Tuesday, January 31, 2017

BANNING CITIZENS OF CERTAIN OTHER COUNTRIES FROM COMING TO THE US? NOTHING NEW

Over the last few days, as President Donald Trump attempts to fulfill his campaign promises, I've engaged in conversations with people from a number of different heritage backgrounds and political viewpoints, including some Moslem- American men who said to me, "Obama did more to get rid of Moslems than Trump ever will!"  I have a very politically correct friend who once was studying to be a Catholic priests who is sending me a lot of anti-Trump and pro-immigration articles. 

THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN TELLING THEM.

Banning people from certain countries from immigrating, or stopping people of certain ethnic backgrounds as suspicious by possible association is NOTHING NEW in the history of the United States.  Consider the story of the Hungarians who came to the United States before World War I.  My Hungarian ancestor was certain that once he left Hungary he was not going back to work there.  Certain also that he and his sons would have to leave agricultural work and prepare for industry or have skills, he is said to have had the foresight to provide them some education prior to immigration.  They sacrificed, sold everything, worked long and hard, and had to give up on any notions they long held on to about coming from nobility or working for nobility. 

My ancestor wasted no time once he got to the United States in declaring his intent to become a citizen. He was already in midlife, had seen the death of his first wife, had remarried, and was the father of many children. After five years of working at any kind of work he could get, while not a citizen, becoming a member of a church and community, making friends and networking as much as he could, and staying in the same town (where he and his sons advertised their desire for work in the gazetteer), he wasted no time in filing for his second papers.  Seven years after arriving in the U.S., give or take a few months, he was declared a citizen.  His wife and minor children also became citizens so they did not have to apply when they became 18.  His older children who immigrated did their own citizenship the same way.  Luckily, all well before World War I broke out in Europe.


Many Hungarians did not really want to give up on Hungary or could not because of family farms and other obligations there, and they went back and forth, earning income here, becoming seasonal workers, often spending summers there working the land.  Those who did not become citizens because they felt unsure, found themselves in "the pickle" when this World War broke out.  THE UNITED STATES SUSPENDED ALL REQUESTS FOR CITIZENSHIP considering Hungarians, and many other ethnic groups from various countries to be, potentially, consorting with the enemy.  If you look at newspapers from that era of immigration, the war, and afterwards, you will find these people referred to as "foreigners."  You will see headlines also and lists, naming the "foreigners" who had completed their citizenship.

Without any of the methods we have today, our government could not so easily look into each and every individual's worthiness or desire to be considered exceptional.  Today the large numbers of people seeing citizenship or entering and remaining in the United States to work makes it difficult even with these methods, which are also thought to be privacy invading.

Although the way the Executive Order has been played out isn't good, and clearly the ways and means needed to be directed in more detail, for instance that those already here with Green Cards and incoming, should be allowed in, though personally I think a brief discussion with each person by immigration as they come in again is hardly discrimination or harassment, and the news services are having a lot of business detailing each case, the fact is my most politically correct friends keep welcoming immigrants and talking against discrimination, but have never been gang raped, had their daughter's sex trafficked, witnessed horrific atrocities, and have no fear of being ROUNDED UP BY ISIS, lined up and shot in the head or beheaded.  I dare say that EUROPE, where wars have been played out and where terrorism has been much worse than events, other than 9/11 here which did have a terrible effect on American Moral, have played out, ARE NOT THAT CONFIDENT.  My politically correct friends are NOT AFRAID. 

WHY NOT?

BECAUSE THEY ARE USED TO AND EXPECT our GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT US, the citizens! 

Some of these people are also ANTI GUN/WEAPONRY.  They do not think they need to protect themselves from a more personal situation they might encounter in their lives. 

THAT IS PRIVILEGE!  


I sometimes wish they had, as I have, gone to hear people who lived through the Nazi concentration camps speak.  It happened fast.  People didn't believe the rumors.  Vast numbers were rounded up and taken to their deaths.

That is why my position is in the middle.  WE DO NEED OUR GOVERNMENT'S PROTECTION.  WE DO NEED TO ACCEPT THAT THIS IS SO.  We are dependent on our spy agencies and our military and our police to keep us safe, especially when we refuse to own or use guns or other weapons ourselves.  And, we do need to honor citizens first, and those who obeyed our immigration laws to enter our country next.  Illegal immigrants are always taking their chances, but want to think it is unfair if they get caught.  How do you get caught?  By being criminal!

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Friday, January 27, 2017

HUNGARIAN UBARIUM 1767 : WOMEN - WIDOW PROPERTY OWNERS! Genealogy Tip #2

Please read updates as of June 2019. This post is popular and has been edited to include more information for genealogy and family history writers.

HUNGARICANA URBARIUM 1767


Besides the names of wealthy and noble COUNTS (GR. Graf or Grof) that you'll see on the Urbarium of 1767, you will see that YES, there ARE WOMEN WHO ARE OWNING PROPERTIES. Most of them listed are clearly widows.  Yet the term Grafne, Countess, is not used but implied if the GR is used for the husband. (Ne is the Hungarian suffix to a surname that indicates the woman is married and to whom.)


EXAMPLE:

TURANSZKY LASZLONE OZV.  (See (village) Imreg in Zemplen county)

This translates to the widow of Laszlo Turanszky (and she sure does have a lot of property in many named places!)  (OZV is the abbreviation for widow frequently seen in other historical records.)

EXAMPLE:

NAGY JANOSNE HARTVIK ROZALIA  (See village Toszeg in  County of Pest-Pilis-Solt)
This translates to Roszalia Hartvik widow of Janos Nagy, and I think her full birth name is included because the name JOHN BIG/GREAT is so EXTREMELY COMMON. Notice that she is likely Slovak and he is Hungarian, and neither are considered nobility.

How do you know if the named place is a town, village, or farmland? Well, you will want to read the details, but a clue that it's farmland only - A FIELD, is that it has no HAZATLAN on it owned by the property owner/administrator. HAZ means house, but the word HAZATLAN means buildings.  You can't even say dwelling, as it could be a tool shed or a barn. The workers may live elsewhere, in huts, sleep in fields, or the owner of the land might have a fine house not too far away in a cluster of houses - a village or town. (Wealthy property owners may also live in town but have overseers at their country properties.)

EXAMPLE:

LELESZI PREMONTREI PREPOSTAGE  (See village Lelesz in County Zemplen)
This translates purely to the PROVOST is the administrator for the property, like the landlord has hired a management company and is absentee. Although the word Provost in English is most associated with an educational institution or sometimes a religious one, in this case think administrator or property manager!

EXAMPLE : KIRALYI KAMARA. (Seen in many locations)

This sounds like the property is owned by a King, right? But in Hungarian a Kirayi Kamaras translates to Groom, or lord of the bedchamber, so likely the census taker talked to someone in the position of being a servant to the owner, rather than the administrator PREPOSTAGE above. (Think houseboy!)  In other words the person who answered the door. Ah well, neighbors reported on neighbors on the USA 1940 Federal Census too, so even Queen Marie Theresa's census takers didn't always find a home/palace owner home!

(To get to all the posts/genealogy tips regarding the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF HUNGARY/ Hungaricana's URBARIUM 1767 you can search this BLOG by looking through my archives, through searching for the word URBARIUM using the Google Search Feature embedded in the blog, or by clicking on the link at the bottom of the post.)

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All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
This post is part of a series.  To print up all posts, click on the tag Pro tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium

Monday, January 23, 2017

HUNGARICANA URBARIUM 1767 : Genealogy Tip #1

Please read updates as of June 2019. These posts are popular and have been edited to include more information for genealogy and family history writers.

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES - HUNGARICANA - URBARARIUM 1767 (MARIA THERESA CENSUS)   Link Updated Dec 2023

I'll be posting on the usefulness of this database which is free and from the National Archives of Hungary over the next couple months so follow along with me if you like.


Background: Queen Maria Theresa, ruler of the Austrian Empire of which Hungary was a part at the time, ordered a special census to take stock of the peasantry in feudal times. Who was the landowner? (Usually a wealthy noble or baron.) How many tools did each person listed own? (A tool would include a hoe.) How many buildings? How many people paid to farm their land or rented a dwelling? How big is the plot of land? How is it divided?


It's been raining often and hard here in Southern California, and so I spent several days reading, not the entire census, but the front pages of the books that have been archived.   As I post this, I have completed several counties, including Abauj, Zemplen, Torna, Pest-Pilis-Zolt, Gomor, and others. The database will bring up the names of the owners of the properties, or the name of the person who is administrating that property. Within the database is the option to have the Hungarian indexes translated into English.

You will see a list of people who are considered "perpetual," residents, others who are tenants renting land or buildings or space for a business. You'll see lists of people who are serfs, thus providing some of their output to the landowner in exchange for living there. There may also be a listing of slaves. (Serfs were not considered to be slaves - more on slaves another time.) 

For genealogy and family history purposes, let's say you are trying to go back past 1800, past 1767.  You can find the village on the Urbarium that your people lived in when they were baptized or where you found family in the 1800 era and see if you also find the surname in the same place. Or you might go from the Urbarium forward to the baptismal records.


Go to the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF HUNGARY site, the link in yellow above. You'll see images of books from the census.  They are very old, very aged inside, with browned ink. The covers seem to be designed in a fashion that reminds me of someone using their finger or another implement to drag some pigment around in interesting patterns. Some seem to have a more Italianate method of design.

I don't usually recommend that you collect all the information you can find on a surname unless it is an unusual surname.  However, in my case, the surname that I've been following is unusual because I believe from scanning Hungaricana that there are records of the name from the 1200's and 1300's, but I believe that it's currently almost extinct.  

What I see on the URBARIUM 1767 is that people with noble or unusual surnames on this census seem to have property in MANY counties.  Not all are noble, but I'll post on that another time.

If you know a little about the history of Hungary, you know that there were some vast estates or properties and you probably know the names of some of the families that owned these properties. What you may not know is that some of the families owned properties well beyond the place you might think of as their origin or stead. That's something I've been reminded of as I see the same names in so many locations. (An easy example is the common surname Liptak.  Liptaks are everywhere, not just the county of Lipto! The name, by the way, is supposed to translate to Phillip, like Phillip in the Bible.)

How could this be so?

There are a number of reasons which include inheritance, marriage, death, distribution of lands to heirs and for dowries, as well as diversifying investments! Or the property was given to the person through the grace and favor of a King or other person in charge, such as a land Baron. Repeatedly I have found places that have names exactly or close to the surname without finding anyone with that surname living there in 1767. (Due to the extensive travel needed to do this census and nature of this census, note that some portions were recorded years past 1767. I have also heard that there are some parts written on in 1848 but have not personally seen those yet.)

So, go to any county and any town you have an ancestor from, not necessarily looking for them, but just to get there on this database. Then take a look at the cover art and start clicking on the images of handwritten notes that detail the information under each surname or property owner/administrator, and see what's there.

I'm suggesting that you look in the URBARIUM 1767 at the listing for town BUSOC in county of SZEPES because the handwriting is so beautifully clear as a first experience.

It's thrilling!

Please note that the handwritten portions are most often in Latin and/or Hungarian and there is also a PRESS PRINTED section that is consistent for each page.

Thank you National Archives of Hungary


(To get to all the posts/genealogy tips regarding the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF HUNGARY/ Hungaricana's URBARIUM 1767 you can search this BLOG by looking through my archives, through searching for the word URBARIUM using the Google Search Feature embedded in the blog, or by clicking on the link at the bottom of the post.)

C 2017 Magyar-American BlogSpot
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
This post is part of a series. To print up all posts, click on the tag Pro tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium

Saturday, January 14, 2017

HUNGARIAN HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN STEREOTYPE : INSECURE and ALWAYS TRYING TO PROVE YOUR PEOPLE ARE INTELLIGENT!


I've known people like this, so I started thinking about their ethnicity.  This is my no means a poll, but most of the braggarts I've met were Jewish.  "So and So does This and That - Very Successful!"  I've heard that one a lot.  It makes me feel sorry for the Jewish person who is NOT successful in a worldly way.

A free weekly magazine called The Jewish Journal that is available for the taking in libraries and around town dedicates a space to all the Jewish people of accomplishment in history, to stroke ethnic- religious pride. It's paid-for advertising.

However, I've heard that Hungarians of every religious type bring up famous scientists and inventors in particular, to prove that they have their geniuses as a way of letting other people know they should not dismiss their own intelligence.  Defensiveness mixed with ethnic pride!

I do tend to think of braggarts as insecure, and maybe Hungary, being a country that is more like David than the Giant Goliath of the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, has more to prove.
So far I have not encountered Hungarian braggarts here in the United States!


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Friday, January 6, 2017

EASTERN CHRISTMAS - THE MAGI GIFT THE BABE

All around Los Angeles, people from Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine,  and Armenia, of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity, are celebrating Christmas today, known as Three Kings in Roman Catholicism.  So the libraries in some areas still have their Christmas decorations up and decorative outdoor lights are up and lit every night on some of the houses in my area.


It's also dreary, cloudy, cold, and rainy, and so these lights are cheering to see.



Wednesday, January 4, 2017