Family History in Hungary: Család-Történet Magyarországon (including Slovakia) by Alex Glendinning


visitors since February 10 1997
The Coat of Arms of the Republic of Hungary
(courtesy of Bryan at HipCat's Hungary Page)
This article originally appeared in the Genealogist's Magazine of September 1994


Introduction
With the disappearance of Communist Regimes all over Eastern Europe now is a good time to engage in family history research in countries like Hungary. I have to declare an interest, my mother being Hungarian born.

However, going unprepared would be a waste of time - apart from the language difficulties - Hungary has been devastated too many times in wars. Churches and Castles have been burnt, records lost and some territory (2/3rds) has been given to other countries since the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 (mainly Romania - who were given Transylvania, but also Czechoslovakia, Austria and Yugoslavia benefited). Then there are the religious denominations to take into account. But do not be put off by this description, as once you have a grasp of how things work it is possible to achieve much, of course if you have Hungarian ancestors and have retained some of the language and family legends, it helps. Having some Latin would also be useful, especially with Roman Catholic records.

One would hope that your family's place of origin would not be a total mystery. Stories were passed down in my family making us aware that my mother was born in Budapest and that her mother's family came from Pápa in Western Hungary.

If you from the U.S.A. please start with Hungarian Ancestry: Beginning Your Research From America.

Books and Guides
As Hungarian history is so different from that of Britain, some preliminary reading would be useful. Readily available in British bookshops are the APA "Insight Guides" - tourist guides with reasonable, but rather concise Travellers' Histories. There is one for Hungary and another for Budapest alone. Slightly more informative is the "Corvina Complete Guide to Hungary". The Corvina catalogue contains many English language books of to use to the historical student. They can be bought by mail order from the Hungarian Book Agency at PO Box 1956, Durham DH1 2GA.

Starting Out in Hungary
Wherever your ancestors come from, the place to start work is Budapest. If you have no idea at all, this could be a problem. Countrywide Civil Registration of births, deaths and marriages began as late as October 1 1895, but there is no Hungarian equivalent of St Catherine's House. Each town has it's own Bureau of Matricals (Vital Statistics) and the records are kept there. They are called "ANYAKONYVI HIVATAL" and can normally be found in the Town Hall or Magistrates' Office - "POLGARMESTERI" HIVATAL in the town centre or at local centres. In Budapest the City Archives keep their returns, but they are not open to public access.

If you do know where your ancestors are from, the Churches may be able to help you. At this point you need to know their religious denomination as all cities and towns have both Roman Catholic and Calvinist (Protestant) Churches and Budapest and the larger cities (like the county capitals) also have Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches plus Jewish synagogues. But if you have begun with the Civil records - religions are listed in the Matricals and help solve this problem.

Parish Registers
On Castle Hill are the "ORSZAGOS LEVELTAR", the National Archives. Once back to before 1895, on the fourth floor are several rooms specially designated for those researching their ancestors.

In 1959 the Mormon Church was allowed to film many of the Parish registers and copies are deposited here, along with many reasonably up-to-date manual microfilm readers. Missing registers have since been filmed by the State using old Russian film stock (which means the first few frames of each film can contain some unexpected scenes!)

All these films have been listed on a series of alphabetically arranged books in the room, and most seem to date back to about 1700 - 1720, although a few date go to the 1630s. Only one member of staff speaks English however, and is only there half days. The Archives are open from 8 am to 7.30 pm and the staff changes twice daily (closed Saturdays and Sundays of course).

Duplicates of more recent matricals, from 1828 to 1895 for the Burgenland (now part of Austria), the Archbishopry of Kalocsa (now part of Yugoslavia - or more correctly Bosnia-Hertzigovia), Kolozsvár (in Rumania) and the Jewish records of Nagyvárad are also kept there.

Naive Art from the Kenderes Reformed Church Baptism Register of 1759 and the Marriage Register of 1757

Heraldry
Those interested in the origin and placement of family names should visit the small Library on the first floor. Könyutár Genealógial. Here you will find the Hungarian Genealogist's bible - IVAN NAGY's 'The Noble Families of Hungary, Their Coats of Arms and Generation Tables'. Arranged in several alphabetical volumes, this is a reprint of a book published in 1863 in Pest. Ask for Nagy Ivan, the staff will know what you mean. As accurate as any English heraldic book, you can sometimes find your family name here, especially if they were one of Hungary's many noble familiess. NOBILIS(Latin) or NEMES (Hungarian) is suffixed to them in the parish registers by the way - peasants are referred to as FOLDMIVES, ADOZO, COLONUS, NEMTELEN or PARASZT in Hungarian - when the village priest bothered to make a note.

Gazeteers
They are also some older (1890s) volumes of Gazeteers, descriptions of places in Hungary, but not every county was printed. Nagy tells us where the family originated from and then you can investigate the creation of these places. This does not always work of course, peasants in particular were mobile, when the work dried up in their area they moved. When Budapest was modernised and industrialised, many families came here, particularly from the 1870s to the 1890s.

Budapest
Budapest itself is quite a challenge to the researcher. Separated into 22 districts, each has its own Bureau of Matricals and each at least one Reformed and one Catholic Church. There are some general indices of Budapest on microfilm at the National Archives and they may be of help. Without any knowledge of the district your ancestors came from, or their religion, you could be in for a hard slog. Assuming you do not speak the language and do not have the time to spend your entire holiday in the National Archives, it is possible to hire someone to do the initial researchers for you. (Or even the whole thing if you cannot visit the country yourself.)

Assistance
A network of part time researchers has been set up under the name Hungarogens in Budapest. The address is H-1085, Budapest VIII, József krt. 50. Run by English speaking Dr Alexander Harmath, a 73 year old retired archivist, lawyer and musician, they can undertake the initial researches and assist during your visit if you wish, or do not speak Magyar.

Each of the counties of Hungary has a record office or archive of its own and the Hungarogens network stretches there also. In fact, writing direct to the National or County Archives is unlikely to yield results, as they do not all have researchers available on their staff.

As far as their prices go - I spent five days working with Dr Harmath for 10 - 1 o'clock each day and the total cost was 24,000 florins - about £200 or £10 an hour. This included translation of documents undertaken in his own time in the evenings. They now have an e-mail facility.

Missing Towns
The parts of Hungary that are now in Austria have archives of their own and their registers have also been filmed by the Mormons, but the Czech and Slovak Republics have not and as many of the old Hungarian towns have been renamed, going there independently is difficult, but not impossible. In some cases, the bigger Hungarian town registers in Slovakia have recently been filmed by the Hungarian Archive Service, so enquire there first.

Going back to the parish registers, from the 1800s onwards in many towns, each entry contains a house number column, headed HAZ SZA'M, and these can be found on town maps in the county archives (and sometimes in the town archives). Some may not have survived, is also pot-luck as too whether the original house has survived. In Pápa in County Veszprém (Western Hungary) I found four out of five of my ancestors' homes. The district containing the missing one has been completely demolished and replaced by 'modern' housing blocks.

Religion
The religious differences in Hungary also make an interesting subject. The Roman Catholics were dominant and only just tolerated Calvinism. Frequently when the Elders of the Protestant faith applied to build a church in their town or village, they were either refused or told to build away from the road, hidden from the eyes of passers-by. In Budapest itself, the initial Calvinist churches were built on the outskirts of the town, and the suburbs have grown to meet them, with the exception of the Calvinist Church in Calvin Square, the oldest.

The Calvinist Church in Calvin Square, Budapest

Status
You should also understand the set up of nobles and peasants. The original idea being that the nobles were knights who had given service to the king and consequently were land owners. The peasants were the workers. However, there were so many noble families in Hungary that, as they had larger and larger families, younger sons would become dispossessed and have to take up a trade in order to survive. Therefore emerged what could be described as a Hungarian middle class. There were of noble birth but had to work. This is the reason why Nemes or Peasant is frequently written in the parish registers, as those tradesmen of noble extraction were fiercely proud of their ancestors.

Overall, however, the Hungarian nobility only made up 5% of the total population, but held 90% of the country's wealth in their hands.

Censuses and Conscriptions
Besides the films of the parish registers another type of record available in the National Archives in Hungary are the various censuses. The first was made after the liberation of Hungary from the Turks. It was of the residents of Buda only and was taken in 1696 to see how many Hungarian families had survived the 150 year occupation. It was not until 1715 that a countrywide census was made, followed by two others in 1720 and 1728. The last one has not been kept in its entirety.

The next census happened in 1747, but this was an Ecclesiastical one. It is also almost complete, especially for the western counties of Hungary.

Jozsef II ordered another census made in 1784, but it was resisted by the nobility of Hungary, who did not wish to give personal details to a foreign monarch (Austrian - House of Hapsburg) and ultimately it was destroyed in parts and the records remaining are rather patchy.

Queen Marie-Teresa organised the next census in 1770. The purpose of this one was to check how many of the land owning nobles had made employment contracts with the peasants, these were called U'rbaria. The records are mainly concerned with the nobility, but also contain the names and services owed to their Lord by the peasants, the conditions of payment and the size of the estate.

There are also the CONSCRIPTION PORTARUM, listing estates, houses and peasants, including the size and the name of the owner. The CONSCRIPTION DECIMARUM, a list of bondsmen's services to their master, usually one tenth of their produce. The lists appear at regular intervals from about 1550. The Turks copied the process, producing the DEPHTER lists from about 1570 to 1650 during their occupation of the country.

Even further back there is the Pope's conscriptions, a list of taxes paid by the Church from their income. There are ten between 1233 and 1332, but mainly concern the Bishops of Hungary.

Ironically, the last of the old Hungarian censuses, made in 1828, contains everybody except the nobility. There are a few modern censuses for the country; all Jews were listed in 1848 and all the households in Budapest in 1857. Budapest was surveyed again on January 1 1941 in the early part of the Second World War. This last census can be found in the Budapest City Archives, rather than the National Archives.

Sadly, the modern censuses taken in this country from 1868, unlike the British ones, are classified by occupations and district and made for statistical purposes and archivical research and are therefore no use to the family historian, as family names are not given. Even statisticians have to wait for the results of the censuses as they are subject to secrecy rules.

This country is so different from Britain, that has never suffered an invasion since the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066. Hungary has been overrun a number of times, by the Mongols and the Turks in ancient times, then the Austrians and, in more recent times, both Germans and the Russians.

The greatest period of Hungarian history was the mediaeval period and since the invasion of the Turks in 1541, Hungary seems to have lost most of its battles and, consequently, their older records are patchy, destroyed, or totally missing.

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