Depending on church records mostly for your research, you may find notations on marriages in particular that the groom is an officer - tiszt, or a soldier - hajdu, or you might see the word hadsereg - army. (Some men married by proxy while serving!) There might be a notation on a child's baptism that the father is serving. I'm using FamilySearch TM and the following records to discuss how to use these.
Specifically, I'm using the following record group.
Katonai nyilvantartasi jegyzek 1863-1888 (List of Military Records)
Gonc Hadkiegeszito Parancsnoksag (Main Author)
Published in 1962 by Filmre vette a Genealogical Society of Utah
I'm using film #008737879 and film #008737839 (but there are four categories available.)
These are Muster Rolls from the Gonc Military District.
There are notes that this film covers the years 1866-1876 (and birth dates 1841-46 and 1850 - 1856, suggesting that there are missing pages for men born 1847-1849) However another film many include some men born during that period.
These records are from Abauj county. Before the split up of Hungary, Abauj county had much more territory than it does now, when parts of it are now Slovakia and towns now have Slovak names. So these records have the potential to cover a lot of territory.
Some of the places mentioned include Goncruska, Szanto, Telki Banya, Fony, Crizoly, Also Reymecz, Ujfalu, Felso Dobfzu, Hejcze, Hermad Keres, ...
Gonc (also seen in archival records as Goncz and Gontz) was historically a civic center, a place of governmental administration, though it appears to be a small, unimportant town today. These military records include those men who came from the surrounding area. The four categories hold records that are thousands of pages and no index is forthcoming. In fact, I sense that the original records that FamilySearch microfilmed decades ago in archives within Hungary, were intended as a kind of index. But more on that later. *********
My experience:
First of all the FamilySearch SEARCH function in which you put in the film number was not working. I'd taken down the number 8737879 on notes and tried to use it in their SEARCH feature to bring it up. It did not work. I tried it with and without the 00 in front of the number. I tried it multiple times.
Therefore, you may have to bring these up by going into the CATALOG function. Search in the CATALOG for Gonc (the name of the town) and then choose military records. You'll see the word Gonc twice as it is the town AND the Military District.
Across the top of the records you will see columns/categories of information which are in Hungarian and sometimes in Hungarian and Old German lettering. Some of these were not properly written in the first place. So here are the corrections, sans the accent marks.
THE COLUMNS
(Please note that this discussion covers the version used quite a bit but there is also a shorter version and a longer version existing on this film.)
1) a kozseg neve de osszeir asi jegyzekenek szama
This translates to "the name of the group and the number of notes."
In general this means "Where the person is from" because the name of the group is named after the town. (This does not necessarily mean that this is where a soldier was born but think of it was where the person was living when it came time to serve in the military. And there is a good chance it is also where they were born.)
On pages to the far left you will see a list of numbers, and that is where they hand wrote the numbers of notes otherwise thought of as "items."
2) Sorz szam
This translates to "Serial Number" and I see that this column is often blank.
3) A hadkötelesnek csaladi es kereszt vagy elo neve
This translates to "The conscript's family name and first and last name."
This sounds awkward. It might be thought of as "soldier's name, first and last" however, I believe it is stated this way because sometimes a "family name" is not the same as the soldier's first and last name. This is because there is an understanding that some people come from a "House" such as a Noble House or a Clan (which would be the family name) and within that House or Clan they have another name. For instance, as a made up example, a person might be going by the name Janos Kovacs but come from a noble lineage Andrassy. On other records you might also see this written Janos Kovacs alias Andrassy. There could be a variety of surnames that are associated with the House or Clan, harkening back to the ancient days. After looking at hundreds of pages, I haven't seen this written in, but the column heading allows for that possibility. Instead we are finding a first and last (or surname) simply with notation that the person is a noble.
4) Szuletesi i eve
Translates to "year of birth." Ahmm. Birthday
Usually only a year is given. But this is where you must be careful not to assume. The records are arranged so that the men are listed by year born, and the older they are, the earlier that year. And the older they are - in general - the LATER they are on the record/film. It's too bad full birth dates are not given.
As I click along, reading page after page, I see that some effort is also made to group men by their home location.
5) szylet es helye
translation? year and place Think Location, Location, Location,
jaras is singular form of jarasok translating to district. The Hungarian megye (county) was further divided by districts. Think of an American county, further divided by Townships.
megye means county
orszag means country
In general I see the name of a town listed again, often matching the first one mentioned. So a man served or was in the reserves fairly close to home.
6) vallas allapot - religious background
These records include men of Catholic (R.K.), Reform (Ref.) (Protestant), and Jewish background. They overall include people of all religious backgrounds. Greek Catholic (Gr.C.) may indicate that the family has Carptho-Rus (Ruthenian, Rusyn) heritage, or Ukrainian, or Slovak. Evangelical (Eve) indicates they are Lutheran, indicating the family may have German heritage. Zsido is the term used for Jewish, though I have also seen Israelite (Isr).
Notlen - unmarried
Nos - married
Gyermek - child (implied is a father)
vagy azok or those
nelkul - without
(Who would make a better recruit? A man who needs to support a family or man who won't leave a wife and children if he dies in military service?)
7 - 10)
tudasa - awareness (i.e. is this person intelligent? informed? Educated? Have any special skills?)
olvasus - reading
iras - writing
zene - music
mesterseg - handyman
(This is about a man's education, and so how he might be useful to the military. I like that they ask if the person knows music. Implied he plays an instrument or sings which might be useful if they march.)
11) az atyanak csaladi kereszt vagy eloneve
This translates to the father's family cross or first name...
The "family cross" is implied to be the family shield/ name, again this refers to noble House or Clan.
What I see in general is the name of parents (implied unmarried soldier) or the name of a wife (if married) but read across-
12) haz szam helyseg kozseg hol a hadkote les lakik
translates to "house number, location, district, where the soldier lives."
If this is filled out, it could be interesting. It might tie into church records and other census. It's a possible lead or secondary document.
13) test nagy saga translates to the saga of the body or body story hmmm....
test nagy saga translates to... I admit this word choice seems strange but it seems to be saying... "According to the little bird." And we used to say "A little bird told me..." to indicate gossip - something personal.
Roughly, what does this person say about their health? How big are they? Basically it appears to be all about how TALL they are, and based on contemporary heights, these men are seemingly about as tall as Napoleon... I see this column is left empty quite a bit.
On some forms:
mell merteke - breast courage indicates a measurement size of chest . They need uniforms. (I see a soldier standing straight up to full height and sticking out their chest!)
Overall I'm reminded that people seem to have grown taller through the decades, because we have better nutrition.
14) lelet az utolso allitasnal Finding with the last alliteration/statement.
le lett az utolso The last one is down.
Let's try the German :
befund bei der bebten stellung means "findings in the trembling position"?...
So - my genealogy friends - this seems to be asking "When the going gets rough, how does this man bear up? How does he act? Does he have courage? Or is he a weakling?
Hajdu means soldier. So when I see hajdu written in, I figure that man has passed some test of courage or endurance or wit.
15) az ava stasi bizott many lelete reszrol Findings /basis for findings by the committee/ commission
Katona - Military Polgar - Civil
The absence of notes in this column indicate to me that this was probably only used if a soldier got himself in some trouble and therefore had to go into some review in which he was judged and some determination was made.
16) az avatottnak be osztas - for the initiated
iranti - on
ki va - who is
na ta - so there you are
I tried a translation from the German and it was worse. asically, I believe this column is to express information on who is who, what their rank is.
17) az avatas napja az ezred - the day of initiation is the regiment
Hadtest - corps
vagy osztaly neve - or class name
melyhez beosztatott - to which he was assigned
18) eszrevetel - perception (final assessment overall)
Other words encountered:
korostaly - old age. These men are not elderly, they're just a bit older, still in their early twenties, so what is indicated is that they have probably nearer to ending their term of service.
Further the record will state where the person is stationed, if it is not in their hometown. In general it appears that most men served fairly close to their hometown, which probably made visiting family, taking care of personal adult responsibilities, and especially, being a reservist, easier on them and their families. These were agriculture economies in which the men's labor was very much needed.
Commentary:
The records are and are not arranged as one might expect.
Alphabetical, yes, however only by first letter. That means that it may appear to be fully alphabetical, taking into consideration every letter in a surname in some places, but do not be too quick to think the surname you seek is not listed If the surname you are using begins with Sz, look through ALL of the letter S. And so on.
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Slightly edited on April 8, 2023
