While using the indexed BAPTISMALS available currently on FAMILYSEARCH, record the names of the Godparents present at the Baptism. When sloppy handwriting (quill and inkwell) or surname spelling variations due to Latin, Hungarian, German, Slovak, or other languages and levels of literacy have effected the priest's handwritten records, seeing consistent Godparents can be a clue that you're actually recreating the family of siblings and parents accurately.
Quite often the Godparents, who took the idea that they would be responsible for the child's religious education, their ethics, morals, and character, far more seriously than today's Godparents do, are related. Sometimes there was an implied duty to help care for or adopt children who became orphaned. (Possibly, if DEATH RECORDS prove that the child is alive when both parents are not, and neither parent remarried, you might look to see if the child resides in a Godparent's household.)
On one record I found it said the Godmother was widowed and the Godfather (whose surname was the same as the Father's) was unmarried. The Godmother proved to be the grandmother of the bride. The Godfather proved to be the brother of the father. It gave me surnames to consider a generation back. I also considered that the Godmother was the mother's mother and widowed and perhaps the two of them were living together far from home.
Today parents tend to ask another married couple to be the Godparents of a child. Godparents on these old Hungarian church records could also be the employer and his wife - or the Baron or Noble who owns the property the family lives on. Read around that microfilm and see if Godparents were the same people repeatedly for a great number of children. If they were very often it may be because they were called in to the church to stand as Godparents. If you see the same couples over and over again being Godparents, maybe they were popular people in the village, maybe they were respected nobles, but maybe they were just there at the Church. People who came to a new town to work and spawn might not have had any close-by relatives and would ask friends, or if no friends were available, depend on the locals.
This would be like if you eloped to Vegas to get married in an Elvis Chapel and the witnesses who sign on the dotted line are people employed at the Chapel who happened to be on staff that day.
Also notice what the priest is writing in about the father's profession and status, such as Military Officer, Noble, or Farmer or Official. Prior to 1848, there is generally much more about nobility written in at the Baptism. The Military Officer may be found in Military Records, the Noble in patents of nobility, etc. In one town the priest wrote in the status akin to those Urbarium lists. This father is a Nobilis. This father is a Subinquillis. Made me want to go right to the Urbarium 1767 and see if the family was there earlier on those lists.
Also notice the witnesses to marriages, often four men! In my own genealogy search I found the MARRIAGE of a man in my lineage (through the process previously described of going to the microfilm's not indexed portions) and the listing gave full information on who the parents were. A blessing - it was clearly written - and the birth year for each. I went about proving this. On the groom's line, based on the marriage, I've gone back two more generations. The bride's side is more complicated. So far I have not found the marriages of either's parents. I proved that the groom was orphaned, though it doesn't say that on the MARRIAGE. I found his parent's deaths prior to his fifteenth year. On his father's death was given the location he was born and by going to the next village microfilm, I found this easily. Terrific!
Since there were four men as witnesses, I wondered who they were. The first is a City Judge (who happens to be HV - Helvetica meaning Lutheran, though this is a Catholic marriage.) Then there is the father of the bride, listed as a furrier, listed as RC - Roman Catholic. Makes sense he'd be there. The third man's surname is familiar but I can't place him yet. I think he may have been a Godparent. Also RC. I can't read his profession but as the groom is listed as an apprentice, I suspect he is the apprentice to one of these men. The fourth man has the same surname as the groom and his profession is also a question. I suspect that he is the uncle or other relative of the groom though there might have been older siblings born in a different place who do not come up in BAPTISMALS for this town or on the FAMILYSEARCH database, using the names of the parents to try and bring up more children. The name is common and there are at least SIX candidates with that name in the same town. If I can go back further without doing charts for all six until I can find a tie-in of this MARRIAGE witness, I will.
Addition to the original post. The 1869 HUNGARY census
(also available on FAMILYSEARCH) has whole families on it and is the closest thing to a United States Federal census there is for Old Hungary. However, you will find that what has been released and perhaps what exists are the counties NO LONGER IN HUNGARY, such as now in SLOVAKIA. For counties that were cut in half such as Abauj and Zemplen, you won't find settlements that are STILL IN HUNGARY included.
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Please credit me when using this information. It's hard won for me and good karma for you! This post was edited providing more information on July 23, 2019
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