Ruma Ortssippenbücher project
David Preston
We wish to inform all who may be interested of our intent to begin compiling data towards a publication outlining the families of the town of Ruma, today located in Srem, Serbia. The intent is to follow the general formatting principles and best practices exhibited in similar works (Ortssippenbücher) available for other communities in the region settled by Danube Swabians beginning in the 1700’s.
The settlement of Ruma by the Habsburg Monarchy officially began in 1746 and the population grew steadily for nearly two hundred years, changing abruptly at the close of World War II. As many Danube Swabian researchers will know, Ruma, like other communities in the region, received settlers from a diverse patchwork of territories, principalities and kingdoms, not just from areas in today’s Germany, but actually spanning from Alsace-Lorraine in the west to Silesia in the northeast to neighboring communities close by in today’s Hungary, Croatia and Serbia in the south.
While the work will rely in large part on the extant Catholic parish records for Ruma, we wish to make the information in this publication as complete a picture of Ruma’s population as possible. Knowing that parish records are not always complete or accurate, we will therefore also strive to make use of additional sources of information that may corroborate or supplement the information found in the parish records.
In that spirit, we graciously welcome any family information or material of interest for this effort, no matter how small or large it may seem and no matter the original source. Please do not hesitate to contact us at rumafam...@gmail.com if you would like to see your special knowledge or information included in this work or if you would simply like to register your thoughts on this project.
Should you or the organization you represent have a special interest in the forthcoming publication, please let us know your full name, the name of your organization (if applicable) and the best email address with which to contact you. Similarly, we would be very grateful if you would share this notice with any person or organization that could be interested in the content.
We welcome the opportunity to spark conversation around the special town of Ruma and are delighted at the prospect of connecting Rumaer the world over to their roots.
Best regards,
Mike Ewing & Staša Cvetković