Hungarian Parish Records Guide #2

In continuing with the Hungarian Reformed Church parish records, I decided on two marriage records for 1895. The first one will be from a village called Taktaszada and the second being from Tiszadob. I'm doing two villages because the style of the records are different.

Let's begin with the marriage from Taktaszada.


(Click the image for a larger view)

The title of the page says "Házassági életre öszveadattak anyakönyve." Keeping it simple, this means "Marriage Register", with "házsassági" meaning "marriage".

The first column states "Folyószám" and means "Current number".

The second column states "Éve és napja az öszvecsketésnek" and this means "Year and date of the marriage".

The third column states "A völegény" which means "The groom", and is followed by six subsequent columns. The first of which is "Neve és polgári állása". This means "Name and civil standing", as in the occupation. The second column is "Szüléinek neve" which means "Name of parents". The third column is "Származásának és lakásának helye, száma a háznak". This means "Place of origin and current location, and house number. The fourth column is religions, "Vallása". The fifth column is the age of the groom, "Életkora". The sixth column, "Állapota", is the groom's "Condition". His choices were either single, "Nötlen", or widowed "Özvegy".

The fourth column states "A menyasszony", which is simply "The bride". "Asszony" means "woman", as in a married woman. There are also six subsequent columns for the bride, just like for the groom. They all mean the exact same thing.

The fifth column states "Neveik és polgári állásuk a tanúknak". This means "Name and civil standing of the witnesses".

The sixth column states "Neve és hivatala az esketónek" which means "Name and office of the priest".

The seventh column states "Hirdettek-e vagy feloldeztattak a hirdetés alól, felsõségi rendelet utján vagy valamely akadály miatt." This may be confusing to some. It states whether the bride and groom have published their intent to marriage in their local area, as ordered by regulation. This was ordered incase a bride or a groom was not capable of being married, (ie. already married, an arranged marriage was proposed with one of the individual, or if someone objected to the marriage for some reason. Most usually it states their intent was published for three consecutive days prior to the marriage.

The last column is the "Comments" column, with "Comments" translating to be "Észrevételek".

Now let's begin on the marriage from Tiszadob.
(Check out my g-g-grandparents marriage at number 11!)

(Click the image for a larger view)

The heading is different in the Tiszadob marriage record. It states "Esketési Jegyzõkönyv", which means "Marriage Protocol".

As in the Taktaszada marriage record, the first two columns are the same. The second column bearing the dates is only worded slightly differently as "Év és napja az esketésnek".

The third column is "Võlegénynek és Menyasszonynak" which means "Grooms and Brides". This column have five subsequent columns. The first of which is the name and civil standing column, "Neve és állapota". The second column is "Születési és lakhelye a házszámával", which means "Place of birth and current location, and house number". The next three columns are the same as they appear in the Taktaszada document. They are the columns for Religion, Age and their Condition (whether single or widowed).

The fourth column, which begins on the second page, is "Tanuk neve, állapota". These are the "Witness names and status".

The fifth column is the same as the one in the Taktaszada document, as it pertains to the pastor who performed the ceremony.

The sixth column is again the same column, as it pertains to the dates of proclamating their marriage to any who may object.

The last column is the same as Taktaszada, being the "Comments" column.

As you can see, these two marriage records in the majority are similar. But you can see subtle differences that appear in the style and layout of the document. I think this is a great example of how records from the same point in time don't necessarily have to look exactly the same. Also as a side note, Taktaszada and Tiszadob are neighboring villages.