The Bukovina Society of the Americas P.O. Box 81, Ellis, KS 67637, USA  Martha McClelland , President  info@bukovinasociety.org

BUKOVINAFEST 97

Enclosed are the program and registration forms for the annual meeting of the Bukovina Society. The German Genealogy and Heritage Conference will be in Waco, Texas July 17-20 at the Holiday Inn, 1001 Brazos Drive. Please make copies for anyone who may wish one. We look forward to a very good meeting and appreciate the work by our hosts and organizers Mary and Van Massirer.

MEMBERSHIP

Annual memberships have come in at a record rate from the mailing of our last newsletter. Thanks for the support. Newest lifetime members:

• 98. Allan W. Schmidt, Gloucester, Ontario, Canada
• 99. Madeline Wentzel Turner, Oregon City, Oregon
• 100. Jacque S. Lucero, Garden City, Kansas

Donations to the microfilm reader/printer since the last newsletter are:

• Agnes Shellhammer
• Rudolph Schmahl
• Helen R. Zerfas

Announcing BUKOVINA-GEN

The Bukovina Society Genealogy Mailing List
by: Larry R. Jensen

Thanks to the Great Plains Free-Net in Regina, Saskatchewan, we now have a new way to communicate with others on the Internet with an interest in Bukovina: BUKOVINA-GEN - The Bukovina Genealogy Mailing List! This mailing list is available, free of charge, to anyone who has an e-mail account.

What exactly is a mailing list? Everyone who's used e-mail knows that you can send copies of the same message to several people at once, just by listing all their addresses in the "To:" field. The recipients can use the "Reply to All" feature on their e-mail program to send their replies back to everyone, and an instant mailing list is born! That's much more convenient than printing and mailing so many letters. However, once the list grows beyond a handful of friends and family, it can become very difficult for everyone to keep up with the requests to "add me" or "take me off" the list.

To make the job easier, we use a computer program that acts as a robotic secretary to handle all these subscribe/unsubscribe requests. In our case, that program is . The program does one other thing for us - it gives us a single, common mailing list address for us to write to: . (Please note that I'm only using the to highlight these addresses and clearly separate them from the punctuation of my sentences. They are not part of the address!)

When any of us send a message to our friendly secretary will send a copy of that message to everyone currently subscribed to the list. At the moment, that's over 40 people - and more are joining every hour! (I'm writing this only two days after announcing the list - things can work quickly on the Internet!)

To subscribe to this list, send e-mail to listproc@gpfn.sk.ca with the command:

subscribe bukovina-gen Firstname Lastname

BUKOVINA TOUR

A 13 article series of the recent tour to Bukovina was published in the Ellis Review and Ellis County Star. Written by Oren Windholz, it reflects his experience and some of the group during the journey. Reprints which contain additional pictures are available for $2.00 (US) from P O Box 1083, Hays, Ks. 67601-1083.

OTTILIE NEBL

A package arrived from Augsburg from our good friend and Bukovina Society supporter, Tilly Nebl. She greeted us at the Bukowina-Institut Halushkifest at the start of the Bukovina Tour and baked cakes for the trip. Till knew we finished the tour with an evening at Oktoberfest in Munich and offered to send us a tape of the festivities. We appreciate the thoughtful gesture and will make this available at a future meeting of the society.

BUKOVINA CYBERSPACE SURNAME MESSAGES

We are especially proud to hear from persons born in Bukovina through the Bukovina home page on the net. One such man, Adrian Bertisan, wrote for a T-shirt and mug and is happy that there are people who care for that small part of Romania. He plans to be in Waco for the next Bukovina Society meeting. Adrian is proud to have been born and raised in Bucovina until the age of 20 and now lives in California. His hometown is Vatra Moldovitei in northern Romania. He is happy that we have founded the society and some members travel back to the original land to visit. "I think Bucovina is the most beautiful part of the earth, and if the political and economical situation was not that bad, I would have never left."

The editor has exchanged e-mail with a newly discovered cousin who located Larry Jensen on the net. Larry put Judy Kurtzweil from Salinas, California in touch with me. She is the granddaughter of Julia Neuburger Stroud. Julia was born April 11, 1907 in Heinricksod, Bohemia (today Czech Republic). Some Neuburgers immigrated from Bohemia to Bukovina, but retained strong ties to their roots. Family members from time to time traveled back and forth. When the first Bohemian Germans in Bukovina migrated to Ellis, Kansas, Julia's family moved back to Bohemia before going to Ellis. The Neuburgers and Erberts from Ellis and Judy's family share the same common ancestor.

Allan W. Schmidt, a frequent correspondent of the society sent his e-mail address: alschmidt@cyberus.ca [This is an updated address. LRJ] He would like information on the descendants in North America of the Satulmare, Bukovina family Nunweiler, especially the family of Johann Peter Nunweiler and Marie Elisabeth Ahlen. He enclosed the family group record. Snail mail to 7897 Decarie Dr., Gloucester, Ontario, Canada K1C 2J4

Nancy S. Janda e-mailed Larry Jensen to add her name to the Bukovina home page list of Bukovina researchers at Dennis.Janda@kconline.com Bukovina Towns: Primarily Illischestie; Also Badeutz, Satulmare, Alt-Fratautz, Ludihumora. The surnames: Silzer, Fritz, Armbruster, Gebhardt, Rumpel, Ritter, Leib, Wendling, Hodel, Kattler, Sager, Ludwinkiewisz, Fatteicher, and Keim. Mail to 1738 Sunfish Dr., Warsaw, IN 46580

R. Schulman, 1000 S. Belgrade Rd, Silver Springs, MD 20902, e-mail: ALVAREZ@aol.com is looking for information about the experiences of people in the labor camp of Bershad in the Ukraine during the Second World War. His mother said their family lived in Strijnetz before the war, and in Czernowitz briefly after the war. Then they moved to Timisoara where his two brothers were born and to the United States in 1960. In 1941 his father was taken into the Russian army and shortly thereafter, his mother, her first child, grandmother, an aunt and a cousin were forcibly taken to a labor camp in Bershad. They were there for four years until they were liberated by Russian partisans. Only his mother, the aunt and cousin survived. His grandmother and sister died in the camp. (Larry Jensen found a town of Bershad in Ukraine, on the Southern Bug river about halfway between Kiev and Odessa) Mr. Shulman has been searching for others who have stories of this experience.

Brenda Loew e-mailed from eidos4sex@pipeline.com with mailing address of P O Box 96, Boston, MA 02137-0096 for those with a Czernowitz interest to contact her. Her great-uncle, Elias M. Loew, was born in Czernowitz around 1900 and came to America alone via Ellis Island around 1912. His parents were Harry Loew (a teacher?) and Sarah Dynes Loew. Their other children were Moritz, Isaac, Ira, Berha, and others. Elias was a rags to riches story who founded a large chain of theaters, a race track, a night club, luxury hotels in Miami, and many business and charitable interests. At the time Elias left Bukovina for America, his father and family stayed in Vienna until the Second World War. Elias sent for them to join him.

A good friend has developed from the internet in the form of Alex Teller who e-mailed me from alextell@pacbell.net with the message, "I was born in Czernowitz, Bukovina in 1930. I had no idea that there exists a Bukovina Society until 5 minutes ago when I started a search on the internet. Would like to contact other people from there." He left Czernowitz at age six because his father found a new job in another city. It was Romania then, but he spoke German with his parents. He last saw his home city at age 10 on a visit with his parents. All of his other relatives have since left and are scattered all over the world and contact lost. His parents died shortly after the Second World War and he had no other siblings. In 1953 Alex was married in Romania and in 1963 came to the United States. His work was in engineering in San Francisco for 33 years which he enjoyed before his retirement in 1955. He has traveled in Asia and plans an European trip which may include Czernowitz. Alex is not doing research at this time but would enjoy e-mail from anyone with an interest in Czernowitz.

Chris Teron, CTeron@aol.com thanked us for information and sent his membership fee. "My four paternal great grandparents all emigrated in about 1897 from Breedok, a small village on the shore of the Dniester River directly north of Chernovitsi, to Gardenton Manitoba and Lancaster Minnesota. They emigrated with a larger group of Galicians from L'vov. Their names are Onufry Tyron, Lena Kekot , father Wasyl, Ann Mareniuk and Wasyl Sandul. My grandparents changed the Tyron name spelling to Teron. There is another group of Terons living in California with the same history of emigration from Bukovina to Manitoba and with the same name change but we cannot yet make a connection. Any help for his search will be appreciated."

Todd Legg, tlegg@eskimo.com e-mailed that his mother, Selma Maurine Frombach was born 8-1-26 in Edenwold, the youngest of 17 children of Franz Karl Frombach and Theresia Mang. Frank and Theresia moved from Edenwold to Seattle in March 1929 and settled on Vashon Island.

[Photo unavailable]
The former Lutheran Church in Illischestie taken by Agnes Shellhammer during the Bukovina Tour. It is now an Orthodox Church where we were welcomed and given small loaves of bread from a funeral service that day. There are no longer any Lutheran or Catholic congregations in the village. The Catholic Church is locked and under the care of an Orthodox neighbor.

[Photo unavailable]
During the Bukovina Tour, Werner Zoglauer and Oren Windholz met with two distant Fuchs cousins in Suceava who lived nearby, Heinrich and Fridolin. They were in the resettlement (Umsiedlung) of ethnic Bukovina Germans to the Reichland in 1940 and among the few who were returned after the war from the Soviet zone. In Bavaria, Karl Flachs greeted our cousin Friedolin Fuchs by saying, "Fuchs you stole the goose," from a German nursery rhyme. Friedolin responded with the rest of the rhyme. A week later in Czernowitz, a Bukovina German lady asked Werner and me what our ancestral surnames were. When we mentioned Fuchs, she immediately shouted, "Fuchs you stole the goose." We told her of our earlier learning of the story. When we first met Heinrich and Fridolin in Suceava we were ready, and said to them, "Fuchs you stole the goose" and Fridolin quickly retorted, "No, that was my father."

HOMELAND MUSIC

Music, song, and dance were an integral part of the people of Bukovina. The history of their faith, work, holidays, family celebrations and even military service was recorded in song and verse. Even the melancholy of departure was put to song at the time the first families migrated to the New World. At the first convention of the Bukovina Society of the Americas in 1989 Lawrence A. Weigel sang a song from the village of Pojana Mikuli. It was published in the book Buchenhain-Die Heimat unserer Deutschböhmen by Josef Neuburger. The song was translated for the society by Mr. Weigel, a prominent Volga German historian and musician.

AUS POJANA MIKULI

A choral group in Bavaria of people with roots in Poiana Micului, Bukovina were pictured in 1990 and have preserved on cassette music and songs of the homeland. 1st row: Georg Baumgartner, Maria Fuchs, Margarete Engert, Rosina Lang, Irma Fuchs, Magdalene Baumgartner, Hedwig Manz. 2nd row: Maria Neuburger, Frieda Fuchs, Johann Lang, Hedwig Baumgartner. 3rd row: Josef Neuburger, Gottfried Fuchs (President), Rudolf Kisslinger, Philipp Manz, Ferdinand Baumgartner (Treasurer), Friedolin Fuchs, Franz Engert.

BUKOVINA BRIEFS

Roma Kutzik of Pipestone, MN wrote, "My father, Reinhart Kutzik, immigrated to the U.S. from Eisenau, Bukowina via Canada ending up in Chicago where he joined his father Johann Kutzik in approximately 1918. The two worked as tailors in Chicago earning money to bring wife and mother Ludwina Kutzik and two girls, Gertrude and Elizabeth to America. In 1922, after many delays caused by WWI the females left Eisenau then known as Prisaca, Rumania for Montevideo, Minnesota where they found sponsors. Several factors contributed to my growing up in an environment strongly influenced by the old country culture. Bukowina, the Carpathians, haluschkis made with sauerkraut, Mamaliga, kuchen, kartoffeln salad and many songs became dear to my heart. I heard many stories of the various communities in Bukowina, also. I enjoy my membership and felt that perhaps the enclosed copies of Bukowina documents will be of interest to society members."

Ray Schoenthaler, Joe Erbert, and Ray Haneke open up the Bukovina Society museum from time to time as people stop in Ellis. They were pleased to host the Daley family from Arns, Manitoba, Canada recently during their return from a tour of the Southwest.

The board of directors of the society has scheduled a Bukovina Christmas program November 30, 1997. This first time event will feature the traditions, customs, and music of the Deutsch-Böhmish and Swabian immigrants to Ellis. A planning committee will work on the details to be announced in the fall newsletter. We have invited the local Sunflower Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia to join in the program.

At the time of the newspaper series on the Bukovina Tour, Chris Rorabaugh's seventh grade class at Washington School in Ellis was studying East Europe. He asked us to make a presentation which included slides and history of their ancestors. Pat Windholz showed the class her Romanian dress outfit, black pottery, painted eggs and mementos gathered during the tour.

The 25th Annual Genealogy Conference will be conducted by the Topeka Genealogical Society, P O Box 4048, April 25-26, 1997 in Topeka, 66604.

We received brochures from Ukraina-Tours of Pittersberg, Germany announcing their tours to Bukovina in June, July and August of 1997. They offer to include the home village of guests and have been offering these tours since 1991. Their telephone/fax is 09438/1648 or 0171/7376-288

Madeline Wentzel Turner wrote she has not been able to put the new book down and not a week goes by that someone does not post or e-mail some new significant information or family connection. "Thank you again for your part in having the society online."

GALIZIEN GERMAN DESCENDANTS

The editor of the newsletter and secretary of their organization, Betty Wray contacted me by e-mail for information that might be of interest to their members. She had a specific interest in the village of Alexanderdorf. Betty has met two of our members through the FEEFHS, Irmgard Hein Ellingson and Larry Jensen. She also cited a publication that would be of interest to some Bukovina Society members, Die Evangelischen Gemeinden in der Bukowina, Alexanderdorf und Katharienendorf von 1863-1940, by Konrad Gross.

Their quarterly publication is a very interesting and informative publication dedicated to family history of the German descendants from the Austrian province of Galicia. Cost is US $15.00/yr; overseas $18.00. Their home page on the internet is http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ESE/galicia.html

Contacts are: Evelyn Wolfer, President, 12367 S. E. 213th St., Kent, WA 98031-2215 or Betty Wray at 2035 Dorsch Road, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, e-mail: wraybj@pacbell.net

They place surname and village entries for members and non members on their home page and help members with their research. Their members are spread out all over the country with no one core group location. The two year old society already has 120 members with about a third of them on e-mail. Anyone with a Galizien connection is encouraged to contact Betty.

SOCIETY OF GERMAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

We encourage those interested to join the society which publishes a quarterly newsletter, books, and sponsors various meetings and symposia. Dues are $20.00 ($25.00 outside North America) payable to the society through William Roba, Scott Community College, 5009 Belmont Road, Bettendorf, IA 52722-6804 Please use your 9-digit zip. The SGAS reports that an historic marker is being placed at Jamestown to mark the arrival of the first Germans in America in 1608. Sixty million Americans claim Germany ancestry and constitute the largest ethnic element in the U.S. The German-American quadricentennial will be celebrated in 2008. The SGAS has submitted a proposal to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee of the U.S. Postal Service requesting a stamp in honor of this anniversary. Support of this proposal is encouraged by writing in support to: Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, U.S.Postal Service Stamp Development, Room 4474E, 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. 20260-2437.

THE GERMAN RESEARCH COMPANION

A one-of-a-kind reference book geared especially to the needs of German immigrants' descendants by Shirley J. Riemer. This thick, index-driven reference work is jam-packed with German family history research data concerning the German historical experience, immigration, records, research tools, language aids, and much more. All German words are accompanied by English translations. The abundance of German resource tools outlined in this book will refute the thought that "there's no place left to look." It is a companion tool to take to a library or archive research trip. The price of $34.95 includes book, tax, and shipping. Order from Lorelei Press, Suite 204, P O Box 221356, Sacramento, CA, 95822-8356.

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