Magyar News, 2003. szeptember-2004. augusztus (14. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2004-05-01 / 9. szám
Finding Your Hungarian Roots Searching from the attics to the Intemet/Part Two By Bob Krányik and Margaret Molnár The Electronic Highway The internet is an extremely important resource for finding your Hungarian ancestors, or any ancestors, for that matter. Two of the most productive sites are the Ellis Island site and the National Archives (N) site. Another is the Mormon Church site, which can help access the vast microfilm library of church records across the world. There are several helpful private sites such as János Bogárdi (Radix) and Genealogy.com. The nation of Hungary also offers a variety of public, private, and academic sources. There is so much available that space does not permit all to be mentioned, but we will describe a few of the important ones below. American Family Immigration Center This site at www.ellisisland.org accesses many of the records of immigrants who passed through New York City between 1892 and 1924. It can provide valuable information regarding the date of immigration, the ship on which the individual traveled, and a lot more if the shipping manifest is consulted. This can tell you about whether or not your ancestor was literate, his place of origin, occupation, and his contact person and address in the U.S. You can print out the search pages for your records, and enlarge the shipping manifest, for easier reading. When using the Ellis Island site, it helps to start with some important basics such as the correct spelling of names and places of origin. Although the program will conduct a search which will take into account a variety of spellings, bear in mind that the original records were written by Americans who did not understand Hungarian, and some of whom may not have been particularly attuned to writing down the correct spelling of often complex or strange Hungarian names. Balázs -Bailiss, Balias, Baylis. In addition, there were many names which were quite common, and often the only way to find your ancestor is if you know where the person originated. For example, the name Nagy, Ferenc might generate dozens of records, and the only way you can be reasonably sure you have the correct one is if you know the town or village of origin and possibly some idea of the date of arrival. Bob: I was disappointed that I could not find a record of the arrival of my paternal grandmother. However, I was able to find a cousin of hers whose name was on the shipping manifest. As I read the line referring to this cousin, I was surprised to find that her contact in the United States was Agnes Tóbis, her cousin, in Passaic, New Jersey. Agnes was my grandmother whom I was researching. Although I have yet to find her in the Ellis Island records, I now know that she was here in 1902! Margaret: With my Grandpa Molnár's naturalization papers in hand, it was easy to find him amongst the numerous Sándors on the ellisisland.org website. I have also now found my Grandma Molnár (nee Megyesi). Some of my mother's family came as early as the 1880s, prior to the opening of Ellis Island in 1892, and it is more difficult to find information about these passages. The National Archives of Hungary (Magyar Országos Levéltár) This site can be found at www.hatarch.hu. It is a very valuable source. The site may be reached On the flap of an old letter sent in 1915, one could find an address that makes it possible to locate the place of a relative by email at mail@natarch.hu or by snail mail at Postafiok 3, 1250 Budapest. Regional Archives include: Borsod- Abauj-Zemplén, (Miskolc); Szabolcs- Szatmár-Bereg, (Nyiregháza); Györ- Moson-Sopron, (Győr). Bob: Through the official archivist (Géza László) in Szabolcs-Szatmár- Bereg, I was able to obtain confirmation that my paternal grandfather, Imre Krajnyik, was bom in Gáva, Szabolcs. The archivist was nice to send me a document showing the church birth record, which included the names of Grandfather Imre's Godparents! Mormon Sources The Mormon Church is a major source of genealogical information from across the globe. For many years Church members have engaged in accumulating records in many countries, including records of other religious groups. These records have been transferred to microfilm and may be obtained through the Mormon Church in your area for a modest fee. By entering the Mormon website at www.familysearch.com, it is possible to identify the particular church or census microfilms covering the geographic area in which you are interested. These microfilms can then be ordered through the local Mormon Family History Library. They will notify you when the microfilms have arrived, and you may then visit the Library and review the microfilms using a film reader. However, be prepared for some tough slogging. Many of the records are in Latin, and still others, in Hungarian. The hand writing is often difficult to read, and some of the records contain ink spills or even bum holes. To help you negotiate your way through the microfilms, the Family History Library makes available genealogical word lists in Latin and other languages. You can also search for possible ancestors by surname on the website itself. Margaret: One of the challenges of using the Mormon microfilm is that the script is so ornate. I found myself spending several hours at the history center in Westlake, Ohio just staring at the film trying to decipher the initial letters in the alphabetical listings of ship passengers. On another occasion I completely missed my ancestral village of Vaján which was at the tail end of film, and I had to make a second trip to Sandusky, Ohio to view the last few inches of film when I realized what had happened. Bob: I was able to scan two important records - the 1828 Ung County Census and that of Borsod County, but with relatively little success because I could not connect Page 4
