Szirmay Gábor: Az ugocsai szirmai Szirmay család története (Régi magyar családok 7. Debrecen, 2007)

Abstract

In the historical area of Hungary there were two villages named Szirma, one of these being located in Borsod, the other in Ugocsa county. The village in Ugocsa is on the river Tisza. The name Szirma first appeared in a charter in 1251, in which Mylete and Farkas dictus Hadnagh divided the village into two parts. A charter from 1433 traced back the descent of the Szirmays from Ugocsa to Mylete through eight generations. King Matthias issued a donatios letter in 1469, in which he ceded the lands of Zyrma to the Szirmays; however, the ancestors of the Szirmays had already possessed these estates. The Szirmay family from Ugocsa was involved in a lawsuit in the Court of Appeal with the Szirmay Kalos family from 1733 to 1767. More specifically, this was a genealogical case on obtaining and possessing properties. The Szirmays - György Szirmay (+1765) - doubted the common origin of the two families, but the court refused the case. The author analyzes the documents of the suit in question in detail, presenting those documents and charters on the basis of which the court came to the decision that the two families have a common origin. The present volume includes nine genealogical boards of the Szirmay family from Ugocsa with 350 known members. Out of these, 49 living members belong to the families Szirmay of Szirma from Ugocsa and Szirmay Kalos of Szirma; they currently live in Hungary or over the borders, in Europe and America. In the case of the Szirmay family from Ugocsa no information is available about the use of the Szirmay coat of arms until 1723. No buildings or tombs on which the coat of arms with a crayfish appears had survived from earlier times. Written documents containing the crayfish stamp originating before 1723, when the coat of arms was renewed, have not been found, either. Moreover, many stamps belonging to the Szirmay family from Ugocsa have a different coat of arms. György Szirmay from Ugocsa made a petition to the Chancellery in 1723. In his petition he stated that the Tartar invaders laid their hands on the family archives, and even the letter patent of nobility, which was conferred by King Louis the Great, was lost. Therefore, he applied for the renewal of their ancient coat of arms and for the reinforcement of their ancient nobility. Károly III reinforced the ancient nobility of György and his family in a charter issued on 9 June, 1723 and by this measure entitled him to use the ancient coat of arms of the Szirmay family. The shape of escutcheon György Szirmay had applied for is the same as the coat of arms of the Szirmay family from Borsod including the shape of a crayfish, which was conferred by King Zsigmond in i4i7.The only difference is that in the case of the Szirmay family from Borsod the shape of the escutcheon is slanted, while in the case of the Szirmay family from Ugocsa it has an upright position. The present book deals with the family's devotion to culture in a separate chapter. Ranks and titles found in various documents show that members of the family were concerned not only with the financial affairs of the lands and properties, but - being well-educated - they were successful in intellectual occupations as well. The life work of the historian Antal Szirmay mentioned above, which includes twenty published volumes