Banat Tour 2026
Stasa Cvetkovic is once again leading a Banat Tour this summer. His announcement is below. Please communicate directly with Stasa for details.
We’re thrilled to announce the Donauschwaben Ancestral Tour 2026, taking place from 1 to 19 June 2026, starting in Frankfurt, Germany.
Participants will gather at a designated hotel in Frankfurt on 30–31 May prior to departure.
Join us on a remarkable 6,000 km journey through seven European countries as we explore the historical homelands of the Donauschwaben and related communities. Our route includes key regions such as the Palatinate (Pfalz), Alsace-Lorraine, the Hungarian Highlands, Serbian and Romanian Banat, Bačka, and Syrmia (Srem).
We will visit important cities including Frankfurt, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Novi Sad, Timișoara, and Strasbourg, as well as most villages and towns connected to participants’ personal ancestral maps.
A unique feature of this tour is that personal genealogical guidance and assistance are included. Along the way, we will help participants better understand their family history, migration paths, and historical context.
www.synergia.rs synergia@gmail.com
Georgshausen 2025
One of the participants on our 2014 group tour was Barbara Hebenstreit of Vienna. Her father was Josef Wüst, author of the book “Verlorene Heimat Georgshausen” translated to the English “Lost Homeland Georgshausen” by Henry Fischer a few years ago. Barbara was able to visit the family chapel in Alt Letz/Stari Léc and rescue a couple of insect-ravaged portraits of her great-grandparents off the wall. Well, last summer (2025) Barbara returned to Serbia with her sister and brother-in-law, revisited several stops and placed new pictures of her great-grandparents on the wall. Barbara has posted a description of her trip and several pictures at https://www.georgshausen.com/en/bericht/20250506_Reise_ins_Banat
Here are a few descriptive comments by me about the pictures, left to right, top to bottom:
1 – Taken looking east toward the Werschetz mountain from the mass grave where many local men were buried after being murdered in the post World War II reprisals.
2- Barbara and her sister Birgit by the plaque at the mass grave.
4 – The newish (about 2000?) Catholic church in Georgshausen.
5 – Elisabeth Brig grave in the Georgshausen cemetery.
6 – The Birg villa in Georgshausen. The Birgs were one of the village’s leading families.
7 – The Georgshausen brick plant chimney.
8 – Abandoned Georgshausen train station.
11 – Georgshausen grain terminal/mill.
13 – The Faul villa, across the street from the Birg villa. The Fauls were another leading family.
15 & 16 – Ponds adjacent to brickyard.
17 to 19 – On top of Werschetz mountain.
20 – Kapetnovo Castle. Our group stayed there on our 2014 trip.
21 & 22 – Barbara’s great-grandparents’ home.
23 to 25 – Barbara’s great-grandparents’ family chapel.
26 & 27 – Memorial in Werschetz cemetery.
28 to 32 – Wine cellar in Kudritz/Guderica.
Sustaining Donations
From its founding in 1996 until 2023, ZVA encouraged voluntary membership dues to support it financially. This entailed the collection of personal information of contributors. However, the increasing complexity, expense, and liability imposed by privacy laws has created a burden that is too great for such a small organization to bear.
Beginning in 2023 ZVA will no longer collect membership dues or the personal information of members. We hope, however, that you will contribute financially to the maintenance of this site through anonymous donations. We encourage you to pay an annual $10 to help operate the association. The operating funds support our Internet web site and other projects to discover and preserve our heritage.
In addition, we request a one-time contribution of $25 from first-time users to support our library fund. We, in turn, contribute your donation to a dedicated fund at the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society (SGS) which purchases items we specify. Canadians will receive a tax receipt from the SGS for their charitable contributions.
Once you have completed your selections on our Donation page, note the total and click Submit to send your order details. Clicking on Submit no longer takes you directly to PayPal. To make payment, go to PayPal.com and send payment to zvapayments@myaccess.ca. (Our PayPal account is US dollars only.) You do not need a PayPal account of your own. You may use your credit card on our account. Alternatively, you may make cheques payable to: Zichydorf Village Association, 2114 E Laurier Cres., Regina, SK, Canada, S4V 0P6.
Thanks for your support.
Zichydorf Village Association Newsletter
edited by: Glenn Schwartz
2114 E Laurier Cres., Regina, SK, S4V 0P6
Internet: http://zichydorfonline.org
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email: gschwartz@accesscomm.ca