Hi,

This could be a convoluted tale/intro so I'll be brief in my first posting to your great site I've only just discovered. I'm looking for info on the family of a woman named Therese who was married to one Alois Rothen originally from Szentelek (Stegersbach). Husband and wife emigrated from Szentelek in 1905 first to New London, CT and eventually settled in Butler, PA. I don't know the proper spelling of her maiden name but believe it to be some variation of the anglicized surname Petch (Petsch?, Poetsch? Potsch w/umlaut? Several of these variations appear in the immigration record). She would be an ancestor of mine. There's more I'd like to know but I'll start by humbly welcoming the confirmation and/or proper spelling of her maiden name. I believe her family may have been originally from Rutenschlag, Austria...but I've had no luck tracking down that town by that name, yet. Alois and Therese listed their ages in the immigration record as 32 and 33 so Alois would've been born ca. 1873 and Therese ca. 1872. I assume Alois was born in Szentelek. Therese? No idea, yet.

Any leads or info would be greatly appreciated. I saw the surname Rothen (as well as Sauerzopf, but that's another story) on the lists and thought maybe someone has researched Alois as part of the Rothen family tree and possibly has a scrap of info or two about his wife, Therese, who is the current object of my interest.

Cheers!
-Stephen

Could Theresia's place have been the village of Redlschlag in middle Burgenland (near Pilgersdorf)?

For her maiden name, there are some possibilities such as Pötsch (also spelt Poetsch), Pietsch or even Posch (though phonetically rather unlikely).

As for the name Rothen in Stegersbach, have you checked out the web site of the Burgenland Bunch at http://users.spacestar.net/hapander/burgen.html ?

Yes, that's how I ended up posting to this board. The Burgenland site steered me here.

I thought maybe Redschlag could be a possibility if "Red-" has been anglicized over the years. But I don't know that to be the case.

-Stephen

You can find Szentelek like Sztelek on the map: http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/maps/1910/vas.jpg
rightside on the yellow field, very near town Burgau (Was near the historical Austrian-Hungarian border.) Its German name is Stegerschbach, Croatian name is Santelek. Here you can read about "your" town very interesting sentences.
http://www.thomasgraz.net/gl-1282.htm
Fritz, it is a very fine homepage, you must take into the favorites (I have it since two years)
Lajos

...have you looked into "Gottschee"...? there are Petsch's from there in the USA

I am sorry, I do not understand.......
Gottschee. by my opinion, if it was a Hungarian name, that could be also Gőcsi/y. Where can I see that? Refer?
Lajos

The name is Redlschlag (and not Redschlag) or Riedlschlag. However, the Hungarian name was Újvörösvágás which indeed translates to "new red clearing" (German: Neuer roter Schlag).

...gottscheer's have a web page and a board...and there are petsch's looking for relatives...betty

No, I've not heard of nor seen Gotschee. I will look into that, thank you. As for Rut(t)enschlag, that's how it's spelled on the immigration manifest so it may very well be spelled wrong. Family lore has it that the Petsch family were originally from Vienna and related to some Cardinal or Bishop Petch, however I've never seen any supporting documention to confirm this. As I said, word of mouth thru family lore.

Stephen,

Ruttenschlag is located in the southeastern corner of Bohemia (formerly part of Austria, now the Czech Republic), in the district of Nová Bystrice (Kreis Neubistritz in German), very close to the Austrian border. Ruttenschlag's Czech name is Hrutkov.

While perusing the Ellis Island Database, I noticed other Petsch's/Pötsch's/Poetsch's that hailed from Oberbaumgarten/Horní Pena and Niederbaumgarten/Dolní Pena, both of which are also near Neubistritz.

Although officially in Bohemia, the once mostly German-speaking district of Neubistritz is often considered part of the adjacent historical region of "Südmähren" (Southern Moravia), which was populated mostly by ethnic-Germans until the end of World War 2. The other 3 main district centers of Südmähren were Zlabings/Slavonice, Znaim/Znojmo, and Nikolsburg/Mikulov. After the war, most of the Germans of Südmähren - including the district of Neubistritz - were expelled and resettled in Austria and Germany. The expellees formed regional associations to maintain ties with one another and to preserve their traditions and dialect.

For the sake of simplification, it's not uncommon to see Südmähren refered to as part of the Sudetenland, although strictly speaking, Sudetenland is really only Northern Bohemia and Northern Moravia. The folk culture and dialect of Südmähren were essentially identical to that of neighboring regions of Upper and Lower Austria.

Bob Strauch