Magyar News, 1993. szeptember-1994. augusztus (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1993-09-01 / 1. szám
OUR RELATIVE THE QUEEN Not long ago the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, visited Hungary and said that she was happy to see the land of one of her ancestors. Some of our readers were curious as to how we are related to the Royal Family, to the House of Windsor. So we did a little research. Here are a few facts. Perhaps if you dig deep enough you could come up with surprising things. As a matter of fact we Hungarians are used to surprises even if one doesn’t dig very deep. We all know that Hungarians did a lot of exciting things and also that they got into places one never would dream of. One of these places is the British Royal family. Queen Elizabeth II might be related to one of us. All you have to do is to research your family tree and you might come across some proof that you are in line—maybe at a very far end—to the British throne. Now here is the key. The last British King, William II died in 1921. One of his kinsmen Duke Alexander married the beautiful young Hungarian lady Claudine Rhédey—spelled with R H., and an accent on the E. Claudine was a commoner therefor they married morganetically. This meant that Claudine never gained the right to nobility nor the privileges that go with it, and also none of their descendents would become bearers of their fathers ’ rank and title. Without investigating the reasons we could accept the fact that their son One of Rev. Leila Havadtöy's students dressed up in traditional Székely folk-costume. She presented a gift to the Queen of England visiting Hungary. Francis became the Duke of Teck. Francis probably under his Hungarian mothers influence married an English princess, with this reestablishing the original status quo. One of their children, the little Mary took a great step—showing her Hungarian determination—and became Queen Mary of England, the grand daughter of a Hungarian commoner. Queen Mary was the grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, the present ruler of England. There is more Hungarian blood among the English. London County’s first governor was Pálfi esquire still retaining the accent on the Á. Or there was Lord Roll foreign minister who made no secret about being Hungarian duo. Both economists. Lord Káldor—also with an accent on the Á, was long time advisor to the British Government and energy minister in the Labor party’s government with prime minister Wilson. The other economist was Lord Thomas Balogh, or in Hungarian “Balogh Tamás ölordsága.” He also advised the British government. Once when he submitted a budget to the British Parliament the opposition stated that never in the history had England such a complicated, incomprehensible budget. Lord Thomas Balogh said that this format of the budget was quite clear, they should have read the original Hungarian version. You never know, do you? Maybe you should start checking on your ancestors and relatives. There might be a crown, or something, waiting for you. (C.MB.) REV. DR. ALEXANDER HAVADTÖY them, ground them down in somepapermill and made crude toiletpaper out of them. Because of the crude process, intact pieces of the original print showed up in the sheets. There was no question about these fragments coming from the Hungarian language, and there was no question about the many words that could only come from the Bible. There are many accomplishments of Dr. Havadtöy, worthy of mentioning, but we don’t have the possibilities of a book. So we just mention some of them. He was Super-Dr. Havadtöy among the members of the Kolozsvár Chorus. visor at Yale Divinity School for 25 years. He represented the town of Fairfield at her sister-city, Tatabánya, Hungary. He gave the main address at the Great Stadium in Budapest, during the World Reformed Conference. I would like to summarize his church activities by quoting part of the annual report he wrote. “When we arrived in Fairfield in May 1960, there was still an indebtedness on the church building in the amount of $ 16,000.00, which was a considerable sum in those days. We repaid the debt notes in a few years. The parsonage was purchased upon my arrival, with a down payment of $2,000.00, the only money that was available in the church. The mortgage was paid up on the parsonage in four years. In 1967 a beautiful family room and study was built to the parsonage and paid for with cash. For the Calvin Hall new tables, new chairs, new thermo windows, a new public address system were purchased, and the roof was replaced three times. I personally purchased with my own money the parking lot from the State of Connecticutand from neighbors, and passed it on to the church. The church building was equipped with a complete air-conditioning system and a new boiler. An electronic organ, two new pianos were purchased, and the sanctuary redecorated. We were able to accomplish all these works and additions through the Every Member Visitation program, which was introduced upon our arrival. The additions to the real estate value of the church amount to approximately $600,000.00. My offerings to the church amount to $21,005.23, most of it in good dollars. Besides my intensive pastoral work, we continued the activities in the traditional organizations, and reorganized the Vacation Bible School, the Choir, and established theNursery, the Calvin United Brotherhood and the Senior Citizens Club. During my thirty-three years of ministry, I never preached the same sermon twice in one language and tried very hard to preach the World of God according to the best and latest biblical scholarship. It has been a great joy and privilege for me to serve as your minister in the Calvin Church. The time for my departure has come. To all of you who have helped me and supported me faithfully in my pastorate, I express my sincere gratitude. May the Lord bless you individually, and allow our church to grow and prosper in the years to come.” To roll our thoughts back to the family traditions, I would like to congratulate Dr. Havadtöy’s daughter, Leila. Recently, both in Bridgeport and in Norwalk, the Hungarian Protestants had the privilege to attend some of their Sunday services with the Rev. Lt. J. G. Leila Havadtöy, Navy Chaplain, at the pulpit. Joseph F. Balogh 3
