Some large American city libraries have the series of books published by Ivan Nagy that give some detail about many of the noble families of Hungary.
There are some generational charts and some Heraldry in the collection. However, connection from your American family to these nobles is still iffy and hobbyist genealogists should hold themselves to professional standards and not turn family rumors, guesswork or leaps of faith into charts - especially not posting to one or many databases or on-line website charts. I see so many without documentation all over (like a virus) and when I see that I think "well maybe but until I see the documents this is a time waster." (I've seen some with infuriating inaccuracies.)
Now I recently found Nagy's volume that contains letters T through Z in Google Books and found a couple families of interest but believe me until I had a breakthrough a couple years ago I had absolutely no idea there might be a connection to two noble families in what is now Slovakia. Like many of you, missing records are a frustrating for me.
It seems other volumes of Nagy's work are here and there and some are missing indexes in the end. Published in 1863 and titled "The Noble Families of Hungary, Their Coats Of Arms and Generation Tables" it's called a Bible. But believe me it is not. It can be helpful or encouraging but your documents must go back at least till 1869 or earlier to find this useful. That said, sometimes we can find the links we seek going forwards from the earlier dates on generational charts. Nobility cared to keep track of lineage and so there is a chance of such charts substituting for missing church records.
Here's the negatives:
First, while a well regarded collection, it does not contain each and every Noble Hungarian person or family.
Second, it's in Hungarian and you may need a translation. (I have yet to figure out how to cut and paste from the PDF into a translator.)
Third, many charts do not include the women or only have given names of women.
I have no way of knowing if a person named as a child but not showing marriage or offspring died without issue or the chart is incomplete.
Fourth, it cannot possibly include anyone born after 1869.
Recall 1848 is when the Hungarian Revolution ended nobility privledges though not social status. (The freeing of the serfs also meant that many with estate owners could no longer afford to hold onto their estates. An agricultural way of life was ending.
However, you can check the 1828 census to see if a person or family, listed by the name of the head of the family, had any "slaves." You can see the diversity of holdings in the Marie Theresa census.*
For some Hungarian Americans missing Hungarian census and other records may make it impossible, but don't give up too soon.
Keep reading.
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This post is part of a series on Hungarian Nobility research. Pro Tips - Hungarian Nobility in the Family*Search this blog for lots of information on the 1828 census (available on Familysearch) and the Marie Theresa census (available through Hungaricana).
