My First Entry; February 13, 2008

This is the first entry in my new genealogy blog I've recently decided to write. In this blog I'll discuss things I come across during my research, like websites, databases, people connected to the family tree.. just things that I find useful in my daily scouring of the internet and of records.

In my first blog I wanted to discuss my family tree and the immense amount of information in my database. As of right now, writing this blog, I have 49,943 individuals in my database. I want to explain who all of these people are. In my database I of course have my direct lineage for all of my ancestors.. but I also like to research the families and descendants of the siblings of my ancestors. This is where a big portion of the individuals come from.

The major portion of my database comes from the extensive amount of information on noble and royal families. I am descended from nobility on my father's side (which you will read below) and royalty on my mother's side. I have a love and an obsession for all things to do with nobility (mostly Hungarian), royalty and monarchies in Europe, so I naturally have nearly every single King or Queen of every country of Europe in my database. As of my information right now, I currently descend from 234 Kings or Queens of Europe.. they're from Armenia, Bohemia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Spain and Sweden. So naturally, this makes me related to every single European monarch or royal family.

My Father's side:

The ethnicities of my father's side is comprised of Hungarian and Polish.

From the oldest-known progenitor of the Gombash line, a György Gombás who was born in the 1690's, I have a total of 294 descendants. I also have 197 individuals from Büdszentmihály, the village Alex Gombash came from.

The other branch is Eszter Tóth, Alex Gombash's wife. The oldest-known progenitor of the Tóth line, a Mihály Tóth who was alive during the early to mid-1700's, currently has a total of 355 descendants. I also have 1,255 individuals from Tiszadob, the village Eszter Tóth came from.

I have lacked on the research in Büdszentmihály, but I have done extensive research in Tiszadob. This is because Eszter Tóth comes from an extremely noble background; each of her four grandparents were of noble birth. There were two Tóth families, the Bódogh family and the Szük family.

There is a family story or legend that says one of our families was descended from a King from around 1500, and the earlier surname of the family as 'Matis'. We have a distant cousin of ours who lives in Ohio; we're related to her through the Bódogh and Tóth families. Her family also has a family story or legend, and it says that a prince had married a gypsy and he therefore lost all inheritance rights (what a love story, ya?!). If you know anything about either of these stories, or know who might, please contact me.

Tóth is the single most common surname in Hungary, and it means 'Slovak' (the ethnicity).

The Bódogh's were granted a patent of nobility and a coat of arms in 1611 by King Matthias II. The Bódogh name means 'happy'. I currently have 1,370 descendants of the Bódogh family and 374 individuals that carry the surname. This family is the main focus of all my research.

The Szük's were granted a patent of nobility and a coat of arms in 1636 by King Ferdinand II. The Szük name means 'narrow' or 'thin'.

My Mother's side:
As proud as I am of my heritage on my father's side, I am by far more proud of my heritage on my mother's side. The ethnicities of my mother's side is comprised of Bohemian, English, German, Irish, Native American, Scottish and Welsh. Her family consists of individuals involved in the Civil War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, WWI and WWII. It has deeply rooted Native American ancestry connected to the beginning of the United States and Jamestown, royalty from all over Europe, and vast land owners in Germany.

The Rodgers family has been in America since the early 1700's. The oldest-known progenitor is a James Rodgers, who died around 1760 in Virginia. I currently have 1,953 descendants for him in my database, and 552 of them bearing the Rodgers surname.

The Stuempges have an interesting quirk from their early beginning. The oldest-known Stuempges progenitor is a Vit Stümpges, who lived from 1545 to 1592. It is through his granddaughter Giertgen Stümpges (1617-after 1693) that the Stuempges carry their surname. She was married to a Thönis am Bleeckkamp and they had 9 children. Their children carried the Stümpges surname.. their mother's name.. not their father's.

The one last main portion of my research is the Summ/Blum family, from Gutach, Germany. I have many lines dating back to the early, mid or late 1500's. I currently have 928 individuals from Gutach. Our ancestor John George Summ who married Maria Blum, came from a family that owned a house called 'Vogtsbauernhof' in Gutach. This house is currently the main focus point of a large museum in Gutach.