Pro Tips - Hungarian Nobility in the Family
NOTE SEPTEMBER 2022. I've checked the internet for Hungary Exchange and it does not seem to be up or operational. I have a series of Pro Genealogy Tips here at MAGYAR-AMERICAN BLOGSPOT that may be helpful to you, and you can bring it up using the tag/label above. Click on it and it should bring up the series on Nobility.
I also feature a good number of other Genealogy Tip series here. As well there are many useful links on the sidebar if you're interested in working on your personal research.
C 2022 Magyar American BlogSpot.
HERE IS THE ORIGINAL POST FOR THE DATE 7/15/2014
NOTE MAY 2022 TRYING THIS LINK https://www.ongenealogy.com/listings/hungary-exchange/
and this http://nickmgombash.blogspot.com/
This is a very cool database because just about everything you're looking for to verify nobility of an ancestor is completely in Hungarian but this one first breaks the searching into English for the Counties and the English Alphabet. I've linked to Zemplen County Nobility which I believe I may link to based on surnames. No, nowhere near proving any of this, but a naturalization record just proofed that an ancestor was born in Geres. There was Big (Nagy) Geres and Little (Kis) Geres, both about the same on today's map of Slovakia with a name change.
The changing borders of central and eastern Europe, multiple ethnicity and religions long in place before emigration to other countries, and the use of Latin, Hungarian, Slovak, Ruthenian, and German, as well as abbreviations and usage of words no longer used and slang can make genealogy research for your Hungarian ancestors especially challenging. One notation I gave to several Hungarians, both tourists and people who had left there after WWI and in 1956 turned out to be entirely abbreviated. No one could crack it, no dictionary I could use helped, until an expert at the Salt Lake City, LDS Family History library did.
(Take if from me. American Genealogy is easy in comparison.)
Picture below is from Hungary Exchange database, name chosen at random and appears to be written in Latin.
Anyway, look to see if your surname is in place from the county you know the emigration took place from first, then other localities. Even if you can't make a claim to nobility, it's fun.
One of the reasons genealogists look for nobility in a family tree is because only nobility is documented past say, 1711, when you'll see that the Hapsburgs are ruling and ordering the churches to keep records, even in some places for people who are not of the religion keeping the records. But if you can go back to 1711 as an American today you're doing really well.
https://www.hungaryexchange.com/ UPDATED LINK JUNE 2018
This is a very cool database because just about everything you're looking for to verify nobility of an ancestor is completely in Hungarian but this one first breaks the searching into English for the Counties and the English Alphabet. I've linked to Zemplen County Nobility which I believe I may link to based on surnames. No, nowhere near proving any of this, but a naturalization record just proofed that an ancestor was born in Geres. There was Big (Nagy) Geres and Little (Kis) Geres, both about the same on today's map of Slovakia with a name change.
The changing borders of central and eastern Europe, multiple ethnicity and religions long in place before emigration to other countries, and the use of Latin, Hungarian, Slovak, Ruthenian, and German, as well as abbreviations and usage of words no longer used and slang can make genealogy research for your Hungarian ancestors especially challenging. One notation I gave to several Hungarians, both tourists and people who had left there after WWI and in 1956 turned out to be entirely abbreviated. No one could crack it, no dictionary I could use helped, until an expert at the Salt Lake City, LDS Family History library did.
(Take if from me. American Genealogy is easy in comparison.)
Picture below is from Hungary Exchange database, name chosen at random and appears to be written in Latin.
Anyway, look to see if your surname is in place from the county you know the emigration took place from first, then other localities. Even if you can't make a claim to nobility, it's fun.
One of the reasons genealogists look for nobility in a family tree is because only nobility is documented past say, 1711, when you'll see that the Hapsburgs are ruling and ordering the churches to keep records, even in some places for people who are not of the religion keeping the records. But if you can go back to 1711 as an American today you're doing really well.
https://www.hungaryexchange.com/ UPDATED LINK JUNE 2018
UPDATE APRIL 2023 Here is a list of Hungarian Noble Surnames from PURDUE LIBRARY PURDUE LIBRARY DOCS : DOWNLOADABLE LIST OF HUNGARIAN NOBLE SURNAMES
