ABANDONED NEST

SUSPICIOUS OF THAT BIG AMERICAN SMILE?

THE ATLANTIC : WHY DO AMERICANS SMILE SO MUCH

EXCERPT: It turns out that countries with lots of immigration have historically relied more on nonverbal communication. Thus, people there might smile more.

.....

Are you one of those people who finds people who don't smile suspicious?

Have you gone into big debt to perfect your own big smile?

I find that when I am relaxed my smile just naturally forms, and I don't have to grease my teeth to make it comfortable.

THE FOURTH OF JULY

 

THE GUARDIAN : FORTY WORDS OF LOVE IN HUNGARIAN  by  Charlotte Mendelson

EXCERPT: Yet, even as this puzzle was partially solved, another presented itself: the world's most impossible language. Hungarian, as everybody knows, is extraordinarily difficult. Its sole linguistic link is to Finno-Ugric; Finnish inflections sound Hungarian, if you can't hear actual words. On the rare occasions when I meet other Hungarians' grandchildren, disbelief in our absurd ancestral language unites us. For the record, the best Hungarian word means central heating: központi fütés, pronounced kers-pontifutaysh; boldog születésnapot – bull-dog soo-lertaishnop (happy birthday) comes a close second. I am as astonished as you are by the spelling.

....

Macska – motch-ko (cat)

Despite my linguistic ignorance I am, in one word only, bilingual, even actively Hungarian. Whenever I see a cat, I think "hello motchko", although my grandparents lived in a flat and did not, as far as I know, like cats.

Köszönöm szépen – kers-enem say-pen (thank you very much)

My grandmother was fantastically generous: not only with money, and visits to "poor sick boys" of 86, and accommodation for acquaintances' nieces' schoolfriends' visiting neighbours, but also in smaller ways. She went nowhere without multi-purpose presents: handkerchiefs, spectacle-cases, "sweeties", small Czech crystal animals. Every milkman or, horrifyingly, teacher, was rewarded; on holiday she left a brooch or a bracelet "for the chambermaid" beside her bed. When she died we found a vast supply of gifts, awaiting distribution.

.....

I enjoyed this personal experience article by the granddaughter of Hungarians in London.

BERRY PIE SEASON

My mom made the most wonderful pastry crust using basic materials and rolling the dough.  She used a product that you rarely see these days - Crisco - which was animal fat. But not too often.  We rarely purchased berries to make pie.  Instead, when children, we'd roam an old apple orchard which also has some long forgotten black berry and strawberry patches.  Compared to the berries you see at market today, these were tiny.  We were usually able to pick enough to make one good pie.

ATTILA - THIS IS WHAT HE LOOKED LIKE?

SOFTPEDIA - ATTILA's REAL FACE

Yet another contribution to the controversy of races, languages, and origins of the Hungarian people's original tribal roots and a question of Whiteness.  Be prepared to see several images, and realize we may never know...

ELIZABETH DEE GALLERY - FEATURED HUNGARIAN ADVANT GUARD

ART NEWS - ELIZABETH DEE HUNGARY EYES ADVANT GUARD

EXCERPT:Little-known history of the Hungarian avant-garde in the 1960s and ’70s will come in for new focus next month at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York. Opening May 2 and running through until August 12,  (2017) “With the Eyes of Others: Hungarian Artists of the Sixties and Seventies” will feature more than 100 works by 30 artists in what organizers are calling the first show of such scale in the United States to survey art made in the oppressive authoritarian atmosphere of communist-era Hungary.

“If you were paying very close attention, which most people wouldn’t have been, these Hungarian artists have been beginning to be more noticed in recent years,” said András Szántó, the Hungarian-born, New York-based guest curator of the show. “I wouldn’t say it’s esoteric, but you need to have peripheral vision to have noticed.”

**** This is old news however the article is interesting and so are the photos so go to that link!

HUNGARY EXCHANGE SITE IS UPDATED and EXPANDED

HUNGARY EXCHANGE NEW UPDATED LINK

More useful than ever.  THANKS NICK!

May 2022 There may some issues with the site.... I found this https://www.ongenealogy.com/listings/hungary-exchange/

http://nickmgombash.blogspot.com/

TOMATO

HUNTING ACROSS THE DANUBE : MAGYAR AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW

author: Peter Lewis Horn

First, I admit that I have not read this book word for word as I usually do, that I scanned it looking for locations I'd know from a map or genealogy search.  I am not a hunter.  If I had to kill an animal myself in order to eat I'd probably do so in the insanity of starvation. Then I would feel myself to be an animal as well. But I'm no radical vegan. I'm convinced my personal body needs meat due to a foray into food-combining vegetarianism that left me protein starved. I say this because those of you who are hunters - of wild boar, wolf, pheasant, stag, roebuck, mountain bear, and the CAPERCAILLE OFTHECARPATHIANS (What's that?!) - those of you who go after the few beast who've managed to live to an enormous old age - those of you into Couples Hunts, Ladies Hunts, THE KING'S SHOOT - who perhaps hunt in places where killing for sport is seen as a necessary culling of the limited wilderness - Those of you who go to Romania, Hungary and Transylvania, Lake Balaton - WILL GET INTO THIS BOOK!

It has blow by blow accounts of mud, rain, the obstacles of climbing and tracking, what takes cunning, as well as photo ops with dead animals and trophy racks.

Hint: Sheepherders will rat out a bear.

It's not my scene but maybe you'll want to read this book to self discover if it's yours.


C 2018  All Rights Reserved   Magyar-American BlogSpot.

FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP IS THE MORE APPROACHABLE ONE

When the Trumps first became President of the United States and First Lady, I believe it was our President who said that the Kennedy White House - JFK and Jackie - would be role models.  I found that interesting and as Jackie prioritized her children and so has Melania I get it.  I feel for Melania at this point for so very many reasons but she has finally made children her focus as a special effort during her First Ladyhood.  And if I had to meet this couple socially or for any reason, I would find Melania the more approachable one because I think she is actually the more genuine one.

But does the JFK Whit eHouse inspiration include a promiscuous cheating President?

I feel for her because she is married to a President whose tenure in office seems questionable mostly because so very many heads have rolled.  I would not want to chance working for such a person or in such a situation and I fear accepting work from him is basically asking for career ruination.  I feel the instability of staff not only makes getting work done difficult but gives other countries the impression we are a weak country.

Yet Trump fans have told me I am wrong.  I am told that China understand a mogul with multiple wives and families, that China gets trump.  I am told that his behavior overall and threats of military might have scared North Korea and so now they'll stop the nuclear testing and get with some world peace.  I am also told that Trump really isn't a womanizer and Melania is sure of his love for him; this one I debate.

Just airing some thoughts amidst my research on the old nobility of the developing country of Hungary....

ESTAMPIE by ARANY ZOLTAN

ADATBAZISUKONLINE from HUNGARY - NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF HUNGARY GENEALOGY DATABASES

ADATBAZISUK DATABASE LINK - NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF HUNGARY


I wish I could say that there's a translator for the actual documents embedded in the site, but for now you can go to the categories in five different languages including English as linked above.


I've added this to my GENEALOGY RESEARCH LINKS ON THE SIDEBAR

CASTLES IN HUNGARY

HUNGARIAN SURNAMES and GIVEN NAMES and JEWISHNESS : GENEALOGY

I was researching a woman noble named Judit Thuranszky de Turik et Komjathna and some other historical persons who are probably linked in some way to this area and who I have reason to think may have been Jewish, at least hundreds of years ago.  Perhaps it's that I once spent hundreds of hours reading 200 years plus of one particular Catholic church records of marriages and found one person - a man who was the town pharmacist - who was listed as Jewish.  Perhaps it's because I know that in Hungary people who were living on the land of a noble who became Lutheran or Reformed  or Evangelical, or some other religion, tended to feel the pressure to follow there - and back during the Counter Reformation.  Perhaps it's because that the Moslem Ottoman empire was in place for so long in the territory that is Hungary that basically, I think of Hungary as a place where there has been a lot of religious upheaval. Or that as a genealogist I'm often hearing "Jewish Rumors" that someone's grandparent said that was the family's roots.  Or that DNA tests showed this was so.  Or that the Hungarians were Nazis or that they were actually more tolerant of having Jewish people in the country.  Or was that only along the grape growing and wine trade regions? Maybe even the "Jewish Rumors" that are always around about Princess William of Wales a.k.a Kate Middleton makes me wonder just how many generations of living as Christians does a family have to be to prove otherwise.


When it comes to finding genealogy archival documents, basically from the late 1700's Catholic churches in smaller towns and villages were keeping the records of marriages both "mixed" and of non parishioners because there was no mandate for civil registrations.  This was practical because sometimes the priest at the church was one of the few who could read and write and also because so many people lived in wooden structures in villages and on estates but it was only the church or the residences of wealthy people who were made of stone that might better withstand a fire. In the larger cities where there were separate structures for the Reformed church, the Catholic church, and the Jewish Synagogue, records were kept individually - at least after that structure was built.  Still, I have frequently checked these even when not expecting someone to be on them, just in case.


In all the records I have read, the name Judit is fairly rare, and to me a "giveaway" that the person in Jewish.  So I found an attempt to address this question by someone named Kinga Frojimovics on the JewishGen site.  To me her sampling seems limited and this is originally from 2003 but it's probably still worth the read. This article gives the dates for surname adoption.
JEWISH GEN - KINGA FROJIMOVICS - JEWISH NAMING CUSTOMS HUNGARY


As a comparison, when I do American genealogy I sometimes come across families in which "Old Testament" names have been given to the children but I find them going to the Baptist or another church and I don't find them buried in Jewish graveyards.  There are many names that are "Old Testament" that have been popular for Americans at different time periods: consider the names Sharon and Deborah for instance. But in Hungary you can encounter naming patterns that are far less about the parents just liking the name, and more about honoring the birth order among the common villagers, or ancestors with nobles being given multiple names at baptisms that seem to be less ordinary.


As for surnames and titles, I think things get more mysterious for us 21st century researchers who are trying to understand how different people lived and thought way back when, as well as make our way through those charters and other manuscripts that mention important families, even when on our knees in thanks when we find one that is very legible and neatly written though in Old Hungarian; to some extent we take the word of the translator.


One article I read said that Turanism was the name given to those who were sure that Hungarians had Asian roots.  Well, was this family the Turanszke's especially devoted to that belief?  Was this perhaps because they themselves knew that their ancestors came from Asia?


Anyone wishing to give an opinion?