William Penn Life, 2009 (44. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2009-10-01 / 10. szám
Finding my family in Hungary While traveling with the WPA, one man makes his own journey of discovery by Edward Bonk Finding my family in Hungary was the culmination of a journey that took exactly 20 years this past August. It started when my maternal grandfather, Michael (Mihály) Toth, born in Sopron, Hungary, died April 13,1989, in Scranton, Pa. I was fortunate to have grown up with my maternal grandparents, living in the downstairs apartment of my parents home. My grandfather and I were very close, and I have many fond memories of being his helper on home projects and his companion on many exciting hunting and fishing expeditions. When he died, the most important document I inherited was the naturalization document of his father, István Toth. I knew from family history that István was a Huszar, but little else. At about that time I developed an interest in family history and, with the information from István Toth's naturalization document, was able to write to the national archives in Philadelphia for a copy of his petition for naturalization. From the petition, I learned that he was born in 1874 in Jobahaza, Hungary, and came to America (Scranton, Pa.) in February 1908 from the nearby village of Veszkeny. It was not until five years after coming to America, in February 1913, that Istvan's wife Marcella and their five children—daughters Anna, Rose and Margaret and sons Stephan and Michael-joined him in America. (They had another son, Emory, born in America. When the immigration records from Ellis Island became available on the Internet in 2001,1 discovered that István came to America with a young man from Jobahaza named Vineze Toth, who was 17 years of age. I asked family members if they knew who Vineze was, but no one could During his trip to Hungary with the WPA this summer, Edward Bonk (pictured above, third from left) met distant relatives who are descendants of Vineze Toth, the brother of Edward’s great-grandfather. Pictured are (l-r) Vineze Toth’s son Erno, Erno’s sister Anna Nemeth, Mr. Bonk, Anna’s daughter, Vineze Toth’s son Géza and Anna’s son Nándor. 4 William Penn Life, October 2009
