schwab immigrants to
America. The original subscription lists were organized alphabetically
by name under the major Donau Schwabisch localities in the United
States. The lists not only contained Banaters but also Donau Schwabs
from the Batschka, Burgenland, Schwaebischer Tuerkei, Syrmien and
Siebenbuergen.
After an on-line search of American Library holdings it was apparent
that no single library held a complete collection of the kalender.
Eventially the following collections holding copies of the Kalender were
identified;
l. Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies
18 South 7th St. Philadelphia Penn., 19006
1937 and 1952 issues. Available through interlibrary loan.
2. Indiana State Library
140 N. Senate Ave., Indianapolis Ind. 46204
1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, 1948, 1949 issues. Not available through
interlibrary loan.
3.Library of Congress
1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, and 1952 issues. Not available through
interlibrary loan.
4. Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen
Postfach 102463, 70020 Stuttgart, Germany
1932, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1951, 1953, and 1954. Available through
interlibrary loan.
At this point the 1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1942, 1951, 1952 and 1954
issues of the Deutsch-Ungarischer Familien Kalender subscription lists
have been available for inspection..
By the 1950's the subscription lists consisted of ca 100 pages of
closely spaced type representing ca. 6500 entries/year The turnover from
year to year was probably a little less than 10%. Over the course of 22
years the lists were published they contained the names of 10-15,000
Donau Schwabs.
It is now clear that the proportion of Banat subscribers among the
different North American Banater communities does not correlate with the
size of these communities. For example, there is no subscribers for
one of the oldest Banater settlements in the US -----that of North
Dakota-----in the 1930's subscription lists. On the other hand, this
group is well represented in the 1952 and 1954 lists. Similarly, other
communities have many subscribers during some periods while few in other
periods. In the 1937 and 1942 issues there were many subscribers from
McKee Rocks, Penn. By 1954 there were only a couple of subscribers.
The conclusion must be that the number of subscribers in a given
locality is largely a function of the presence of a sales representative
and sales effort in a given area.
Johann Hermann, Chicago/Mercydorf, in an article in the 1934 issue
entitled, "Die Deutsch-Ungarn und ihre neue heimat" lists the important
Donau Schwaben settlements in Ameraica.
Elizabeth
New Brunswick
Passaic
Trenton
Philadelphia
Reading
Lebanon
Harrisburg
Bethlehem
Steelton
Pittsburgh
Ambridge
Sharon
Buffalo
Tonawanda
Rochester
New York City
Adams, Mass
Baltimore
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Mansfield
Dayton
Akron
Youngstown
St Louis
Chicago
Bloomington
Granite City
Milwaukee
Beaver Dam
Manville
St Paul
Omaha
Detroit
Wyndotte
Saginaw
Those who have looked closely at the abstracts of the subscription lists
have undoubtly noted that Banat immigrants from diffferent Banat
localities were not uniformally distributed among the major Banat
settlements in North America. Immigration authorities emphasize that
immigrants from a given locality in Europe tended to settle together as
groups in the new world. Moreover, German Banaters have long recognized
that migrants from their village tended to settle in the same locality
in North America.Tipre in the 1934 issue(Deutsch-Ungarn im fernen
westen) discusses the Donau Schwaben community in Los Angeles. He
points out that up to 35% of the Donau Schwabs living in Los Angeles
came from the single gemeinde of Glogau/Banat with Almas/Banat also
contributing a considerable number.. In 1934 the Los Angeles Banat
consisted of 800-1000 families with 75-100 families coming from Glogau
alone.
By inspection of the original kalenders one quickly sees that
Batschkaers tended to settle in some localities while Banaters tended
to concentrate in other localities.
The following tables lists these American localities in the subscription
lists which have a propondarate Donau Schwab from a given province. The
Banat list is further broken down according to place of origin for a
substantial group of Banaters in that locality
BATSCHKA
Sharon, Penn
Cleveland
Youngstown, Ohio
Trenton, NJ
Reading,, Penn
Lebanon, Penn
Beaver Dam, Wis
BURGENLAND
Bethlehem, Penn
Copley, Penn
Stiles, Penn
Northampton, Penn
Allentown, Penn
BANAT LOCALITY
Los Angeles Glogau
Mansfield, Ohio Mramorak
Franzfeld
St Louis Sackelhausen
New Brunswick, NJ Billed
Cincinnati Gertianosch
Perjamosch
Philadelphia Alexanderhausen
Bogarosch
Cleveland Grabatz
Detroit Heufeld
Stefansfeld
Mollydorf
Harrisburg, Penn Liebling
Chicago Neupanat
Liebling
St Hubert
Neubeschenowa
Seultour
Some American localities tended not to favor any particular group, for
example, New York with Brooklyn and the Bronx, had both Batschkaers and
Banaters. Moreover, the Banaters in New York were more mixed and tended
to come from many different localities. All localities tended to
become more mixed in the 1950's relative to the 1930's.
The data in the following tables was abstracted from the 1933, 1937,
1942 and 1952 issues of the Kalender. The last column indicated the
years by the last two digits if the year in which the entry was found.
Since the subscription lists did not change much from year to year
abstracting issues 8-10 years apart was sufficient to compile most
subscribers.