This website exists to preserve and celebrate the history, traditions and heritage of the descendants of some of the  settlers from southwest Germany who joined the Great Swabian Trek into Hungary in the early 18th century.  They were part of a larger group known as the Danube Swabians but in order to highlight their own unique identity and history in Hungary they are described as the Children of the Danube.  For like the Children of Israel, they too were in quest of a Promised Land.  The reader is provided with access to resources and information about their history, culture, faith and tradtions.  It also provides assistance in researching their own family history and specifically introduces them to the settlements and villages in Swabian Turkey in the Counties of Tolna, Somogy and Baranya.

  The website also introduces the reader to the various books related to the Children of the Danube and their origins, history and destiny written by Henry A. Fischer.  It is interactive and your comments, questions and requests for additional information are welcome.

  You are now invited to enter the world of the Children of the Danube.

25 Responses to “ Welcome ”

  1. Ernst Eder says:

    My parents Friedrich Eder was from mramorak, my mother Elisabeth Altheim from Novi Verbas, I was born in 1948 in a refugie camp in Vienna (Kobenzl) my parents were repatiated tp Alsace France where my mother still lives. I live currently in Bariloche Argentina.
    Thank you for this astonishing history.
    Ernst

  2. Joseph Volk says:

    Regarding the article about Krndija, https://www.swabiantrek.com/?page_id=419. This mirrors closely the stories which my mother and father have been and still try to emblazon in my mind. Though my mother is gone, my 85 year old father is still mentally, and to a lesser degree physically active, and would very much like to read more detailed accounts of the Swabian evacuation. I’m guessing the referenced book, Krndija Heimatbuch by Matthias Stolz, would be a great start. If you suggestions for additional books on this particular subject it would be greatly appreciated.

  3. Gary Streicher says:

    My father was born in Tevel, Tolna. He came to America in 1923 and settled in West Allis (Milwaukee) Wisconsin. My grandparents were part of a group of Danube Swabians that started a local social club, Schwabenhof in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. My fathers name was Martin. He passed away in 1993.

  4. Vicki Scheib says:

    My family is from Hac in Somogy County Hungary. My grandparents came to Steelton, PA in America in 1910. Although I have cousins in Hungary, the language is still hard for me to get down and I have had difficulty understanding my German side who lived in Hungary until I found this site. It was thrilling to see my family name in the articles. Thank you very much for helping me to understand and giving me a great foundation from which to work.

  5. Elaine C. Tillinger says:

    Excellent site. I read through several of your articles and chapters, good work. We need to get this information out there.

  6. April Seay says:

    my name is April Seay. I’m searching for information on my Great Grand-father Johann Weil. I’ve hit a dead end on ancestry.com. Was hoping you could shed some light as to if you’d put any family trees together from the Gyonk area.
    Thank you very much.

  7. We work collecting and photographing monument Germans in Vojvodina. We saw 245 villages and towns, from 240 000 photos cemeteries, houses, churches, industry, chapels … Neven, Nikola and Jelena (Zemun, Belgrade, Novi Sad)

  8. Tom Groh says:

    My family, from Elek & Ottlaka. Were from the 1724 group that re-settled Elek. That relative was Adam Groh

  9. Tom Groh says:

    “Magyarization” of family names : my grandfather Gyorgy Groh and his brother Janos Groh, born in Ottlaka, and lived Elek. Janos Groh later changed his family name to Kalasz Janos. When I was a kid, I knew him only as Janos Kalasz. Janos Kalasz had 3 daughters, no sons.

  10. br9apps.com says:

    It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this brilliant blog!

    I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS
    feed to my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will share this website with my Facebook group.
    Chat soon!

  11. Paul Hock says:

    Looking for Hock and Weigand family connections in Kalaznó village in Tolna county, Hungary.

  12. Denton Vaughan says:

    My wife’s family origninally came from Lengyl.
    But her father was living in Budapest at the time that the Swabian Germans were sent to Germany. He was able to adopt Hungarian identity the family name of Zenti and so was not
    sent to Germany. However, many of his relatives
    could not and so were sent to East Germany, where they still live. My wife and I come to
    Hungary every spring and would very much enjoy
    learning more about Lengyl and the people who lived there.

  13. Denton Vaughan says:

    My wife’s family origninally came from Lengyl.
    But her father was living in Budapest at the time that the Swabian Germans were sent to Germany. He was able to adopt Hungarian identity the family name of Zenti and so was not
    sent to Germany. However, many of his relatives
    could not and so were sent to East Germany, where they still live. My wife and I come to
    Hungary every spring and would very much enjoy
    learning more about Lengyl and the people who lived there.

  14. Tim Ellebruck says:

    Hello,
    My great-grandparents were German settlers in Gyorkony. I was wondering if anyone has any information on the family name Ellebruch…could also possibly be spelled Ellerbruch or Ellenbruch.

  15. Susan Lowe says:

    Thank you for this website.
    I also wrote about my mother and her families experiences in the Yugoslavian concentration camps. My book is titled, JOSIE: A Story of Faith and Survival. They lived in Glogon, Yugoslavia. After being separated from their family she and her brother, Andreas Trollmann were in Franzfeld together. Later, Josie was taken to Rudolfsgnad. I’m wondering if you knew them from Franzfeld.

  16. Albert PETSCHEL says:

    This is a great find. I was born in Torschau (now Savino Selo). My family left in 1944 and ended in Lager Kematen in Tyrol, Austria.
    I have a map of Torschau with all the family houses marked by names as well as factories and train station. The map was drawn in 1944.
    My mothers name was Groh. I know her father had 2 brothers in Germany after the war. I would like to contact them if possible.

  17. My journey to Canada started January 6th 1948 when my family was forced out of our ancestral home of 200 years from the Veszbrem Hungary. All the German Hungarian families were forced out of the village and transported to Eastern Germany probably in the same cattle cars that were used to transport Jewish families to their deaths. Fortunately we ended up in Pirna Germany and not Siberia. My mother was pregnant with me and I probably had the best spot in the cattle car which had 50 people jammed in the wagon. I have been able to trace my ancestry back to my 6th Grandfather Andreas Albert who was born in 1698 in Hosbach Northern Franconia Bavaria migrated to Veszbrem Hungary with his son Laurentz Albert in the middle of the 1700’s.
    Our family name was changed from Albert to Belafi on July 2, 1868 by a notary by the name on Peter Szitasi and the Parish Priest of Kislod named Laszlo Markoja. I was born in August 1948 in Leunitz East Germany and escaped from East Germany in 1951 through Berlin to West Germany via the US Airforce on a Dakota DC37 Military aircraft. I am the 3rd generation born Belafi and my Grandfather who was the 1’st generation born Belafi was killed in 1916 in Northern Italy.

  18. Helen A Schreiber says:

    My parents, grandparents and most great grandparents were all born and raised in Nakodorf in Banat. How do I find actual information and/or documents re births and deaths. I have the Heimatbuch so I have some info re dates but i have no info regarding my great grandfather named Anton Elszas. He was born in 1875 in Bacs, Topelec and got married and lived in Nakodorf. His wife was Margaretha Jung, Daughter of Rochus Jung. Is there a Heimatbuch for “Topela” according to my aunt, his granddaughter. I have also seen alternate spellings as Elsas, Elssas Thank you for any feedback. Helen

  19. B. Pesja says:

    Hi there,

    From my family tree I have the following names: Johann Adam Wingert born in 1727 Darmstadt died in Mezobereny 1795. He married Elisabeth Margartetha Wingert born Schupkegel who was already born in Mezobereny.
    her father Schupkegel came from Gross Bieberau. Another family name that comes up is Will.

  20. Howard L. Dixon says:

    My mother, Maria Schäfer Dixon, who passed away this past February, was born and raised in Putinci, Yugoslavia, now Serbia.

  21. John Batzko says:

    My great-grandmother Anna Maria Schmidt was born in Bonyhadvarasd in 1888, married Martin Wirth of Tolna and came to America with their 3 children in 1912. Martin got a job in a factory in the Menomonee River Valley, and his first night on the job, fell down the freight elevator shaft and was killed. “Granny” married my great-grandfather a year later, and when HE died of TB in 1917, she married again and was known for the rest of her life as Mary Bommersbach. I have met some of the Putschli relatives who ended up in Crimmitschau, Germany after WW II. I’ve traced back about as far as I can with the records in Hungary although there were a heck of a lot of Schmidts back then! I would love to make the connection back to the German villages. I did recorgnize the names several of my ancestors on the Bonyhadvarasd page. Great work!

  22. Peter Glenn Froh says:

    I’m trying to find where my Swabian ancestors came from before they arrived in the Banat in the mid 18th century. The first record I have is of my fourth greatfather Josef Froh born in Boglar, Austria-Hungary in 1745. He died in Grabat(z), Austria-Hungary in 1815. My guess is his family was somewhere in the Rhineland-Palatinate but I have no records of where in that region they dwelled before the trek to the promised land.

  23. Klaus Musler says:

    Hallo zusammen, sofern diese Seiten noch gepflegt werden. Ich suche nach meinen Vorfahren aus Kula/Josefsfeld. Der Familienname ist Musler oder Heigel oder Steib oder Kinder… Hauptsächlich suche ich nach Musler.
    Wie komme ich weiter? Vielen vielen Dank

  24. Tibor says:

    @Helen A Schreiber

    Please contact me, I have some information about your great grandfather named Anton Elszasz.

  25. KURT MUELLER says:

    Is there any way that I could contact Tom Groh, we may be related way back. My Great-great grandfather was Adam Groh, but he lived in Siwatz he married Susanne Hettesheimer
    BTW I just realized that this blog is still active. PLEASE KEEP IT GOING. Thank you

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