Jósa Miklós - Ulrich Attila: A németszőgyéni és bánházi Jósa család története (Régi magyar családok 3. Debrecen, 2005)

Summary

We have checked out al available sources of information, and eventually we managed to come to a conclusion with high probability. Some of these sources were very assuring, some others confusing us further. This part of our research makes us call every geneologist's attention to the fact that many sources do not depict branches that are believed extinct correctly. We have found proof to that in three seperate cases during our search. First with the lineage of the Jósa de Savoly family, second with the ancestors of the Jósa de Nagybánya family, and third with the descendants of Mihály Jósa de Németszögyén. Dear reader, you can certainly find answers to all these questions in our book. The 19

th century has left us without resources. In that century all members of the family lived their lives uneventfully. Neither their financial positions held at the estates of certain aristocratic families, nor their marriages or deeds put their names on the pages of history. These people were then first raised from the shadow of oblivion to bright light by György Jósa who launched a vast, time consuming and rather costly undertaking of geneological research, and after having devoted 25 years of his life to it he deposited the entire collection in the Hungarian National Archive in 1934. As we wrote it earlies, to the greatest misfortune and sorrow of the family, the entire collection perished in a devastating fire caused by allied bombings that hit the Hungarian National Archive in 1945. One of the two branches of the family survived World War II. without casualties and much decline in its economic status, while the life of the other got totally upset by loosing the head of the family and facing sudden impoverishment accompanied by social obstacles (noble ancestry under a communist regime). Due to arduous work and talent they worked their way up and can bravely face challanges of today's world. We have chosen to depict the 20

lh century history of the family based on the memoirs of living members, because their first hand experiences and authentic recalls can paint the most lively and vivid picture of their everyday lives. We especially thank Dr. Jenő Jósa, who helped us not only by putting