Addition to previous posts on the 1767 Urbarium (also called the Marie-Theresa census) which was previously a series posted to this blog! You can bring up the whole series by clicking on the tag/label Pro tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium
Just going over some of my personal research I wanted to add to the previous series that you can pull up by clicking on the label Pro tips: 1767.
I mentioned that sometimes you will find in birth, marriage, and other church records the profession or "status" of the person listed. And that when you look at the Marie Theresa census findings, you will also see that people are listed by class or status. First listed is the owner of the estate, then the Colony, then Inquilis and then Subinqulis. I want to expand upon that.
I mentioned that sometimes in Latin or Hungarian (and sometimes in Slovak or German) the mention of Free People or People free to go. These people are usually mentioned in COLONY. I said that people in the COLONY list are sometimes called "Perpetual People" and that meant that they came with the land, or they were "always there."
Some of these people did indeed seem to "always" live there, but some of the free to go or COLONY people are also what is called Castle Warriors or the nobility of the lowest nobility, or sometimes nobility of the highest but for whom there is no more land or money to go around. These great families may have split land, sold land, lost land, or been disenfranchised due to the slaughter by the Turks or in war with them over hundreds of years. Now on small plots of land sufficient to feed their family and sell some on the side, they may also be listed in the 1828 land census. However, they are still nobles and recognized and honored as such.
Let's say you are dealing with COMMON surnames. However you see on church records that someone is listed as COLONY. Therefore if you see people of the same surname on the census in the COLONY you probably have a match. Colony people owned their land, so the may be matched with the names on the 1828 Land Census. Now, if the person with the surname is listed as a subinquilis, a person sub-renting the land to farm on, thus close to the serf-landlord relationship with that surname, we cannot confuse them with the people in the Colony.
It's not a guaranteed match for things did happen back in the day that were not usual. It is always possible that someone who was a servant for the landlord inherited land from him. It's possible that the beautiful maiden of a subinquilis marries the landlord. However, class structure was what it was, such situations were not usual.
Arranged marriages continued the idea that one should marry in their own class and in farming communities who married who might be a community decision. Additionally, some landlords did act as though they owned every man's woman, and might want to be with a virgin before she could meet up with her new husband on his wedding night. Such conditions were akin to what happened in American slavery, not all the time, but sometimes. I wish I could say that religion prevented this but I doubt it did. Sexism, as we see it, prevailed.
Back in that day people were born into the circumstances that would effect if not dictate their entire lives. To have Choice is what Freedom as all about. Declaring freedom is not the same as actually having it.
Noting class and status on records is important and may be just the thing that helps you connect correctly to the right ancestors.
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