Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 10. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1995)

NAGY GÉZA: Adatok Karosa településtörténetéhez

ADDITIONAL DATA TO THE LOCAL HISTORY OF KARC SA In the course of research into local history the population changes of a settlement, or part of it, in the process of time, are seldom accorded sufficient attention. The intensity of such changes will differ widely during the history of the given settlement. There may be long periods with only natural, biological exchanges of population and times when whole families remove, die out and are replaced by new ones. From this point of view population moves in the 20th century are as especially worthy of attention. The village of Karcsa lies in the Bodrogköz, a marshy area, more or less closed off the outside world for centuries, in the northeastern part of Hungary. Its history can be followed from the Middle Ages. Romanesque Karcsa church, whose sanctuary is an earlier rotunda, is an outstanding historic monument of the country. The village is one of the best researched settlements of the Bodrogköz in respect of both local history and ethnography. Considerable volumes of material have been published e. g. of its tales and legends. We know the geographical names, family names and sobriquets, and lots of other important information about the past and present of Karcsa and its inhabitants. To this body of knowledge is added the paper that follows the population changes in today's Táncsics Street of the village. This is the oldest part of the settlement, hence its local name: Ócskafalu (old village). 100 or 150 years ago 80 to 90% of the inhabitants lived here, so actually this was the whole village. By now the population of Ócskafalu has considerably decreased. In 1986 142 people lived here in 42 flats. 50 years ago there were 89 homes in this part of Karcsa. inhabited by 467 persons altogether. The cause of this populousness was that, before the area was properly protected against floods, villagers had to huddle together on a narrow sand ridge. Expansion was only possible after the drainage of marshes at the end of the 19th century. Earlier it was general to have more than one dwelling house within one courtyard and for more than one family to live in one building. The most populous structure accommodated eleven, only partly related families. The paper describes this state of Ocskafalu prevailing directly before its disintegration in 1938, and compares it with the 1986 situation. Changes are carefully followed on every plot and in every family. The reader is shown how these courtyard and family communities dissolved and what the directions of migration were from here within the village and the country as a result of which the number of flats decreased to 47 and the population to 30% of its level half a century ago.