In 1895 Hungary began to require civil records (also called vital records) of deaths, marriages, and births to be kept by the government. Before that, records were to be kept by Christian churches or Jewish temples. You may be able to get both is some cases.
Privacy laws in Hungary are not the same as in the United States. Birth registers are kept closed for 90 (ninety) years. Marriage registers are kept closed for 60 (sixty) years. Death registers are closed for 30 (thirty) years.
And what you can order from Hungary also has to do with the map, because Hungary can only send you what is available in PRESENT DAY HUNGARY. So you may have to find records now housed in another country.
If your Hungarian ancestors lived in what is now SLOVAKIA, you have to deal with Slovakia. The site I'm linking to gives extensive information and is the work of Bill Tarkilich, to whom we are grateful. IABSI -SLOVAKIA BILL
You may also find that your Hungarian ancestor lived in a place that became Yugoslavia, Austria, Romania... I did run into a problem when trying to retrieve Baptismal records (as a stand in for civil records) for a friend whose "Italian" family was in what was considered Yugoslavia, at the time of her grandfather's birth. The Diocese archive we contacted (in Italy) during Covid did not respond to us at all, the records were not in the Latter Day Saint's FamilySeach collection, and the local consulate was also unhelpful. She wanted Italian citizenship based on that grandfather, and I was unable to find out if Italy considers the course of history when identifying someone as Italian...
That said, it is possible that, though the place where someone was when they died is now in another country, their death record is still held by a diocese that was in Hungary at the time.
FamilySearch does have some civil death records in its database and I find searching by location is a first step.
So - If you have a very long-lived ancestor, you may just be in luck to find that when they died the civil registration was in place. And on that death record there just might be the marriage or parentage you seek, either a confirmation of such OR new information. The civil death records also have addresses. These may not align with current addresses... You might want to ask when you get to tour the village!
C 2025 Magyar-American BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights. This genealogy series can be brought up using the tag Hungary Death Records - Gen Tips
