Recollections of a Danube Swabian
The English translation of Erinnerungen eines Donauschwaben is is now available to registered users and members at https://zichydorfonline.org/resources/49-zichydorf/406-basch.
Welcome to the Zichydorf Village Association
Zichydorf was a village in the Banat about 70 km northeast of Belgrade, Serbia, originally settled in the middle ages as Bioseg and later by German immigrants in 1787. Zichydorf has had many names: Bioseg, Morminz, Zichydorf, Zichyfalva, Mariolana, and today Plandiste.
This is the web site of the Zichydorf Village Association. We are dedicated to the history and family histories of our ethnic German ancestors who originated from this town and its surrounding towns lying in modern Serbia. To learn more about our town and our organization, please see About ZVA in the main menu.
Research and Travel in Banat
It is vitally important to have local expertise and a local interpreter when operating in Serbia and/or Romania. ZVA has had excellent experience with two individuals in Banat: Staša Cvetković and Sorin Fortiu.
Staša Cvetković
Staša is our go-to guy in Serbia. He has excellent contacts in archives and village offices throughout the Serbian Banat. He has an extensive personal database of the lcoations of various records. He is also an excellent tour planner, proposing detailed itineraries full of local interest. Staša can transport groups of up to seven people in his Mercedes Vito and is willing to travel in Romania. His web site is at http://www.synergia.rs/
Sorin Fortiu
Sorin is the premier and most professional researcher in the archives of Timisoara and Arad. He is also an expert historian. Sorin does not drive, but will conduct tours if you can arrange transportation. His web site is at http://www.genealogy.ro/
Find more detailed information on our site at Zichydorf Records Research (you must be logged in to view this link)
Newsletter 27-1 April 2022
New ZVA web site
Our current web site was built on an open-source platform. The price was right, but it suffered the disadvantage of relying on many different open-source plug-ins to accomplish many different functions. The problem with this is that, as the basic platform evolves, not all of the plug-ins update at the same pace. This leads to problems with functionality between pieces that are supposed to be working together. Our technical support person, Mike O'Brien, has recommended that we move to Wordpress. As the largest such platform, innumerable developers are constantly developing new plug-ins and keeping existing ones up to date.
Mike has done most the structural background work, but I have not been able to keep up with the content. All the old content is there, but it is not organized as well as I would like. I will continue to improve on this in the weeks ahead. Continue to access our old site for now at https://zichydorfonline.org. I hope the new site will be fully functional by the fall.
Zichydorf Marriages 1886-1888
While looking for something else in the Zichydorf Church records I found some marriage records that had been recorded in the wrong place. If you have searched the marriage records for this time unsuccessfully, see below for a new place to check. I have inserted a new text file in the Zichydorf church records package with directions to 1886 to 1888 marriages for people who purchase the records in the future. If you have purchased the records in the past, the information from the file is below. If you wish to download the file and include it with the rest of your package, there is a link to it also.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z0js0a79y4r83d7/Marriages%201895-1920.txt?dl=0
File name: Marriages 1895-1920.txt
File text: Some marriages from 9 Jan 1886 to 29 Sep 1888 are found in the last few pages of 2_Baptisms 1843-1852a.
Georg Basch Book
About a year ago Anita Paré donated to us the book Erinnerungen eines Donauschwaben, the autobiography of Zichydorfer Georg Basch who was born in 1908. This German book describes growing up in Zichydorf, life before WWII, experiences during the war, the post-war work camps, death camps, and deportation to Russia, and family reunification and building a new life in post-war Germany. The book has now been translated and I am in the process of editing the translation. I hope to have a PDF posted with its library listing within the next couple of weeks. It will be at this link: https://zichydorfonline.org/resources/49-zichydorf/406-basch.
New books in the Library
The following three books are now in the library. See their descriptions on the web site at the links given below.
Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Morawitza im Banat und ihrer Filialen 1786-1996 by Helga und Anton Hornung.
https://zichydorfonline.org/resources/51-localities/413-morawitza
Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Albrechtsflor im Banat und ihrer Filiale 1770-1991 by Karen Dalton Preston.
https://zichydorfonline.org/resources/51-localities/412-albrechtsflor
I just received Les Lorrains du Banat by Gerard Louis. It should be in the library within the next couple of weeks. Here is a description:
https://zichydorfonline.org/resources/50-ds/414-les-lorrains-du-banat
Regina Germantown Walking Tour
Many years ago, the City of Regina created a series of walking tours of different areas of the city. I created a presentation about one of these tours for one of our ZVA meetings several years ago. It investigates several of the buildings and residences that have connections to Zichydorf. I have updated it and added some pictures at the link below.
https://zichydorfonline.org/canada/416-regina-germantown-walking-tour
Dismantling Regina Schoomer's Banat Brick Wall
Katherine Swanson wrote the attached article for the April 2021 issue of the Minnesota Genealogist. In it she explains the step-by-step process she used to backtrack from a Minnesota death certificate with sketchy information through the Zichydorf Familienbuch to church records for Zichydorf and Malenitzfalva to trace her family history. Her case study can serve as a model for others in a similar situation.
See her article at this link https://zichydorfonline.org/usa/415-dismantling-regina-schoomer-s-banat-brick-wall
ZVA Regina Branch Meeting
At long last!... Regina Branch will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11, at Access Communications, 2250 Park St. (north door by the ball diamonds). Masks required please. Please press the buzzer to notify an employee to open the door. Please mark your calendar and bring along a Zichydorf friend.
Zichydorf Village Association Newsletter
edited by: Glenn Schwartz
2114 E Laurier Cres., Regina, SK, S4V 0P6
Internet: http://zichydorfonline.org
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