"Global" Eurail Pass or not?

If you know your travelling dates, advance buying of your tickets comes with considerable discounts and can easily be done on the websites of the relevant railway companies (Deutsche Bahn, OEBB, etc.). Some long-distance trains come with compulsary reservation anyway. Have look at the trustworthy Man in Seat 61 for information on the process.
Buying a ticket at the station is less daunting than you imagine. Get all the details on a slip of paper and learn the four or five words you need in such situations, and it actually gets fun when everything goes as intended. It worked with me in such linguistically challenging countries like Poland and the Czech Republic. On major stations you'll find an information booth with someone speaking at least functional English.
Getting on in my years also, I still don't see the necessity of 1st class. On European trains 2nd class is comfortable enough.

I've never bought a rail pass in 17 trips over there where I moved from country to country
In your case I would skip buying a pass, because for certain trains covered by it you still need a reservation.
Map out a set schedule to follow and just book point to point etickets online before you go.
Then print the e-tickets out at home before you go That way you do not have to buy them when you get there.

Truly, the vast majority of us (I'm 65) are perfectly happy with second-class seats. You can look at photos on the Seat61 website. I've linked to the Austrian section, but you can select the other countries you plan to visit in the left panel and see photos of their trains, too. Just keep scrolling to find pictures.

Looks like your most efficient route would be Munich-Salzburg-Graz-Budapest-Vienna-Cesky Krumlov-Pilsen-Munich.

Graz-Budapest could be done short cutting Vienna, although it does not save time. It would also bypass the historic and scenic Semmering Railway between Graz and Vienna.

Vienna to Cesky Krumlov could be done by-passing Linz by leaving from Vienna Franz Josef Bahnhof just north of the city center.

Second class can be comfortable, but if the extra cost is not too dear, try first class, particularly on one of your longer trips. Live it up a little. You can find discounted tickets at each countries train website if you buy early enough. The Man in Seat 61 website is invaluable. If you decide to buy tickets as you go, ask someone at your hotel for assistance. They are usually happy to help. Most of all, relax a little and have a good time. Trains are a great way to travel. By the end of your trip you'll be an old hand at it.

With some careful planning you might get a regular train connection between Linz and Ceske Budejovice. The construction works are planned for only one week: 19 to 26 August. If that week is unavoidable, the railways will provide a replacement bus service.

There's no need to buy a rail pass just to take trains. Whether or not a rail pass is a good deal depends on various factors.

The Man In Seat 61 is a rail guru who runs an excellent website. It will help you with all your rail needs, but has a lot of information that can be overwhelming.

Do start with his rail pass discussion. Before you buy a rail pass, read this and make sure you understand all the points: http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#railpass-or-point-to-point-tickets

"The thought of arriving at a train station and purchasing a single ticket for one train ride is very, very intimidating"

If you can tell us why this is so, we can help you. It's no different from any other purchase in a foreign country. If you are worried about a language barrier, you can write out what you want. For instance, show them a paper saying Munich ---> Salzburg, 12 August 2017, 1st Class, 2 people. Remember, at a train ticket window, they know you want train tickets, so you don't have to get creative with explanations. The ticket seller needs to know:

1) Where you want to go from. If you don't specify, they will assume you are starting from the city you are in, but you can actually buy domestic tickets anywhere in the country. For instance, while in Salzburg, you can buy your ticket from Vienna to Graz at the Salzburg station if you wish.
2) Where you want to go to
3) The date of travel
4) How many people
5) First or Second Class (if there are indeed multiple classes on a particular train).

That's it. In Hungary, I had printed out schedules from the MAV website, and circled the train I wanted; this was very helpful.

If you know where and when you are traveling, you can buy many of your tickets in advance online, which not only relieves your worry, but can save you money. Again, The Man In Seat 61 has details.

Hi,

The Global Pass is valid on all trains in the places you list and more too, even valid on Westbahn trains in Austria, not only OBB trains. I can see your point about not wanting to buy point to point tickets at the ticker counter or ticket machine Sometimes it is a waste of time. If you don't want to be bothered and stressed over that, then get the Global Pass. None of the trains relative to your destinations requires mandatory reservations, so basically, you can just hop on. In central Europe you can still do that without mandatory seat reservations. Very straightforward..the Munich-Salzburg-Wels-Linz-Vienna-Budapest is a trunk line, all lateral If you are going to Vienna from Munich, the RJ train does that route. The ICE high speed train to Vienna comes from Frankfurt

Still, if you want to assure yourself of a seat, say from Salzburg to Vienna, then get a seat reservation for 1st or 2nd class at the ticket counter, show the clerk your Pass (they might ask). If everything goes according to plan, I'll be in Plzen too this time at the end of May.

We have traveled many times with the pass. So easy and convenient. For schedules on all routes I use the DB site - it is the easiest to follow and you can see right away if your selected train REQUIRES a reservation - very few in your itinerary do - even the high speed. We like not having to worry about making a pre-reserved advanced purchase train and can adjust our schedule as we want.

A very big THANK YOU to all of you!!!

Tomorrow - Monday 27 March - my gal-pal and I will go over all your informative comments. Needless to say, we are very excited and I am a little less nervous about our latest "Adventure."

Now - on to finding family research archives in Vienna (1860's), Graz (pre-WWI) and Plzen (1880's).

I have a handbook for researching German records summarizing our three specific locations for our emigrant ancestors: Graz, Austria; Catholic Church Archive (Diozesanarchiv) - Plzen, CR; Provincial Archive of Plzen (Statni Oblastni Archiv v Plzni) and Vienna, Austria; The Most Holy Trinity Parish (Zur Allerheiligsten Dreifaltigkeit). However, I haven't contacted any of them yet. We need to know if each of them have what we want to research..... Plus a little history of the location at the time of emigration would be helpful, too.

Any further suggestions???

Kay