Hello Jaime,

Žabalj falls under the Novi Sad archives. You can write both the archives and the Church as that is where the information would be. You can also use the online phonebook to see if there are still people with the same surname living there.

Zabalj vital records are available online via Kalocsa diocese e-archive for the period 1824 to 1922.

If you register with them for paid subscription you can explore these records in detail on yopur own and I will help you navigate the site and records.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/DONAUSCHWABEN-VILLAGES/2013-05/1367409114

I wil try to locate a record of interest for you that you can use as a starting point - you need to give me birth years so that I can narrow down the serch, but for detailed look ups and downloading of the images of original records I only can dedicate time and effort to paid members of Rodoslovlje due to the fact that our society is a volunteer organisation and we suffer the constraints of our regular jobs and time we must dedicate to our family and life in general.

Hello,
Thank you so much for your assistance in my research. I have a birth year of 1864 for Simon Bischof, a birth year of 1868 for Katherine Bischof and a birth year of 1894 for Ferdinand Bischof,

Thank you again!
Jaime

Hello,
I truly appreciate your help in gaining a starting point for me! The birth year for Simon Bischof is 1864 and the birth year for Ferdinand is 1894.
I hope this will produce a start.
Thank you,
Jaime

Ok I have gone +/- five years on the birth years you provided - and nothing. Not a single BISCHOFF appears born within that time frame in Žabalj records. I found LANG birth record from year 1894., which confirms that LANG family did live there ( mother had maiden surname LANG ).

I have also looked through confirmation records for the period 1876-1914 and again found no BISCHOFF or any spelling variant of that surname.

My suggestion based on that is that the information from the obituary/death certificate for that being the place and parish of origin is incorrect - meaning that it may have only been family last place of residence before emigrating, or the information that was based on later records after emigrating. Žabalj in these records and in ship manifest may have been listed as place of origin as being the nearest municipal centre where travel papers were issued.

If I have time I will look more through these records, but for now my advice is that you first go with fine comb through all the passenger lists, naturalization and draft and census records you have to try and see if anything else was ever mentioned as place of origin for BISCHOFF family.

Also you may register for Kalocsa diocese e-archive and explore Žabalj records in detail , year by year all records, but I only advise that people register for a paid service like that after the place of origin is confirmed.

On possible related locations, BIŠOF ( alternate Serbian spelling ) surname appears in Serbian Trade Association online records as one of the employers who took their casets in year 1938 in nearby BAČKI JARAK parish ( Jarek, Batschki Jarak or Jarmosch; in Hungarian as Jármos or Tiszaistvánfalva).

http://baza.privrednik.net/privrednik.php?find=Bisof&field=poslodavac&searching=yes&search=Pretraga&t=0

May be worth looking into.

I will try to look for LANG birth records around the year 1868 to see if anything matches your ancestor.

att: LANG birth and baptism record from year 1894., FERENC KONRAD, father MATYAS KONRAD, mother KAROLINA LANG.

I truly appreciate you taking valuable time and effort in trying to help me. Would all vital records of Zabalj be located in the Kalocsa Diocese? Is there any possibility that my ancestors could have born there, but no record was recorded? I know they were not of Catholic faith, but Lutheran. I have looked at every possible record. Zabalj is listed as the birthplace on my Great-Grandfather Ferdinand's Naturalization record. If you do have time, I would be truly indebted to you if you could look for Katherine Lang born in 1868 or if there is any record on her parents John Lang or Marguerite (nee Ott).
Thank you so very much!
Jaime Brunet

If there was a separate Lutheran parish in Zabalj then in the records I can only find people from your families who married into RC faith - like that LANG lady.

I will try to look more when I have time, and see who you should contact locally in Lutheran church in Serbia because vital records of all religious communities were returned to them from state archives last year,. There are copies in municipal offices and archives but these can only be researched if you either come yourself and ask for information or hire a researcher and obtain research permit for that person to get information on your behalf ( our privacy laws are a bit conservative and only direct descendants are allowed access to information).

Hello,
I'm hoping that someone can point me in the direction of a researcher who could help me look up birth records in the Novi Sad Archives. I did write to them (in Serbian) back in January 2014, but with no reply as of today. So thus far, I've come to a complete dead end in my ancestry research . I have gone through every record that I have with a fine tooth comb and each one states Zsablya as last place of residence and on each one of their Naturalization records Zsablya is listed as place of birth. Since Zsablya was part of the Hungarian Empire before 1918, would birth records for every denomination be located in Serbia now or still Hungary? I know they were of Lutheran/Protestant faith. Thank you so much in advance for any help. Yugaya, I appreciate more than you know all the help/assistance in looking at records that you have provided me in the past. I'm hoping I can break down this roadblock eventually.
Sincerely,
Jaime

Jamie,

I have full accesses to Novi Sad and Zabalj Roman Catholic Church records for the period until 1922. These records are online via Kalocsa diocese church archive, which was in charge of that area until the end of WWI in 1918. I also have partial Protestant records so most families will at least be found in them.

Please provide more information ( names, birth years, year they emigrated, any names of parents or siblings) so that I can look up your family either here on the forum or privately in an email : [email protected].

Apologies for not catching your post sooner and I will help to the best of my abilities and as far as the records can take me.