Here is a Map
of County Veszprem.Thursday 19th September 1991
Dragged myself out of bed at the unearthly hour of 4.30 a.m. to catch a lift with Dr. Harmath, his wife and son Albert (an opera singer). They were going across the border to Austria and offered me a ride to Pápa, the home town of the Edelényi Szabos, I think genealogy is the only thing that would ever get me up that early !
Dropped off at 7 a.m. whole town closed, hardly anyone on the streets except school children ! And so began a day in which I would be found interrupting a doctor in his surgery, two teachers in the local school and a priest trying to organise a burial and, later in the afternoon, standing on a chair in the corridor of a busy school, studying a map with a huge magnifying glass !
To begin at the beginning, I had already undertaken basic research at the National Archives in Budapest. This consisted of microfilms of the Calvinist (Reformed) Church of Pápa Registers, part filmed by the L.D.S. in 1962 and in part by the Hungarian authorities in the intervening years, mostly using old Russian film stock. This has resulted in some of the reels beginning with black and white stills of military scenes and in one case ( a burial register) a cemetery !
After overcoming the initial language difficulties and getting used to the handwriting, I was able to go back four generations to 1749 and József Edelényi the blacksmith before running out of clues. (The Pápa registers go back to 1703.)
The more recent entries, for Pieter's marriage to Tsuzsàrma Nemes, Sandor's marriage to Rosalia Lazsló and the baptisms of their children, are very informative as both parent's names are given. There is also a column for the number of the house that my subjects were living in. (Before the development of the postal systems, towns like Pápa considered themselves too small to have individually named streets).
This is what drew me to Pápa, I understood that the local magistrates' office (Polgarmeistri hitvar) sometimes contain City archives, along with the Bureau of Metriculation (the Civil registrar of births, deaths and marriages from 1893 in their district). We speculated that this archive may contain a map of old Pápa - with all the house numbers listed. Then I would find and photograph any surviving houses. Other tasks listed for the day included photographing the Calvinist Church and Cemetery.
So, after finding a hotel to serve me breakfast (the coffee houses were all closed at 7 a.m.), sell me a map of Pápa and direct me to the Polgarmeistri, I presented myself there at opening time - 8 a.m. First problem, no one understood my mini-dictionary based Hungarian, my English, or my schoolboy French ! In desperation I produced a hand-drawn tree I had made up the previous night in Budapest and this provoked a flood of Hungarian, from which I could only pick out "Edelényi Szabo" repeated over and over. There was one other man in the waiting area and he spoke a little English, so he said.
"Doctor Edelényi Szabo in hospital" he cried, steering me out of the door into the street. "I take." he continued. I was not going to argue with him, as I had been told by Dr Kenez in Budapest that there was a Doctor of that name practising in Pápa in the 1940s. I went willingly - although nervous of disturbing a doctor in his surgery.
It was a five minute walk, while my new friend practiced his English on me; "England - super" (pronounced Soouper) - "Football - super, Dr Edelényi Szabo -super Doctor". Then we arrived, I would never have found the place on my own, it was set back off the road in the courtyard of another larger building on the street, painted white and chocolate brown and looking like it had seen better days.
Inside the Gróf Esterházy Hospital was different - white washed and spotless - my friend dragged me upstairs, past a queue of anxious looking women and straight into the consulting rooms ! There were three Doctors there, who all looked up in surprise, my friend introduced me and I produced the family tree. Dr Attila Edelényi Szabo spoke no English, but with help and gestures and his German I understood that he recognised some of the names. Could I come back at 12.30 ? No-one could make me understand what was going to happen then, so I agreed and made myself scarce.
My friend, whose name I couldn't pronounce, then took me to the Calvanist Church and left to go to work (I think). The priest also had no English, although he recognised the family tree and produced the registers. I was trying to find out when his church was built - as it looked farily recent - where the old one was and the whereabouts of the cemetery. He flourished the registers again. "No" I said, "I've seen them." He looked puzzled and then guided me by the elbow around the church pointing at everything and gave me a small booklet in Hungarian about the history of the church.
At that moment three women in black appeared, one crying and I deduced that funeral arrangements were due to be made. I didn't want to just disappear without saying thank you, so I sat and struggled with the booklet. Luckily it was illustrated and there were drawings of three other churches. Also the dates 1931-1941 appeared under a photograph of his church. The one I was in was recent and not the place where my ancestors worshipped. He emerged just after I had finished reading and I showed him the picture dated 1783 - "Where is this ?" I asked. My elbow was grabbed again and I was steered into the street. We were not going to the old church, but just next door, which turned out to be Pápa Reformed Church College (founded 1531) a famous Protestant college. Closed by the Communists, it has just recently reopened. There he found me a young teacher who spoke English - but fled before we had time to ask him any questions - it must have been something to do with the woman in black, so I didn't pursue him.
My new, and much more fluent, translator, whose name was Zoltán, understood exactly what I wanted and offered to take me to the old church and the polgarmestiri and act as interpreter. He had two hours spare before his next lesson (he taught Maths and Computer Studies - the school had five IBMs).
In the corridor he was intercepted by an older teacher who asked him where he was going. This man, whose name I couldn't catch, turned out to be a local official or politician and wanted to come too. He spoke no English either, but it didn't matter as I had Zoltán."The old church is now a museum" he explained "we go there first". ( I found out in the course of the day that all the Museums in Pápa were advertised as open from 9 to 5 until the 31st of October, but where in fact all closed !) The older man knew where the key was however and I was given a guided tour. A few of the pews remained - otherwise there was a intricately carved high pulpit and a display of books from the school and many different bibles. It was too dark for photography inside, Zoltàn had to get back to school shortly and it was getting close to 12.30, so I left photographing the outside to later. (When attempting to do this later on my own, I found myself being scolded by the fellow who ran the shop next door and had to take the pictures from some peculiar angles to avoid including his shop ! - Never did understand why he was so upset !)
Next they took me to the polgarmestri, where the three women in black had just shown up, (they must have begun to wonder about me by then!) but they had no archives there at all, everything had been transferred to a record office in Veszprem, the County capital, so we went back to the school and I was ushered into the library, down a long, cluttered corridor.
Zoltàn left after giving me a book of pupils at the school to look at and a huge Hungarian-English dictionary. Suddenly I remembered seeing something out of the corner of my eye in the corridor. I rushed out and there was a facsimile map of old Pápa, with all the house numbers on it ! By now I couldn't believe my luck, the dictionary yielded the Hungarian for magnifying glass and the older teacher left me standing on a chair in the corridor looking at the house numbers and comparing them with the modern map I had bought at the hotel. I found 5 out of 6 and then excused myself as it was 12.25 p.m. The walk around town and photographs of the family houses could wait until I had been back to see Dr Edelényi Szabo.
This time I had no translator and had no idea what was going to happen. But my luck was running true to form. He handed me seven yellowing pages of typewritten Hungarian and a photocopy for myself. A quick study proved that it was an Edelényi Szabo family history, back to József - even my grandmother Julia briefly appeared ! I thanked him, he gave me his card and shooed me out. By now I was so happy I had completely forgotten about the cemetery, and only remembered when I began to think about writing this up, on the three hour train journey back to Budapest. I was intending to go back anyway and I don't need an excuse now !
Still, this turned out to be the only mistake I made, four of the houses were still standing - only Sandor's house (unfortunately where my grandmother was born) had been demolished and replaced by a block of flats. The photography session was a success and then I went to investigate the Castle museum (also closed !) Refreshment was called for and I spent my last half-hour in Pápa with a pizza and four young American Mormon missionaries, sitting in the late afternoon sun in an attractive courtyard. It had been quite a day !