János Cserpák, Part 2

Three months ago, I found a headstone for a fellow Hungarian. His name was János Cserpák, and I explained my find in this entry here. I've been able to find more information on this young man, and his family. I hope that one of his very distant nieces or nephews finds these blog entries one day and finds them useful. :)

As I already know from János's headstone and immigration manifest, he was born on 22 Jul 1903 in Vencsellő. I do know that he was the son of Jakab and Mária Cserpák. Well, thankfully for FamilySearch and their wonderful uploading of digitized records, I was able to find his birth record! FamilySearch has a database for Hungarian civil registration records for various counties. I love these records! I just wish they had them available for my towns of Tiszadob and Büdszentmihály/Tiszavasvári. But anyway, back to my story!

I was able to find János's birth record and here is the wonderful information I was able to find out:


János was born on 22 Jul 1903 at 284 Kápolna street in Vencsellő, to parents Jakab Cserpák and Mária Türk. His parents are both listed as being born and residing in Vencsellő, and both of the Roman Catholic faith. His father's occupation is listed as "igás kocsis" which translates out to be draft-carter or draft-teamster. Not sure what kind of occupation is. Any ideas? It lists his father is 24 years old and his mother is 22 years old.

Well noting that both parents, Jakab and Mária, were born in Vencsellő, I figured their marriage record would be here too. And I was right!


They were married on 12 Jan 1902 in Vencsellő, and this document lists their parents names, birth dates and places.

Jakab Cserpák was born on 22 Dec 1878 in Vencsellő. His parents are the late János Cserpák, a day laborer and Mária Bereznai, both were residents of Vencsellő. Mária Türk was born on 28 Jan 1882 in Vencsellő. Her parents are the late Ignácz Türk, a day laborer as well, and Anna Héri, both were also residents of Vencsellő.

Noticing the Héri surname, I can make the assumption that the "Jacob Iheri" living with the Jakab and Mária Cserpák family in Chicago, in the 1920 census.. is a relative to Mária somehow.

Interestingly enough, I have a friend who's trying to research his surname of Bereznai, the same surname as Jakab Cserpák's mother. I may have found a new lead for him!

Tombstone Tuesday - János Cserpák

I was at the Mount Olivet Catholic cemetery yesterday, which is on the south side of Chicago. I was originally looking for my half-uncle's great-grandmother, Anna Felton nee Vearon or Vieron. I found her lot easily enough and she unfortunately didn't have headstone or marker. Neither did the random three other people completely unrelated to her, that were around her. Quite sad.

While walking back to my car I stumbled upon a headstone of a fellow Hungarian: János Cserpák. His headstone stated he was born on 22 Jul 1903 and he died on 20 Mar 1922 at the age of 18 years old. I snapped two pictures of his headstone; one of the headstone and one of the picture on the top. You can see them below:





During the car ride home I got to wondering what he could have died from so young. I got home and went onto FamilySearch's Record Search and searched for him in the Cook County, Illinois Deaths, 1878-1922. I found his death certificate listed under John Cherpak. In Hungarian, "CS" is pronounced "CH" as in 'chug'. The Americanized spelling of his name makes perfect sense.

John died at his home, 916 East 92nd Place in Chicago, on 20 Mar 1922. He was buried two days later in Mount Olivet cemetery on 22 Mar 1922. The cause of death is listed as "Lobar pneumonia" for the duration of 4 days and the secondary contributor was "cardiac failure". It's sad to think that something as common as pneumonia is so easily cured with today's medicine. He was listed as 18 years old and was a machinist at the "Nickle Plate R.R." His parents are listed as Jacob Cherpak and Mary Turk. John and his parents were listed as being born in "Austria". His father was the informant for the death certificate.



I found the Cherpak family in the 1920 census living at 916 East 92nd Place in Chicago, Illinois:
Cherpak, Jacob, Head, 52, married, immigrated 1911, alien, Hungary
Cherpak, Mary, Wife, 41, married, immigrated 1913, alien, Hungary
Cherpak, John, Son, 16, single, immigrated 1913, alien, Hungary
Cherpak, Anna, Daughter, 14, single, immigreated 1913, alien, Hungary
Iheri, Jacob, Boarder, 48, married, immigrated 1912, alien, Hungary

Jacob was a carpenter for the railroad shop and John (2 years before his death) was an apprentice at the railroad shop. Looking at the whole census page, every single family was Hungarian.. it must've been a predominantly Hungarian area that they lived in.

I was then able to locate John with his mother and sister in the Ellis Island passenger manifests. They were listed as Cserpak Mária (30), Cserpak János (9) and Cserpak Anna (7). They were of both Hungarian nationality and race. Their last residence, which happened to also be their place of birth, is a town called Vencsellő. They were residing with Mária's mother Anna Turk. (John's death record stated his mother's maiden name was Turk!) They were traveling to their husband and father Cserpak Jakab in Chicago. Vencsellő was in Szabolcs county of Hungary and was actually not too far from where my family came from. Vencsellő is roughly an hour North-East of Tiszadob and Büdszentmihály (now Tiszvasvári). Today, Vencsellő is combined with the town of Gáva and called Gávavencsellő (how original, huh?).

I've actually been researching in the Reformed church records of Gáva with my friend Sharon for her noble Bakó family, for the past few weeks. What are the odds? :)

Record Search Pilot Is Coming To An End...

And with that end, comes the full release of Record Search! Recently, there was a "Record Search Beta" that I participated in, to test and send feedback on the final release of Record Search. As of today, this Beta version has ended. The final release of Record Search is planned to be released next week, including some new databases not previously published in the Pilot version. I've been waiting a long time for this, and I hope they continue to add German and Hungarian records. :)

Here is the full message I received today:

"The Record Search Beta has ended. Thank you so much for your help in testing this new release. We received some great feedback are now working to fix the issues you reported. The beta site might be available for a few more days if you want to continue to use it, however we will not be contacting you when it is no longer available.

What is our plan going forward:

Our plan (which always seems to change) is to release this new version of Record Search next week. Shortly after this release you will see some new collections published that were not part of the beta test and have not previously been available. This release expands our capacity to publish records and we hope to continue to publish new collection every week, so please keep checking the Record Search web site to see what is new.

Thank you again for all of your help.

Record Search Beta Team"

Record Search Findings: The Egyptologist, Howard Carter's Grandparents

I have a interesting habit of researching and snooping around the genealogies and family trees of celebrities and well-known people. Today, while playing around on FamilySearch's pilot Record Search, I noticed they recently uploaded Norfolk parish registers for England. Knowing that Howard Carter's (the famous Egyptologist who discovered King Tut's tomb in the early 1920's) family was originally from Norfolk county, I was curious if I could find some records on his family. Why I knew they were from Norfolk, I haven't the slightest idea.. :)

Anyway, his paternal grandparents were Samuel John Carter and Frances Spinks from Swaffham in Norfolk county. They were married there on 28 Feb 1832, page 21. You can see their marriage record below (click to enlarge).

It's A New Year!

Well, the new year is finally here. 2009 definitely was a great year for genealogy resources & records, but with 2010 it'll just keep getting better and better.

Organizations, counties and societies all across the country are digitizing and putting online their records. FamilySearch's project entitled RecordSearch has come a long way since it began. To date, it's currently at 165 different databases ranging from all around the world. And hopefully that list will grow vastly during this upcoming year. I consider RecordSearch the most vital new research tool to any and all genealogists. It's continually updating and uploading new records and it won't stop, for years to come. And the best part.. it's free! Here's a little wish list of records I'd like to see appear on RecordSearch:

• Completion of the Brandenburg records
• Completion of the Posen records
• Prussian Parish Registers
• Hungarian Parish Registers
• Baden & Württemburg Parish Registers
• Southern Poland Parish Registers
• Land Deed records for USA (grantor/grantee)

2009 was a grim year for my family. I had 4 aunt and uncles (Ray Heffner, Gloria Flemming Kolpack, Leonard Martin and Kathy Felton Larmon Johnson), 1 close cousin (Brian Loney) and 4 distant cousins (James E. Blaylock, James E. Howard, Leslie Scott Rodgers and Patrick Swayze.. yes, the actor) pass away this year. This definitely wasn't a good year. In hopes that 2010 would bring more happiness, it was quickly taken down by the passing of another 3rd cousin on January 2nd, Henry A. Jablon. Rest In Peace, my family, and let's all hope for a much brighter year.

Now on a happier note, I thought I would discuss the best genealogical find of the year for me. It was the marriage record for my 7th-great-grandparents, Mihály Tóth and Mária Izdenczy de Komlós.

Marriage of Mihály Tóth & Mária Izdenczy de Komlós - 29 Sep 1715

They were married on 29 Sep 1715 in Bőcs, Borsod county, Hungary. You can see the image of their marriage record above. You can see in the beginning it names "Mich. Tótt" and the second line begins the bride's name "Relicta Martini Isdentzi ?? Maria Komlosiensis". This states Mária, daughter of the widow of Márton Izdenczy. The date begins on the third line "29 7bris 1715". This is September 29th, 1715. The witnesses to the marriage consist of the remaining marriage information: (in Hungarian) György Kohányi, László Kohányi, András Balog.

Now for the good stuff! The Izdenczy family is a very old noble Hungarian family, who can trace their roots back to a man named Márk who lived during the reign of King Sámuel Aba of Hungary (1041-1044). Now, Mária's father Márton Izdenczy was a militaryman. In 1685 he was in top command of the Tokaj fortress under Prince Imre Thökölyi. Later on in the 1709, he served under Prince Ferencz Rakóczy II. Márton held land possessions in Komlós in Sáros county and Bodrog-Keresztur in Zemplén county.

Land Deed - 1696
Not long after I found the marriage record, I found a land deed record dating from 1696. It contained vital information needed to connect me back to two more ancestral families: Berzeviczy de Berzevicze and Horváth de Perlak.
The main important part of the document is highlighted and underlined in red. Click on the image for a larger view. Here is the excerpt of the key information: "Barbaram, Martini Izdenczy consortem filiamuero praenarrati Stephani quondem Horvath de Perlak, ex praedicta Nobili condem prae Margaretha Berzeviczy". This means Borbála (Barbara), wife of Márton Izdenczy, daughter of István (Stephen) Horváth de Perlak and Margit (Margaretha) Berzeviczy. You can find information on the Berzeviczy family on a previous post of mine entited "My Aristocratic Cousins!".
It's amazing to know that one single marriage record unlocked a treasure trove of information, all freely available on the internet. My next task now, is to track down information on the nobility and family tree of the Izdenczy's. And secondly to connect my Margit Berzeviczy into the MASSIVE Berzeviczy family tree, which is heavily documented and dates back to the 1200's.

FamilySearch is at it again.. now it's Budapest Civil Registration Records!!

FamilySearch Record Search has now uploaded and made viewable the Budapest Civil Registration records from 1895-1972. This is a vast amount of records, and it will no doubt come to use to MANY researchers, including myself! I can't wait to see what Hungarian records they add next! :)

Go check it out here:

http://search.labs.familysearch.org/

Researching Chicago Family Trees

I'm becoming quite the whiz at researching families from Chicago and the Chicago area. There are so many resources available online now, that it just makes it so much easier to do. Here are some great links I use on a regular basis with my research:

Cook County, Clerk of the Circuit Court

Index to Naturalizations-Declarations of Intention, 1871-1929

http://198.173.15.34/NR/

Cook Count Clerk's Office - Genealogy Online

http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com/

Databases at the Illinois State Archives

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

A Look At Cook

Street and ED Guide for Census for Cook County

http://alookatcook.com/

Polish Genealogical Society of America

http://www.pgsa.org/

FamilySearch & RecordSearch

http://www.familysearch.org/

FamilySearch Record Search: Update On Progress!; April 15, 2008

I corresponded today with the "FamilySearch Support" team that answers questions and comments about the new projects that FamilySearch has been developing.  Now keep in mind this information is in no way accurate, it may change.. it is only an estimate:

The main objective of RecordSearch and the mass digitization project of the microfilm archives, is to eliminate the need to circulate the actual microfilm to your local FHC's.  I was told that there are 2.5 millions rolls of microfilm held in the vaults waiting to be digitized.  Now with the equipment they have, they can scan and digitize 1,000 rolls of microfilm a day.. so it can take nearly 10 years, as I was told (again only an estimate, and the numbers could change).

I personally think this project is GREAT!  I would love to be in Salt Lake City helping out with digitizing, but I can help at home by going to FamilySearch Indexing and transcribe and index records that had already been digitized.  I have written about this Indexing project before, and so far it has already shown promising signs on the Record Search portion of the site, with the digitized images.  It's just amazing how fast things can be done!  I can't wait for things to get fully underway and to start seeing some major results!  I'm hoping to see a huge new interest into the genealogy world by newbies in the next few years.. I can't wait!