Szirmay Gábor: A szirmai és szirmabesnyői Szirmay család története (Régi magyar családok 4. Debrecen, 2005)

Abstract

Gábor Szirmay The History of the Szirmay Family of Szirma and Szirmabesenyő The Szirmay family is one of the oldest of Hungarian families. Several volumes and individual writings on geneology discuss or mention this fact. The majority of the authors of studies in genealogy have used, and continue to use, the collection of historian and genealogist Iván Nagy as the basic point of departure for their research. Nagy's book, Magyarország családai czímerekkel és nemzedékrendi táblákkal [The Families of Hungary with their Coats of Arms and Genealogical Tables], was published between 1857 and 1868, and is widely regarded as a seminal work in the relevant literature. Iván Nagy writes the following in his genealogical collection: The Szirmay family is an ancient, noble Hungarian family from Borsod and Ugocsa counties. Its first known strain started with a valorous man called Raak, who fell in 1241 in the battle against the Tartars at the river Sajó, as he was defending the king together with 38 of his kinsfolk. Among his two grandsons, János founded the settlement of Szirma in Borsod County in 1260, and he represents the Borsod strain of the family. Miklós, the son of his other grandson, István, founded another settlement by the same name around 1300 in Ugocsa County, and he represents the Ugocsa strain of the family. This is how the ancient race of the Szirmays would split into two parts. At the end of the 1800s, several genealogists (including Dr. András Komáromy and Dr. Ede Reiszig) questioned the validity of kinship between the two Szirmay branches and they considered it but a fabrication by historian Antal Szirmay (1747-1812). The matter of veritable kinship or the lack of it has not been settled to this very day. In scholarly papers and the relevant reference books, both the acknowledgement and the dismissal of the two theories seem to appear alternately. The assumption of a relationship has been admitted, or sometimes rejected, even by the members of the Borsod branch of the Szirmays in a less than unanimous fashion during the course of history. In the present volume, one can find arguments both for and against the justifiability of consanguinity between the two branches, as well as a separate viewpoint from the author. While this latter one discredits the issue of kinship, the question remains open to debate. The ancient ancestry of the family, no matter whether we trace it back to Raak or János, i.e. to 1241 or 1260 respectively, may not be disputed however, even if the authenticity of individual documents is regarded questionable. In fact, the continuity of the lineage of the two branches to the present day is confirmed by numerous authentic documents and historical records. Although the present volume focuses on the history of the Szirmay family of Szirma and Szirmabesenyő in Borsod County, for the sake of integrity, it also contains the