I came back from two days of travel exhausted and lay in bed with my cell phone, using the National Archives of Hungary to scan through the Urbarium 1767, the census of landholders and their properties. (Hungaricana site has the databases.) I had unearthened some family charts that I'd constructed over a decade ago that had two features, first the testimony from a relative written in a letter that I used to make a chart. Reading it over, I was now cognitive of the errors, coming from inaccurate memory of my first informant but also misspellings. I am grateful that this relative took the time to write it all out as it inspired me to focus on the project. She was quite old and had arthritis in her hands that made writing difficult and I'm so appreciative of her effort.
Then a chart made via research. In one case I'm not sure I can go back another generation because in one small town three girls were born with the same name within 3 years and on the wedding of the person I think to be my ancestor, well, she is over the age of 21 based on birth records, but on her marriage it says she is 20. So is this the right one?
20 or 21 years old, the girl is not yet a spinster, so I can't reason that she would have -so young- taken a year or so off her age. Perhaps the priest who wrote the information was hasty. Anything could have happened. And something that could have happened is that yet another girl with the same name could have come from another place, perhaps a close-by farmstead.
These charts have notes to myself all over them but as I looked at it with distance, I realized there was another factor that convinced me I had the right girl, and that was in this case her mother's name and hers are the same as the oldest daughter I could find in a big family.
I decided to use the National Archives database on the Urbarium to relook at the surname. I realized that I might not have mentioned HOW to do this for my readers. Simply, go to the ADVANCED SEARCH option.
Now, in the case of this young woman whose marriage I'm not sure of, there is also the fact that I found about a dozen different spellings of the surname, and two of these spellings are very close. Considering Latin, Hungarian, Slovak, German - priests with various educations if, indeed, they were the ones handwriting in records. Considering that spellings of surnames were not stable. Considering also that one of these spellings shows up in books of nobility and arms. Well, in ADVANCED SEARCH at Hungaricana, you will find that spelling suggestions come up which might clarify the surname a bit for you.
Once you have found a landowner's name you go to the handwritten pages that are the census. These names are NOT indexed so you will have to read the handwriting - or try to.
And you will notice in Latin the word PERPETUAL, a list of people who are on the land, usually farming it, sometimes providing a service in a building.
What a PERPETUAL PERSON on the land meant is:
1) The person remains there because they have for a long time, the idea that they have "always" been there, that their presence is accepted. In Medieval times the word mean Permanent.
2) They may have been given the privilege a long time ago. As a present, as a reward (for military service or some other feat that served the landowner's family), and they or the family may have come with the land when the land was given or purchased by the landowner. They may also be a poor relative, even of noble origin.
3) You will notice these people are listed before any other people on the land, as the understanding is that they are thus more important than some others.
4) Generally, these people may even have some noble heritage but are of the poor nobility. A class or status is implied.
5) They may still pay rent which may or may not be considered reasonable.
6) Perpetuals fall under "Customary Practice."
You may want to read : UCL THESIS ON LAND REFORM and the HUNGARIAN PEASANT by Robert William Benjamin Gray circa 2009 as his thesis for a PHD in Britain at UCL-SC VERY INTERESTING.
EXCERPT: This thesis examines the nature of lord-peasant relations in the final stages of Hungarian seigneurialism, dating roughly from 1700 to the emancipation of the peasantry in 1848. It investigates how the terms of the peasants’ relations with their lords, especially their obligations and the rights to the land they farmed, were established, both through written law and by customary practice. It also examines how the reforms of this period sought to redefine lord-peasant relations and rights to landed property. Under Maria Theresa land reform had been a means to protect the rural status quo and the livelihood of the peasantry: by the end of the 1840s it had become an integral part of a liberal reform movement aiming at the complete overhaul of Hungary’s ‘feudal’ social and economic system.
This post has been edited and added to since first publication:
Although it is not always apparent due to comparative wealth, after the Perpetual People, the lists are ranked in order of status. Thus, the Villeins have higher status than the Inquilinus, and the Inquilinus have higher status than the Subinquilinus.
(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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This post is part of a series. To print up all posts, click on the tag Pro tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium
C 2019 Magyar-American BlogSpotAll Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
