Getting to the Roots of Your Family - RootsWeb - Ancestry.com

Canada, and Brazil began in the 1880s, with increased waves before, during, and after the two world
wars. Almost all the remaining ethnic Germans were re-settled in the German Empire or Germanoccupied
areas during World War II, but many had to flee from the advancing Russian armies at the
end of the war. Today most of Bukovina is part of Romania. The northern part is in the Ukraine.
Helpful Web sites
• http://www.bukovinasociety.org/ - The Bukovina Society of the Americas, includes various
historical articles and family history material in English and German. A genealogy data base is
available to members only
• http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ESE/bukowina.html - Bukovina page of www.genealogy.net –
includes links to maps, gazetteers, archive addresses, and other reference material.
• http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/kuk_bukowina.htm - history, statistics, links to other Web
sites, historical postcards
Germans in the former Kingdom of Hungary
Germans settled in several distinct sections of Hungary: the so-called Swabian Turkey area
[Schwäbische Türkei (Komitate Baranya, Tolna und Somogy)], Budapest and Central Hungary,
Western Hungary [Komitate Gyõr,Moson, and Sopron], the area between the Danube and Theiss rivers
[Batschka and Banat], and various villages clustered here and there. By 1940 about 600,000 ethnic
Germans lived in Hungary. Some areas are now located in Romania.
Between 1711 and 1787, following the Habsburg monarchy’s conquest over the Ottoman Turks, the
Austrian government recruited predominantly German-speaking settlers from Germany and other
European countries to populate the newly-won territories. Many of the early settlers came from the
Southwestern region of Schwaben. They embarked on barges at Ulm, located in that region, and
traveled down the Danube River to Hungary. Hence they were later known as “Donauschwaben”, or
“Danube-Swabians.
The two largest settlement areas were known as the Banat and the Batschka, which became part of
Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia after World War II. Other areas include the Sathmar region and the
Dobrudja,
Collectively, these groups are often referred to as Donauschwaben.
Helpful Web sites:
• http://www.dvhh.org/ - Donauschwaben Villages helping hands – very informative!
• http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ESE/dschwaben.html - provides history, lists of societies,
genealogical resources etc.
• http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ESE/dsinfo.htm - Donauschwaben village list, currently
includes Banat, Batschka, Bosnia, Sathmar, and Slavonia, with more to come.
• http://www.genealogienetz.de/vereine/AKdFF/akdff-en.html - Work Group of Danube-Swabian
Research [the major genealogical society for this area], has various geographical sub-groups
• http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ESE/dssum.html - history, genealogy resources, societies –
focus on the Hungarian Highlands
• http://www.genealogienetz.de/vereine/AGoFF/index.htm - Contact has extensive records and
publications.