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From: "Dan Larson" <>
Subject: [DVHH] Balinka
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 16:53:37 -0400


Hi,

I am new to the list and I am interested in Balinka, Hungary. It is located in the Hungarian Highlands, Fejer County and is about 26 km northwest of Székesfehérvár (Stuhlweissenburg).

My great grandfather, Andreas Garber was born in Balinka in 1883. I have a letter in which he wrote down what he knew of the Garber branch of the family. It is written in a German dialect that my wife says is cute.

Excerpted from a letter to Mitzie Garber from her father Andrew (Andreas) Garber, March 10, 1954 and translated by Astrid Larson.



As we know from Nadine's letter, she would like to know where the Garber clan comes from. I will write down in this letter as far as I know: well, my Great Grandfather comes from Styria, a province of Austria. He was a fruit merchant. He bought apples and brought them to Budapest by wagon. On a return trip he heard about the settlement of Balinka. There he also took a number, or a homestead. Since the settlement was a wilderness he acquired sheep and changed from a fruit merchant to a shepherd. Since he was mostly outside in the meadow with the sheep, he also slept out there by the sheep in a sheep's coat. One night the sheep were attacked by a pack of wolves and when he tried to defend the sheep the wolves jumped on him and consumed (ate) him, too. This came at the end of the 18th century, that is around 1780-1790.

The son, my Garber grandfather, was home and did work around the house and field. One day he and a neighbor went to the forest to cut wood. They cut down a tree and when it started falling it turned toward where he (grandfather) had run away to. While running away he turned around to look where the tree was going to fall, he stumbled and fell and the tree fell on him and immediately knocked him dead.

In 1890 my father moved from Balinka to Satnica, a Slavonian village. This whole story was told to me by my Garber grandmother who died in her 77th year of life in March 1897.

Papa



This summer my wife and I will be traveling to Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. I am particularly interested in getting access to church records in Balinka. I think I may have to go to the church in the neighboring village as well since there was no church in Balinka when my family first arrived. I'm trying to find out which village in Styria they originally came from.



Any tips would be helpful. I do speak German and my wife is from Austria. We have a friend in Graz who is multilingual and we'll try to bring him along.



Dan Larson

Walden, NY


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