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"It’s more than names and dates and places – it’s finding our story."
Lilien Vogl was born in Chicago, Illinois and moving to suburbia when she was 4 years old. She always knew she was different than others in her neighborhood. German was spoken at home and some of her earliest memories involved attending German picnics and Oktoberfest celebrations. Her father she learned was born in Hungary. Her mother born in Serbia but why did they speak German? After retiring, a trip to Europe visiting relatives uncovered an account by an aunt of the Vogl family journey - leaving Hungary in the middle of the night in December 1944, becoming refugees in Germany and the eventual settlement of half the family in Chicago and the rest in Germany. Lil was bit by the genealogy bug after visiting Salt Lake City family history library and finding a copy of her grandparent’s birth certificates in the small village of Lokut, Veszprem county, Hungary.
Since then she has traced her family back to the 1750’s in Hungary and made numerous DNA and family tree connections even taking a 3rd cousin on a trip to Hungary with her -visiting relatives including the mayor of her ancestral village. After extensively studying this side of the family she found her maternal grandfather’s family were “Donauschwaben” settling first in Tolna county, Hungary in the 1720’s and eventually moving to Bosnia in the late 1890’s.
Although new to genealogy her passion is to use her BS in Genetics to connect with relations and assist in adding to their family trees as well as understanding how history played a role in her family’s migration.
~ Lillien Vogl
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