Hungarian Ancestry:
Beginning Your Research From America Beginning Your Research From AmericaThis page has come about because virtually all the requests for further
information received have come from Americans. I am not in a position to
answer these; being of BRITISH and Hungarian extraction.
However, a message on the Hungarian Mailing List in December 1997
from Richard Camaur,
provided a decent summary of sources and so I contacted him to suggest a
collaboration. He has written most of this page and is willing to help wherever
possible. Since Richard posted his message, others have made contributions
that also appear here. Thank you Magda, Ralph Komives and
Juliana Szucs Smith.
When you first discover that you have a Hungarian surname in your family,
do not practice leapfrog genealogy! That is jumping straight in and mailing
everybody with requests for information on this surname. How will you know
if you are connected if you know nothing about your own ancestor?
By the way, when your ancestors left Hungary they were EMIGRANTS,
when they arrived in America they became IMMIGRANTS. Please do not
write "My grandfather immigrated from Budapest" there is no such
word - he emigrated from Budapest.
Updates to this page will appear at New at Hungarian
Sites. Alex Glendinning.
Before you start to investigate official records, look back over your family papers. Often people will preserve wills, photographs, letters and certificates and they are most likely to be found in the possession of an elderly aunt in my experience!
Make sure that all the branches of your family know that you are willing to become the family archivist.Track down your elderly relatives and speak to them - record their memories if you can. Oral history is very important but should always be taken with a pinch of salt. Collect all the old family legends together and then set about proving them.
Examine the official local records your ancestors left in the United States. For example, death records, birth records of their children or even their own marriage records. You should also check church records, such as baptismal, marriage and burial records. If your ancestors were Catholic, such records are very likely available. You should also glean information from city/county directories and voters' registration lists.
Magda suggests - a bit of a shortcut to try is to consider what religion your folks practiced. If you know where they are buried, get the death date from the cemetary office and look for an obituary on microfilms of the newspapers in the ancestor's residential location. The obituary or even just a small death mention will provide the CHURCH of the services. The church should lead you to some family records, the obituary (if lengthy) may give the birthplace and names of other family members, and a death certificate may also provide the birthplace, birthdate etc. In one of my cases, my great-grandfather's birthplace or parents were not on the official death record but it was on his church death record.
There are 'modern' U.S. censuses for 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920. The later ones will provide information on age, dates of birth, years in U.S. and dates of naturalization.
The 1900 and 1910 census provides the year of immigration to the U.S., the number of years in the U.S., and whether the person enumerated was naturalized by the notation "nat" ("naturalized") or "al" ("alien" or not naturalized). The 1920 census provides an additional category, namely,"if naturalized, year of naturalization".
If your ancestor was naturalized after September 1906, then a copy of
the records are available through the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS).
However, if your grandmother was married, she obtained her naturalization
automatically through her husband's petition. She did not have to file separately.
Ask for both a copy of the Declaration of Intention and the Petition
and Order of Naturalization. These documents will show the place of
birth, the date of arrival in the U.S., the name of the ship, as well as
the names of other family members.
To discover where in Hungary this place of birth is, you might try a visit
to The Counties of
Hungary and Their Settlements. An atlas on the Net can be found
at MapQuest. If your ancestors
came from a part of Hungary that is now included in another country - since
the Treaty of Trianon (1920) - consult the maps at Eastern
Slovakia, Slovak and Carpo-Rusyn Genealogy.
Ralph Komives reports: starting in 1906, copies of naturalization
papers were collected by the INS. These records include both immigration
and naturalization records. They are more standardized than records of previous
eras and include the names of spouses and children, whether they were citizens
or not. INS immigration records date from 1897 onward.
The form needed to request these files directly is G639 and can be requested
from your local or regional Immigration and Naturalization Service office
or by calling 1-800-870-3676. Verbal information can be sought at 202-514-2607.
The more information you have the more likely your ancestor will be identified
even if they were not naturalized. There is no cost for the INS record search.
You will need to provide full name and address (or addresses) as a minimum.
Further, critical dates, social security number, birthday and place of birth
will help insure a creditable search. The address of the Washington, D.C.
INS office is: Immigration and Naturalization Service, 425 I Street NW,
Washington, DC 20536
The first naturalization law was passed March 26, 1790. Naturalization was
an option, not a requirement. Early naturalization records (pre 1906)
were maintained at various courts in all states. The type of information
in these early records is not standard. These files are more difficult to
locate because they may be part of records held by numerous judicial entities.
In some cases these records have been moved to other repositories. Please
visit the National
Archives Web Page on Naturalization Records for more details.
While the rules for naturalization have changed, the basic format has generally
been a two step process of "intent" followed by a final "petition",
except for veterans of certain wars, who were allowed to do both at once.
Minors residing here for five years prior to their 23rd birthday could also
complete both steps at once between 1824 and 1906.
Naturalization records were not collected by one single entity. A person
could "declare intent" in one court and file "petition for
citizenship" in a different court. To add to the complexity various
courts kept records of differing detail. Some declarations of intent my
contain some genealogical data such as original country or place of birth.
These records may not contain details about family members.
The courts holding naturalization records could be at the county, state
or federal level. Children became citizens when their fathers did. Wives,
until 1922, likewise became citizens when their husbands did. Further the
names of wife and children may not be listed on either application. In general
if you are not reasonably sure if, when and where a declaration might have
been made, a search is likely to be time consuming and difficult.
Ralph Komives also runs a useful research service in Washington D.C. - pay him a visit.
NOTE: Juliana Szucs Smith reports that you can also download the forms via the INS Homepage. If you cannot print them in accordance with their specifications, they also provide a form to request the forms by mail. Also available is a list of addresses for all of the INS regional offices.
An excellent source of information is Christina K. Schaefer, "Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States" (Baltimore: Genalogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1997).
Step Two - get a copy of the passenger ship arrival list for your
ancestor. You can obtain this directly from the National
Archives and Records Administration Washington D.C. using Form 81.
However, you need at least an approximate date of entry in the U.S. and
port of entry. You can visit a regional National Archives and use the Soundex
and get a copy for yourself.
Here is some information on Shipping
Companies and Liners that may be useful for emigrant families, also
check out The
Cunard Line Archives.
You may also find something of interest at the Ellis
Island Immigration Museum.
Armed with the information obtained from steps one and two, visit
a local LDS Family History Center to obtain microfilm records for Hungary.
You will want to check church records, civil registration records after
1895, the 1828 census,and Austro-Hungarian military records. Make sure that
you check these items using the microfiche catalog!
Here are the addresses of all the Mormon
Family History Centres in the US and the Mormon
Family History Centres in the rest of the world.
Once you search for your ancestors abroad, please remember that they came
from Austria-Hungary, not The Czech Republic or modern-day Austria. The
names of their home towns may have changed after WWI. The new Czechoslovakia
changed towns with German-sounding names to Slavic ones. Hungary was decimated
after World War I and that many (most) pre-war Hungarian counties were absorbed
by successor states, including Slovakia, Romania, and (the former) Yugoslavia.
Therefore, in the event your ancestor did not come from Budapest or another
location in present-day Hungary, remember to check the LDS microfilm records
for the successor states. LDS microfilm inventory for Hungary is in excellent
shape. Also, brush up on your Hungarian! These records are going to be in
Hungarian, German or Latin; never in English.
Don't be discouraged if the place name you have identified from an immigration record cannot immediately be identified in a current atlas.
Further information at Gordon Hillman's Guide to Researching at LDS Family History Centres and his Hungarian Genealogy.
An Atlas on the Net: MapQuest.
You can post your new information in several places. The World GenWeb
site Hungary Genealogy
and has both Surname Interests and Queries pages.
To join the Hungarian Mailing List, just send the command "subscribe"
to HUNGARY-D-request@rootsweb.com.
This is for the digest mode. If you want the postings as individual e-mail
send the same message to
HUNGARY-L-request@rootsweb.com.
You might also want to follow some of the links at my Hungarian
Introduction Page and those at the Eastern
European Section of Cyndi's Genealogical Sites on the Internet.
If, at this point, you decide to visit Hungary, or need further background
information, visit my pages: Family
History in Hungary (and Slovakia) A Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors.
If you need research assistance in Hungary go to Hungarogens:
my friend Dr Alexander Harmath's Genealogical Bureau.