Gypsy Genealogy Read online

  Of course, I also used that annual trip to research my maternal ancestors whose records were in the Catholic Church in Cacica. From those records I learned that my first ancestor to Bukovina was Johann Schneller, a blacksmith with the 25th Regiment of the Austrian cavalry. They had been sent in 1776 to investigate the possibility of Austria taking over Bukovina after the withdrawal of the Turkish army and before the Russians had a chance to fill the vacuum. It appears my ancestor was so taken by the beauty and the possibilities in Bukovina that when he was demobbed in Bohemia he walked back to Bukovina and built a home in the monastery village of Arbora.

  During my first humanitarian trip to Arbora, I found a Gypsy family living in our ancestral home where my great-great-great-great grandfather Johann had died in 1808. From then on, these Gypsies became the first recipients of my annual aid convoy.

  Although my grandfather and his family immigrated to the USA in 1886, they did leave relatives behind. I found one of their descendants living in Radautz and collected a family oral history from her. She claimed that our ancestor Johann Schneller had arrived in Bukovina as a wandering blacksmith in 1780. According to her family tradition, our Bukovina pioneer Johann Schneller had arrived directly from his ancestral home in Vorarlberg, Austria.

  Now this was a very perplexing story for me because I had already traced our Schneller genealogy back from Bukovina to Bavaria. And from Bavaria back, village by village, generation by generation, to Middle Franconia in 1630. However, there were no church records before 1630 and yet here was an oral family history that Johann Schneller had arrived to Bukovina directly from Vorarlberg. Ironically my ancestral blacksmiths never died in the same village where they were born. But they always left behind “relatives” as they migrated generation after generation to a new village (always going east!). So with that oral history from Bukovina I at last was able to trace our Schneller origins from Middle Franconia to Vorarlberg where in the town of Lech I found the first family member to Middle Franconia, one Johann Schneller.

  What is the real story here? Basically that my Bukovina cousins had taken a 200 year old family story and over the generations had condensed it into a one generation story. The blacksmith Johann Schneller that went from Vorarlberg to Middle Franconia in the 16th century was not the same Johann Schneller, the wandering blacksmith, that immigrated to Bukovina in 1780. So the lesson here is that oral histories often don’t make sense but if you learn to interpret them then there is a rich history that has been saved although it might have been condensed to make sense. But why generation after generation were my blacksmith ancestors migrating east across Europe? Were we going back to our 23% DNA origins in northwest India? What was a Gypsy family from Romania doing in my ancestral home in Bukovina?

  Does blood find blood?

  Chapter 21 GYPSY PILGRIMAGES In a previous chapter I mentioned the three most famous pilgrimages for Gypsies in Europe, celebrating the Black Madonna, as their ancestors had celebrated in Old India their black Hindu goddess Kali. 38

  Most people have heard of the annual Gypsy festival/pilgrimage at Saintes Maries del Mer in the Camargue region of southern France. For eight to ten days in May the streets, squares and beaches are filled with Gypsy campsites and a carnival atmosphere with music and dancing all day and night; a party pilgrimage in honor of Saint Sara, or black Sara as she is commonly known, the Patron saint of mainly the Spanish and French Gypsies. The festival is an affirmation of their faith and culture and an excuse to party.

  The legend of St. Sara dates back to the 16th century and marks her arrival, along with Saints Marie-Jacobé and Marie-Salomé, (the patron saints of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer) in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer from Palestine.

  But long before the Gypsies arrived in France and Spain, there were pilgrimages in Iran, Turkey and the Balkans for Gypsies to celebrate their faith and culture in their ancestors’ worship of Kali, the black goddess of the low-castes.

  Probably the oldest documented Gypsy pilgrimage in Europe is at Letnica, Kosovo, on August 15 in the Croatian Catholic church founded in 1308 by miners and merchants from Dubrovnik. Today thousands (before the 1998 war there were tens of thousands) of Balkan Gypsies pay homage to this Croatian/Kosovo Black Madonna. Ever since this Mary Mother of God was seen to have a black face, the Balkan Gypsies have made a pilgrimage to seek spiritual help for their invalid and sick children. Although today and probably going back to the 15th century when the Islamic Ottoman Empire conquered the Balkans, the converted Muslim Gypsies have followed in the footsteps of their Hindu and Christian ancestors to honor and worship the Letnica Black Madonna. For eight to ten days Gypsies from all over the Balkans numbering in the tens of thousands would pitch their tents and reaffirm their culture and traditions no matter what their religion.39 For them it was not only a time to party but to reaffirm their faith in their ancestors’ traditions. Along with seeking a cure and a few blessings from the local Catholic priests (who are handsomely paid either in sheep or money) the Gypsies also collect holy water from the church spring to take back to their villages for cures for their children during the winter.

  Another Gypsy pilgrimage probably older than Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is the annual pilgrimage in Riace, Calabria, in southeast Italy. Originally hundreds of years ago the locals gathered at the end of September for a large fair, mainly characterized by horse and livestock trading, a traditional Gypsy activity, and also to worship and ask for medical help from the church’s Byzantine saints, the martyred physicians Cosmas and Damian. In the last few years the Gypsies who come from all over southern Italy like their ancestors, also pay homage to Beato Zeffrino (Ceferino Jiménez Malla, a Spanish Kale executed during the Spanish Civil War in 1936), the only Gypsy to be beatified by the Catholic Church.

  The tradition of the Calabria Gypsies gives a particular hue to the feast: the gathering of the Sinti and Roma families still occurs in Riace, and is probably one of the reasons for the persistence of a tradition of tolerance, magic, and medicine. Indeed, the windows of the local tobacconist, on the small square in front of the village church that houses the relics of Saints Cosmas and Damian, contain colorful plaster reproductions of the physician saints on the upper shelf, above small Riace bronzes and assorted souvenirs.

  In the nearby church, a vast array of wax and plastic ex-voti rest, one limb on top of the other, reminds one of the tradition (at least two thousand years old) that is still performed with prayers and tears by the visiting Gypsies for the physician saints to heal their limbs.

  38 Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. 6, 1912/13 p. 112: there is one religious platform which is common to all Indian Gypsies… the cult…of the Goddess Kali.

  39- Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. 1, 1907, p. 333: article on the Gypsies being the oldest race on earth who have worn out all gods... their only god today is good luck, but they light candles and have their children baptized because they are superstitious.

  Chapter 22 FEAST OF HEDERLEZ 40 Besides honoring their Hindu ancestors ’ worship of the black goddess Kali in the form of the Christian black Madonna in various places in Europe, another celebrated Gypsy tradition is that of Hederlez.

  I believe you can follow that tradition back to the wagon days in Old Indian when the Gypsies actually were nomadic on the great plains of Punjab and Rajasthan. To celebrate the end of winter by showing off the first green branches of spring, and before beginning their travels to sell what they had made over the winter months or to begin looking for work, the wagon folk celebrated before beginning their journeys. It was also a time for marriages when the new brides would join their husband’s families perhaps never to see their own families again. Later these pagan rituals joined with religious holidays to clothe their celebrations in a more accepted tradition in the new countries where they migrated to.

  There are many references in the old caste books to these spring festivities being celebrated as Hindu holidays.

  The earliest reference I can find with a similar name and meaning
was the Islamic celebration in medieval Iran where the spring holiday was held in honor of the prophet Elijah. It appears the Gypsies joined their old Indian tradition with the feast day of Khadr Elijah of the Arabs, also called Cheber Suri in Persia (Iran). Later when the Gypsies moved into Christian Europe they equated this holiday with St. George’s day in the Orthodox Balkans.

  Today Hederlez is still celebrated as a Muslim holiday all over Turkey and especially by the Gypsies there. But in other Islamic countries the celebration of Elijah has lost favor, perhaps because the Zionists in Israel also celebrate and venerate the prophet Elijah.

  In India today the original spring festival is still celebrated by the Sansis and the other castes where marriages are usually the highlight of the spring celebrations.

  castes where marriages are usually the highlight of the spring celebrations. Hederlez is a Turkish word from the Arabic Khadr Elias, St. Elijah, who in the Middle East was confused with St. George the dragon-killer. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. 9, 1915/1916

  Chapter 23 TRADITIONAL COOKING Although it would appear logical that trying to trace origins through cooking was a non-starter, I have found it just the opposite. Of course, people have always had an appetite to try new foods. Most of our cooking is borrowed from many sources, many countries. And just as the Gypsies migrating from Old India ate and cooked whatever they could find on the road, 41 they also had memories of what their ancestors cooked on special holidays and celebrations.

  I actually traced some of my mother’s ancestors back to Bavaria though the recipe for a brown bread. No one in our family remembered where these relatives had originated from more than one hundred years ago, but it was a family tradition to make a special brown bread especially for holidays.

  When I looked up the origins of that special recipe in a German cookbook, I found that it came from only one small area in Germany. And sure enough, once I got there I found our family’s ancestors mentioned in the local church books.

  But can you really trace back for 1,000 years a Gypsy recipe? After all, weren’t the first Gypsies to Europe really scavengers who would eat anything they found along the way? Well, I found one traditional Gypsy dish, completely by accident.

  When I was in India on my second trip in 2007, I saw on the menu in every Punjab restaurant the dish “tava.” Rice with small bits of chicken.

  My Romani domestic partner couldn’t believe her eyes.

  If not an actual national dish in the Balkans “tava” is certainly one of the most popular. It isn’t only the same ingredients but it is actually the same word, the same spelling. Yet, I’ve never heard from any Gypsy that their ancestors had brought this dish with them from Old India. Yet there it was!

  On many restaurants across Europe you will often see on the menu Gypsy stew or Gypsy goulash. I don’t know if those dishes actually came from Old India. But they too have been readily accepted by Europeans as Gypsy dishes. But tava? No one today in the Balkans (and especially in Greece) would ever consider this popular chicken/rice dish as being from India, unless they remembered that “Gypsies” used to always be called “chicken thieves!”

  41- I sometimes think the division between those who do eat hedgehog, and those who do not, is one of the strangest fault lines between Romani groups. Welsh Kale and Irish Minceir alike despise the English Romanichal and French Manouche eating of hedgehogs. Thomas Acton.

  Chapter 24 DIFFERENT KINDS OF GYPSIES: AN EXAMPLE As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, there are probably more different kinds of Gypsies than there are different kinds of Europeans. In every community where you find Gypsies you will find several different kinds who normally don’t socialize with each other and hence seldom intermarry. In Kosovo there are at least 14 different kinds of Gypsies. And although they know their ancestors came from different “castes” and were not allowed to assimilate, they probably followed each other on their journey from Old India and stayed closed together “as Indians” for security and protection.

  When I was in Bulgaria in 2009 filming interviews in several Gypsy communities, the first town we stopped in was Rozino. We were actually on our way further south but stopped there when on the east end of town we heard Gypsy music and saw down in a field a big party. We presumed it was a Gypsy wedding so we stopped my caravan to listen. The music was the same as the Gypsy wedding music in Kosovo.

  A few minutes later, we saw many families leaving the wedding and coming in our direction. Safet, my Kosovo Romani driver and camera man, got out to talk to them. All spoke Romanes. The most talkative person was called Ibrihim. Safet asked for a nearby hotel since we decided on the spur of the moment to stay. Someone said the closest one was in Sopot, fifteen kilometers away. Then Ibrihim offered us a room in his house, top floor all to ourselves. After agreeing to that proposition, we drove back into town to find a restaurant and have supper with him.

  Over our meal, I asked Ibrihim what kind of Roma there were in his town of Rozino. He mentioned the following: 1- Erlija (Arlija): they are Muslim and mainly construction workers.

  2- Kovachi: blacksmiths; also Muslim.

  3- Burgogia: a sub caste of Kovachi.

  4- Kararacnija: they are Christian, originally many generations ago from Greece; businessmen; used to be nomadic.

  5- Kalderasi: originally they went from village to village fixing umbrellas, pots and pans. Also Muslim.

  6- Dassa: Bulgarian Roma; Christian. Actually called Serb Roma. They are very dark skinned and don’t speak (any longer) Romanes. They were probably the very first Roma into the Balkans and today consider themselves Bulgarian or Serb, not Roma. In Rozino they make rakia (brandy) and are usually well off. They seldom speak to other Roma whom they consider dirty and beneath them. 42

  Ibrihim said he himself was Kovachi, the same as Safet. Ibrihim had two sons, one 16 the other 6. He got married when he was 17; his wife the same. He now regretted getting married so early and didn’t want his sons to do the same. He said he now had five girlfriends.

  In Rozino very few Romani kids went to school. Those that did, only went as far as 5th 42- There is an immigrant Pentecostal Bulgarian Roma church in Northern Ireland who call themselves Dassikane Roma because they are Christian, not Muslim. They formerly practiced feuding and marriage by elopement, but gave up feuding when they became Pentecostal. They despise the Vlach Roma for “selling their daughters” (just as do Romanichals!) Thomas Acton.

  or 6th grade. We asked how long the wedding we saw would go on for (in days). He said the custom was three days but now with the financial crisis it was scheduled for only one day.

  He said there were about 5,000 Roma in Rozino. They were in the majority in town; the gadje were in the minority. Because of that there was very little discrimination although most Roma were very poor and without jobs. There were only five “rich” Romani families in town.

  He agreed to go with us tomorrow to interview old Roma in Rozino about their customs and traditions. He said his grandfather was dead but his grandmother was still alive although she was hard of hearing.

  Some Roma in Rozino also raised roses and sold them to a company that makes rose oil. The “Valley of the Roses” where many Roma live tending roses starts at Karlovo town and runs to Kazanlak city. This area used to produce 70% of the world’s rose oil, which is used in making perfume. Local legend claims that cultivated roses originated in India and were brought to Bulgaria by the Gypsies.

  Ibrihim said the custom in his town was to buy their brides (actually he said, paying for mother’s milk). They don’t pay much these days, only a symbolic amount. Everybody is too poor to give much money.

  There seems to be Roma in every town in Bulgaria, certainly in every one we later passed through. The Romani population of Bulgaria is estimated at 800,000.

  Chapter 25 THE DOM TRIBE Most of the castes mentioned in this book are sub castes or subgroups of the Dom Tribe. 43 No one knows for sure the origins of the Dom. One early legend in Old India about the Dom tribe is that the
re originally were four Brahman brothers. The three eldest convinced the youngest brother to remove the carcass of a dead cow, and when he did so he was promptly excommunicated for being polluted. From then on the Dom and all their castes and sub castes were considered the lowest in the social scale of all the peoples of India.

  Another theory was proposed by Sir H. M. Elliot, an English historian. Elliot believed the Dom to be one of the chief aboriginal tribes of northern India, who were reduced to servitude by the invading Aryans. Tradition fixed their residence to the north of the Ghagra, touching the Bhars on the east, in the vicinity of the Rohini. Several old forts testify to their former importance, and still retain the names of their founders, as, for instance, Domdiha and Domingarh in the Gorakhpur district. Ramgarh and Sahukot on the Rohini are also Dom forts.

  Sir G. Grierson, another English historian, quotes his colleague Dr. Fleet as follows: "In a south Indian inscription a king Rudradeva is said to have subdued a certain Domma, whose strength evidently lay in his cavalry. No clue is given as to who this Domma was, but he may have been the leader of some aboriginal tribe which had not then lost all its power and suggests that this Domma may have been a leader of the Doms, who would then be shown to have been dominant in southern India. As already seen there is a Domaru caste of Telingana, with whom Mr. Kitts [another English historian] identified with the Berias or Kolhatis [also known as Sansis]. In northern India the Dom were reduced to a more degraded condition than the other preAryan tribes.”

  And yet another theory is that the Dom were from the great plain of India where wandering was comfortable, but were finally forced to move after the great plain was settled.