In the Spring of 2005, while I was searching the Ellis Island database, I stumbled across a manifest dated May 24, 1905, listing Miklos Schilzangi age 33, a musician from Billed, chaperoning twenty-four young musicians to America. Traveling also with him was Karoly Keoskemeti age 30, from B Szt Gyorgy.

With the exception of one young musician, Matyas Hochenstrasser, age 14 who was from Uj Bessenyo (Neubeschenowa), all the others were reported from Szabadalu, (Freidorf) a suburb of Temeschburg (Temesvar). They were joining a Mr. Swartz at 3026 3rd Ave, New York.  According to the manifest passage for all the boys was paid for by Mr. Schilzangi and none of these boys nor Karoly Keoskemeti had never been in the US before.  The manifest reports Nicholas had been in the US previously during 1905 in Philadelphia, Pa. 

This was the beginning of my curiosity seeking search for Schilzonyi and his young Banater musicians.  The looming question --what was the fate of these young men?  Follow the trail to what was discovered!

Read the email exchanges between Robert Rohr and I regarding DS bands and the particular information he provides about Schilzonyi.

I located the descendants of Nicholas Schilzonyi, who say his life was a mystery to them and in fact they are unaware of the events surrounding his death or his resting place.  Together we look forwarding to discovering more about Nicholas.

Providing the steps of my research and findings, I am hoping that perhaps descendants of these young musicians will find these web pages and either be enlightened about their ancestors musical paths or provide us with more information. 

The events surrounding Nicholas Schilzonyi's death and his resting place are still a mystery.  But we'll continue to dig.

Jody McKim, 2005

Note: Image provided by Alex Leeb. As it turned out, this original colored poster of 1899 taken in the USA of "Schilzonyi and his famous Hungarian boys military band", was given to Robert Rohr by a granddaughter of one of those boys.  Robert then donated this picture to the "Donauschwäbischen Zentralmuseum" in Ulm.