Your Roots in Historic Hungary

by Vic Berecz

 

What is the purpose of this column?  Almost everyone would like to learn more about his or her family history.  Whether your ancestors were rich or poor, heroes or scoundrels … or all of the above … it doesn’t matter.  You are probably spurred on, as I am, by the joy of the quest.  The goal of this column is to provide you with pointers that will assist you in your quest for Your Roots in Historic Hungary.  In each issue of Magyar News Online, I will try to focus on one matter of wide concern when tracing your roots.  It may be a topic of my choosing, an answer to a reader’s question, or a suggestion from the Editorial Board.  If you have questions or suggestions for future issues, send them to me at Vic@Berecz.us -- I’m looking forward to your inputs.

Why Historic Hungary?  Hungary before World War I was a large nation covering much of what we now call central Europe.  It was an anomaly in 19th century Europe.  It was independent, but shared a monarch and some governmental functions with Austria.  But, unlike Austria and most of Europe, it was a multi-ethnic society with substantial religious diversity and freedom.  It included Magyars (in the U.S. usually called Hungarians), Slovaks, Romanians, Germans, Ruthenes, and several other ethnicities.  While the majority was Roman Catholic, there were many Reformed, Lutheran, Orthodox, and Jewish citizens of historic Hungary.  Between 1895 and 1914, over two million of these people immigrated to the United States.  They included all four of my grandparents, and probably many of your ancestors as well.

What can you expect to find in tracing your ancestors?  Many of you can be successful in tracing your ancestry back to the early 1800s in historic Hungary … depending on your age, that’s 4-to-7 generations.  And, I’m talking about being able to do it for very modest cost right here in the U.S.  Some of you may even be successful back to the early 1700s, as I have been.  It is rare to be able to go back much further than that.

What resources will I be discussing?  Depending on your personal situation, your starting point in finding your roots in Hungary may be people, photos, or documents within your own family.  But, the key resource available here the U.S. that will let you go back deep into the 19th century is the LDS (Mormon) Church’s Family History Library microfilms.  These microfilms are being scanned and indexed for Internet access, but it will be several years before they are online.  For now, the films can be viewed directly at any local Family History Center (FHC).  Another resource that you may find useful is my Hungarian Family History Tutorial that you will find on the Internet at www.berecz.us/tutorial.  Additionally, many other Internet resources including the Ellis Island Website may be involved in your search.  Now let’s get started.

1. Starting the Search for Your Roots.

There was no civil registration of births, marriages, or deaths in Hungary before October 1895.  Until then, only the churches recorded this vital data.  From 1828 until 1895 the government required every church and synagogue to prepare duplicate copies of these records … one being sent to the national archives in Budapest.  The Family History Library microfilmed these archived records for the churches in the area of modern Hungary in the 1960s.  Subsequently, church records for some other areas of historic Hungary were also filmed.  The FHL has over 10,000 rolls of microfilm of these records.  That is why so many Hungarian-Americans can find their roots back to the early 1800’s with relative ease.

The starting points for your search are your ancestors who emigrated to the U.S.  For most of us, those immigrant ancestors arrived in New York or Philadelphia between 1895 and 1914.  Since most of them were born before 1895, their births will be in those microfilmed records.  To get that first foothold in the records, you need four pieces of information about each person you want to investigate.  These are:

  1. Their name – both given name and family name.
  2. Their approximate year of birth – preferably no later than 1895.
  3. The town or city in historic Hungary in which they were born.
  4. Their religion.

Once you have these four bits of information, you can start the search in microfilmed copies of the original historic Hungarian records.  Many of you are already familiar with this information because it came to you from the immigrants themselves, or was passed on to you by your non-immigrant parents.  Others will have to search for it using American resources.  Those whose immigrant ancestors arrived more recently, and therefore were likely not born before 1895, will have to get back to that threshold using family records or Hungarian records.  This may not be as difficult as it sounds, since your contacts with relatives in Hungary are likely much more recent.

Name: you probably know the names of your immigrant ancestors.  But, be careful because spelling of family names may have changed and given names were usually Americanized.  If you don’t know the names, talk as soon as possible with the oldest living family members.  They can be a useful resource for this and other data.  Make sure you know the maiden (birth) name of women – that is ordinarily what was used in Hungarian records throughout their lifetime.

Year of Birth: possible sources in the U.S. include tombstones, obituaries, death certificates, various family papers, the Ellis Island Website, or the 1920 or 1930 US Census. 

Town of Birth: this may be the most difficult piece of data to find; again obituaries, death certificates, and personal papers are good if you have them available.  Otherwise, the Ellis Island Website may be your best hope.

Religion: it may be the same as yours!  But, religious affiliations do change over a few generations, especially when mixed marriages are involved.  Remember that most of the immigrants to the U.S. from historic Hungary were Roman Catholic, Reformed, Jewish, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, or Orthodox – in that order.  Many Protestant denominations found in the U.S. did not exist in 19th century Hungary – so if you now attend a Methodist church, believe me … that was not your immigrant ancestor’s religion.

Even if you have found these four key pieces of information about your immigrant ancestors, there’s no guarantee of success.  There are some parts of historic Hungary where the church records in the FHL are few and far between.  This is certainly the case for churches now in Romania or the Ukraine.  But, even immigrants coming from Hungary’s largest city – Budapest – have a problem.  Budapest was so large that many churches of each denomination existed.  So unless you know which neighborhood in Budapest your ancestors lived in, it will be difficult to locate the church records.   But, Budapest was growing and prospering.  It was the north of Hungary that was economically depressed.  Therefore the small towns and villages of the north produced the most emigrants to America.  That’s why I maintain that many of you will be successful at tracing your roots back to the early 19th century in historic Hungary.

Next: Using the Ellis Island Website.