Ethnic Germans (usually simply called Germans, in German Volksdeutsche) are those who are considered, by themselves or others, to be ethnically German rather than anything else but who do not live within the Federal Republic of Germany nor hold its citizenship. The concept of ethnic belonging is always problematic; it can relate to...

• Having a cultural connection with German culture
• speaking the German language
• having ancestors who were born in Germany or an area that is or was otherwise considered German, without having German citizenship

The concept of who is an ethnic German has repeatedly changed in history. For example, in contrast to the Swiss and the Dutch who had already split off and shaped separate national identities, the German speaking Austrians used to consider themselves as ethnic Germans up until the mid- 20th century. The first attempts to create a consciousness of the "Austrian nation" took place during the Napoleonic wars (including non-German speaking Austrians) and in the early 1930s, but without major effects. After WWII Austrians increasingly see themselves as a nation distinct from the German one, and today no more than 10 percent of German-speaking Austrians consider themselves to be Germans. *2

ethnicity: Identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language.

Familienbuch or Ortssippenbuch, Ortsfamilienbuch: Ort means place; Sippe means kinship or tribe; Buch means book.  It should list all of the families of that particular village with their genealogical data in alphabetical order. All genealogical connections known to the author should be given.

Guidelines for the compilation of these books | Ortsnamenbuch Guide - Image

Forced migration refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region. It often connotes violent coercion, and is used interchangeably with the terms "displacement" or forced displacement. *2

Genocide is the systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, social status or other particularity. *2

GULag is the acronym for Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies; meaning Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or the Soviet's Main Camp Administration. Over time, the word "Gulag" has also come to signify not only the administration of the concentration camps but also the system of Soviet slave labor itself, in all its forms and varieties: labor camps, punishment camps, criminal and political camps, women's camps, children's camps, transit camps. Even more broadly, "Gulag" has come to mean the Soviet repressive system itself, the set of procedures that prisoners once called the "meat-grinder": the arrests, the interrogations, the transport in unheated cattle cars, the forced labor, the destruction of families, the years spent in exile, the early and unnecessary deaths. *2

Heimatbuch: Tells the history of the village and only a few of them provide all of the names of inhabitants in former times.

Hochdeutsch is proper German spoken in Germany, like Oxford English is considered proper English *1

Joch: One joch is the area of a square 40 klafters (about 83 yards) on a side (1klafter»1.9m). The Joch thus comes to 0.5755 hectare (1 hectare=10000 m²) or about 1.422 acres. Joch is also the German word for a yoke, so this unit represents an area that could be plowed in a day by a yoke of oxen.

Judetul: municipality

A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons. Conditions at labor camps vary widely depending on the operators.  During the regime in Yugoslavia to perform labor duties under adverse condition by German (Donauschwaben) civilians, while during Stalinism,  labor camps in the Soviet Union were officially called "Corrective labor camps." The term Labor colony; more exactly, "Corrective labor colony" was also in use & referred to camps that housed prisoners with shorter average sentences.*2

lookup:  Lookup Informants provide a labor of love when helping you find missing pieces of your family puzzle that eludes you. They search through related reference books including specific village family books.

Magyar: Hungarian language; a native or inhabitant of Hungary.

Magyarorszag (Hungary) officially in English the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság, literally Hungarian Republic), is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest.

megye: Hungarian for county.

nationality: The status of belonging to a particular nation by origin, birth, or naturalization.

naturalization: The act or process of naturalizing, esp. of investing an alien with the rights and privileges of a native or citizen; also, the state of being naturalized.

Ortssippenbuch, Ortsfamilienbuch: see Familienbuch

A refugee  is a person seeking asylum in a foreign country in order to escape persecution. *2

VC: Village Coordinator, coined by the DVHH for their volunteers.

Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century to apply for Germans living outside of the German Empire. *2

Volksgruppen: German folks groups

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