Szirmay Gábor: Az ugocsai szirmai Szirmay család története (Régi magyar családok 7. Debrecen, 2007)
Abstract
Gábor Szirmay The History of the Szirmay Family of Szirma in Ugocsa After a previously published volume entitled The History of the Szirmay Family of Szirma and Szirmabesenyő issued in the series of Ancient Hungarian Families, the author has recently investigated the history of the Szirmay family of Szirma from Ugocsa. The common origin of the two Szirmay families - the Szirmay family of Szirma and Szirmabesenyő on the river Sajó from Borsod and Zemplén counties, and the Szirmay family of Szirma on the river Tisza from Ugocsa county - had been unknown before the works of the historian, Antal Szirmay of Szirma (1747-1812) were published. Moreover, experts on ancient genealogy definitely objected to the ambiguities arising from the identity of the name Szirmay, and accordingly, they emphasised the families' different origins. Antal first published his theory of "warrior Raak 'Crayfish'" at the beginning of the 1700s stating that the Szirmays both from Borsod and Ugocsa are the descendants of warrior Raak, hence, they have a common origin. He mentioned a charter of King Béla IV from 1264 as evidence, which certifies that warrior Raak was rewarded for his heroic behaviour in the battle at Muhi during the Mongol (Tartar) invasion. Antal supposed that since the Szirmays' coat of arms contains the shape of a crayfish, and since the wasteland Muhi beside the river Sajó is located in the neighbourhood of the village Szirma in Borsod county, the Szirmays could be the descendants of warrior Raak. Antal neglected the fact that the charter in question is not about the battle on the river Sajó, but about the battle at the Dalmatian coast. This is enough by itself to reject his theory about warrior Raak being the common ancestor of the Szirmays from Borsod and the Szirmays from Ugocsa, not to mention that the charter is also considered to be faked by historians. In the book written by Antal Szirmay mentioned above we can find several examples where he uses false arguments in order to prove his own theory; sometimes he does not even shrink from falsification. The family trees of the Szirmay family from Ugocsa published so far in the genealogical literature contain a lot of contradictions. Many of them consider warrior Raak to be the common ancestor of the Szirmay family from Borsod, Zemplén and the Szirmay family from Ugocsa. The author of the present book disproves Antal's theory, and on the basis of various documents he shows that the two Szirmay families have independent origins. It is a fact that the Szirmay family from Ugocsa - like the Szirmay family from Borsod, Zemplén- is an ancient Hungarian noble family with living members whose descent can be traced back to the 14 th century. The first charter, in which Szirmay (Zyrma-i) from Ugocsa presumably appears as a family name was issued in 1337, mentioning András's son Márton (Matinus de Zyrma ) and his brothers János and Miklós. From that year the name Szirmay from Ugocsa has frequently occurred in various charters.
