HUNGARICANA URBARIUM 1767 : HOW STATUS on CHURCH AND CENSUS RECORDS CAN HELP YOU WITH YOUR HUNGARIAN GENEALOGY TIP#15

HUNGARICANA URBARIUM 1767 : HOW STATUS on CHURCH AND CENSUS RECORDS CAN HELP YOU WITH YOUR HUNGARIAN GENEALOGY TIP#15

This post is an addition to previous posts on the 1767 Urbarium (also called the Marie-Theresa Census) which was a previously posted genealogy series at 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 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.

Gen Tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium is the tag that brings up all posts in this series.

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Image of Queen Marie Theresa is in public domain.

TIMELINES - THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUNGARIAN AND POLISH WOMEN IN INDEXES : USING THE POLISH GENEALOGY SOCIETY DATABASE for RESEARCH : GENEALOGY PRO TIP #4

TIMELINES - THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUNGARIAN AND POLISH WOMEN IN INDEXES  : USING THE POLISH GENEALOGY SOCIETY DATABASE for RESEARCH : GENEALOGY PRO TIP  #4

Death records I've encountered that are so far indexed on GENETEKA seem to be the least useful. I was so hoping to confirm the rumors of how certain ancestors died but cannot even find the records despite carefully paging through. Most of the reasons why someone died reveal that medical knowledge was not so advanced as it is today. I have often wondered at old people dying of "inflammation." I think this means the person probably retained water and appeared swollen by the time they died, which happens with some cancers.

I find creating a TIME LINE in which you note the dates of children who were married and what it says about their parents (i.e. is one of both deceased?) will at least help you limit your research.

Starting with a person's birth, follow them through the years for marriages and children. If you notice they are called a widow or widower on a remarriage record, then you know that by that time their previous spouse died.  If a child marries, his parents will likely be listed and it will translate to something like:

Jan, the son of the d.p.  (deceased parent) Marcus, and Marianna Sobato, means that at the time of his marriage his birth father was deceased, so there is a date that can limit your research in a positive way, but the mother is alive. By listing the births of children to Marcus' wives, and finding their marriages, you may get closer to the date of his death.

Additionally, you may have to go to the records that are not yet indexed or question what is indexed.

HERE IS MY BIG COMPLAINT ABOUT GENETEKA INDEXING.

In Hungarian records it seems understood that a woman is listed by her maiden/birth name at birth, marriage, and death, though in her community she is known as the married woman, Mrs. Szabo or Szabone. (ne suffix.)  However, in the Polish records I found women listed under their previous married name in the database. If someone has not noted that with a little :i: (information) icon then basically, you'll have to discover this yourself by reading the original records. Going to the information about her parentage is important so that you have her maiden/birth name. So, you may have to dismiss the database surname of the bride in marriages and go with what you know about the groom rather than the bride's surname.  More than one of my ancestors had three marriages due to the deaths of their first two spouses and that a careful indexer bothered to read and note the maiden name on each was of great help and made me aware this was not the case with every indexer.

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This post is part of a series on the subject.  To pull all the topics up, click on the tag Pro Genealogy Tips- Galicia

NOBILITY IN YOUR HUNGARIAN FAMILY ? LGBTQ : GENEALOGY PRO TIP #9

NOBILITY IN YOUR HUNGARIAN FAMILY ? LGBTQ : GENEALOGY PRO TIP  #9

No, I personally have never found a genealogy worthy document that stated that a certain noble was lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning their sexuality or gender. In 2021 in America there is generally a different more accepting feeling about "gay" people.

I suspect LGBTQ people existed in Noble families. I doubt this was acknowledged in documents even if the person, the family, the village, or the church or military knew.

Why then am I making my last post in this series about Hungarian Nobility research about Medieval sex? Or 17th century sex? Or even 19th century sex?

Well, I'll tell you. There was such pressure on nobles to marry and have heirs at a time when so many children died before they could marry and reproduce, I feel that it would be damn difficult for anyone to avoid this procreation duty even if it was no fun and turned a person off. There were arranged marriage for political alliances and status and money, and power, all across Europe this matchmaking that didn't always consider a person's feelings or needs, love, companionship, attraction, I can barely wrap my mind around it. Mismatches made for misery. Nobles might have mistresses they could not marry. They had illegitimate children who could not be their heirs though there might have been ways around giving them acknowledgement, opportunities, or money. Noble men could get away from their family and spend most of their time with other men in armies, in fields, in monasteries.

As a lesbian noble lady, you might have all the luxury in the world and no companionship. Women by gender especially had such limited lives. So, few choices. They were not free to come and go.

Nevertheless, when I was reading through generational charts for Hungarian Nobility, though I know infertility existed and venereal disease existed, and men went off to war and died before they could reproduce, when I read "no issue" I wonder if that person might have avoided hetero sex. If they married, I wonder if they had a sexless marriage.

An option for some LG people was to become a priest, sister, or monastic.

Spinsters were considered to be burdens to their families, at worst, at times, witches. 

Homosexually or non-procreational sex was considered sinful and perverted.  So, you'd have to sneak, and it was dangerous to be caught. Yet, It happened. I wonder what the punishment was.

What did unmarried people do for fun? Dancing. Boys going to see the girls working in the spinning house. Flirtations in folk tradition. Songs about love with heart. You had a chance at real first love in the village with a girl you used to run and play with.

Another reason for this post is that genealogy is exposing us to and reinforcing that normalcy is about having children. After all, those of us without children are not passing on our DNA.

Today being Childless By Choice is an honorable option.

I hope that you will seek to remember those who are Never Married No Kids as well on your genealogy charts.

Interview them!

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This post is part of a series about Hungarian Nobility research. To bring up all the posts in the series, click on the tag Gen Tips - Hungarian Nobility in the Family

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED ORDERING A BRIDE FROM HUNGARY ?

No joking!  I found some web sites that are owned by matchmakers or marriage brokers importing beautiful Hungarian women to marry American men. 

The idea makes me personally uncomfortable because I think that a woman is a long way from home when she comes to the United States for the purpose of marrying a man she may not have spent enough time with to make such a decision.  And if it is citizenship she's after this may be a very high price.  Also I have met women and men who entered into this kind of arrangement of other nationalities here in the United States and what is telling is that a year after the person becomes a citizen (7 years?) they usually get a divorce.  During that time both have been off the market - theoretically.

And what about men who just can't seem to enjoy an American woman?  Usually they say that American women are just too liberated or not feminine enough, something like that.  But as a woman it makes me wonder because many of these same men are not in position to marry a woman who doesn't also have a job or career and some of them seem to resent the traditional male role.

But with Internet, web cams, e-mail, videos, and not to mention world travel what it is, perhaps in some or even many cases the couple do get to know each other well enough to make such a decision.


What do you think?