MAGYAR AMERICAN: HUNGARIAN URBARIUM 1767 : RELIGIOUS PRIESTS and NUNS in 1767 - FEW LANDOWNERS and OFF TO THE CONVENT Genealogy Tip # 8

Saturday, June 17, 2017

HUNGARIAN URBARIUM 1767 : RELIGIOUS PRIESTS and NUNS in 1767 - FEW LANDOWNERS and OFF TO THE CONVENT Genealogy Tip # 8

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.

So many CONVENTS, MONASTERIES, SEMINARIES, and ESTATES OWNED BY DIOCESE and HOLY ORDERS are evident on the 1767 URBARIUM - HUNGARY LANDHOLDER CENSUS. The Jesuits, the Paulines, the Benedictines...

Let me start with some Hungarian words translated so you'll be aware of what you're reading. I'm going to list these is a progression so you can see how the word meanings go. Sorry I don't have the keyboard to put in the pronunciation marks.

TELEK - property (not real estate or buildings or houses - usually means equipment such as farm equipment.)
CSALAD - family home or stead. (On census may imply it is owned rather than rented or is considered the family stead.)
SZELLER - cottar (implies rented building such as a tradesman's workshop or store. Note that I recently learned that Cottar indicates a house on a small plot of land only big enough for a family's own vegetable and herb garden.)
OHAZA - old country - home country
HAZA - house or home - HAZY - "house of" as in Eszterhazy "house of Eszter"
EGYHAZ - church
EGYHAZI - old church
EGYHAZATYA - church father
EGYHAZATYAK - church fathers
FOLD - land
EGYHAZI FOLDEK - church lands
EGYHAZI ANYAKONYV - church register (births, marriages, deaths)

TEMPLOM - best to think of this as a Spiritual Worship Center of any religion but in particular Jewish or Muslim.
APATSAG - abbey
KONVENT - convent
PALOS KONVENT - convent of the Pauline Holy Order
BENCES - Benedictine
BENCESREND - Benedictine Holy Order (Also called "Black Monks")
BENCESAPACA - Benedictine Nun
GROF - Count (GR is abbreviation)
GROFNE - Countess or Wife of the Count
BARO - Baron (BR is abbreviation)
BARANO - Baroness or Wife of Baron
BAROKISASSZONY - Unmarried daughter of a Baron
EMBER - person
FONTOS EMBER - important person
HELY - PLACE (geographic such as on map)
SZENT - Saint
TEMETKEZESI - burial place or grave
KAPOLNA - CHAPEL (sometimes indicates place for Baptism)
KAPTALAN - CHAPTER HOUSE (indicates place to pay taxes or make payments.)
(I will add to this list over time.)

*****
... So I want to write a bit about GOTHIC FICTION which I took a class on in college.. GOTHIC FICTION began with the REFORMATION. Novels featuring lusty and bloodthirsty sinning monastics, priests, and nuns were popular. These fictional characters had sex, got pregnant, murdered people, were sadistic or mean.

You could say that these novels were media and they were a lot like FAKE NEWS today, in the case of GOTHIC FICTION intended to promote Protestantism. We know about them because so many were printed (the printing press having been invented and used primarily for printing Bibles) that some of these novels still exist in archives! Were they based on true stories? It's always possible some were but we don't really know for sure. Today GOTHIC FICTION is written by authors such as Anne Rice, who wrote pornography featuring castles and nobles and virgins and horses under a different name... but who is better known for her VAMPIRE novels, such as "Interview With A Vampire," which was made into a film. (In her book "Interview With A Vampire" her characters search the world for others like them and stop in Central Europe where they are surprised to learn that People Actually Believe They Exist.) To be literary about her work, Rice is writing about Power being played out, about people who when told to jump say, "How high?" Rice has been known to have a personal struggle with Catholicism.

So now I want to write about the opportunities that women had back in the Medieval period, back in the mid 18th century when the Urbarium of 1767 took place. We see that there are many places in the counties where there are parishes, churches, temples, retreat houses - and islands!, monasteries, schools, and convents. Most women had two choices, to be a wife and mother or dedicate her life to God or Jesus in a Holy Order. But convents were more like old YMCA with it's inexpensive rooms for women who wanted to get way and go somewhere to grieve their widowhood, preserve their virginity until a marriage contract could be discussed, or hide away to heal a heart break and preserve or renew their reputation.

Some convents were boarding schools, and some took in orphaned girls. (When the fashion designer CoCo Channel was a girl in France and their mother died, her father took her and her sister to a convent and then deserted them there.) So you see, there was much to learn besides prayers and needlepoint at the convent. Wealthy and noble women were often taught to read and do the math they would need to run large estates at the convent while their husbands went visiting or off to politics or battles. And on the URBARIUM YOU WILL SEE QUITE A FEW WOMEN WHO ARE COUNTESSES or BARONESSES WHO ARE WIDOWED, and we can assume running the estates they have inherited, at least temporarily, until a son comes of age, the estate is lost in debt, or THEY REMARRY.

YOU WILL ALSO SEE A FEW UNMARRIED DAUGHTERS OF COUNTS WHO HAVE LAND OF THEIR OWN. A WOMAN WITH LAND IS A WOMAN WITH A DOWRY, a desirable marital partner.

(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.)

This post is part of a series. To print up all posts, click on the tag Pro tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium