location name

ChristineWagner9

I am attaching an enlarged screen shot from a petition for citizenship. The applicant has "Techenskirchen Austria" as the place of marriage in 1923. Has anyone ever heard of this? I assume it is a misspelling of a location. The person lived in Riedlingsdorf, Austria. Doesn't "kirchen' mean church?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

C.Wagner

Screenshot (7).png

Julia Szent-Györgyi

The baptism record is more likely to have an explicit "legitimate/illegitimate" checkbox/column; the civil register would imply the status by the absence of a father's name in the "parents" column.

Here's an example of an illegitimate birth entered in a 1922 Hungarian civil registry book (fourth entry on the page, number 184): https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G92L-H51Z

(Based on what registrars did in Slovakia, in 1922 I expect registrars in Burgenland were probably still using the Hungarian register-books, just filling them out in German.)

Julia Szent-Györgyi

There's a Dechantskirchen in Styria that's not far from Pinkafeld (and therefore Riedlingsdorf).

GenTeam's gazetteer says it has a (Catholic) church locally and belongs to the Graz-Seckau diocese; matricula-online has those church registers browsable online (https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/graz-seckau/dechantskirchen/).

The index of marriages has a Johann Bruckner marrying a Josefa Halwachs in 1923.

And here's the marriage, on Feb. 6: https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/graz-seckau/dechantskirchen/17875/?pg=16

Julia Szent-Györgyi

3. February 6

Riedlingsdorf 158, Grafenschachen 43

Groom: Johann Bruckner, mason, born in Riedlingsdorf 158 in Burgenland as the legitimate son of the evangelical Samuel Bruckner, mason in Riedlingsdorf 158, and the Roman Catholic Elisabeth Piff, both still living.

Protestant, age 22, single

Born 22.12.1900

Bride: Josefa Halwachs, day-laborer, legitimate daughter of Franz Halwachs, a carpenter in Grafenschachen 43, Roman Catholic and deceased, and of Maria Schützenhofer, Roman Catholic and living.

Catholic, age 22, single

Born 2.12.1900

Witnesses: Johan Schützenhofer, Grafenschachen, farmer, No. 48; Josef Halwachs, Grafenchachen, Zipsler (??), N.43.

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Dunno quite what's going on with the witnesses and the house-numbers following the occupation-like things. I decided not to spend any more time on it.

ChristineWagner9

This is amazing and so helpful! Thank you.

Now my dilemma is the first child of Josephine Halwachs, who is the reason for the research and was born before the 1923 marriage. All records I have, give the same date of birth in 1922.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Unfortunately, it appears that the child must've been born in Árokszállás (Grafenschachen), not Dechantskirchen, because paging through 1922's birth records did not turn up a mother named Josefa or Josephine Halwachs (https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/graz-seckau/dechantskirchen/17805/?pg=137).

The Roman Catholic diocese of Eisenstadt (https://matriken.at/en) has some records online, for a fee, among them Pinkafeld, but not Grafenschachen. Their website indicates that the civil registers continued to be kept in Burgenland in the 1920s and 30s. However, they do not appear to have been digitized or even centrally collected anywhere. If you have an exact birthdate and place, you may be able to get a copy or extract from the municipal offices or archives, but at this point you're outside my area of experience or expertise.

ChristineWagner9

I received information by email from Grafenschachen that Josephine Halwachs was born in 1922. The father

s name was not on the baptism record.

I have never accessed the "matricula". Is it for different countries?

Are you ever on the Zoom consultations?

I appreciate all you have found and I have questions about resources available to me.

Thank you-again!

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I don't know what you're referring to with "Zoom consultations", so no, I'm not on 'em... :-/

Matricula-Online is one of the sites that has some Austrian church registers online; they also have material from Germany, Slovenia, and other places. Unfortunately, Burgenland is not one of the areas they cover. (I think they have registers from two churches? Something like that.) As I mentioned, the RC diocese in Eisenstadt has made some effort toward making money by digitizing its registers, but that doesn't help when one's ancestors were all Lutheran.

The father's name would not have been entered for an illegitimate birth, unless the parents jumped through the right hoops (aka paid the right fees) to subsequently legitimize the child. If they were planning to emigrate, they were unlikely to bother (or to have the funds available).

ChristineWagner9

So I have a child born in 1922 (baptism record), no father's name on it, a marriage of the mother in 1923 where she is listed as single, an emigration to U.S of parents and child (1 year old) with that man's last name in 1923, 8 months after marriage.

If I were lucky enough to find a civil record of the child's birth in 1922, would it tell if the child was legitimate?

Thanks again. You should be a teacher!