What's Been Going On Lately

I've been doing a lot more Hungarian research lately, in several new towns.  And i've been doing some new nobility research in Zemplén megye as well.  I'm finding that our great-great-grandmother Eszter (Tóth) Gombash's family is much more complex and diverse than I originally thought.

Only a week or two ago, I found the death record for her 2nd great-grandmother, Zsuzsánna (Fekete) Szük.  She died in 1791 at the young age of 38.  What I found in her death record was what I had been hoping for, the mention of 'nemes'.. which of course means 'noble' in Hungarian.  There was another noble Fekete family in the same village, and I have a feeling it might be her nephew's family.  I'm going to have to track this noble Fekete family down.  Just a fun fact; 'Fekete' means 'Black' when translated into English.

As of right now for Eszter (Tóth) Gombash, I have her descending from 6 distinct noble families: Tóth (in 1580), Bódogh (in 1611), Porkoláb (in 1635), Szük (in 1690, possibly previously in 1638), Fekete (unknown date) and Miskolczy (unknown date).

The Miskolczy family comes through Erzsébet Miskolczy.  She was  Eszter (Tóth) Gombash's 3rd great-grandmother.  Erzsébet was born about 1710 and married to András Szük.. they lived in Taktaszada.  There was a very well-to-do land owning Miskolczy family in the neighboring town Mád.  A Péter Miskolczy held possessions in Mád from at least 1670 to 1689.  I believe him to be Erzsébet's grandfather.  This Miskolczy family that resided in Mád was the korponai Miskolczy family, or otherwise known as Miskolczy de Korpona.  This family was a branch of the pávai Miskolczy family (Miskolczy de Páva).  This was a Transylvanian family.  Their coat of arms was recorded in Count Teleki's family archives in Marosvásárhely, Transylvania.  I have ordered the receords for this coat of arms; they should be arriving at my local FHC any day now.  Hopefully there will be some kind of nobility information along with the coat of arms.

I'll have more to write in the next few days.

The Tóth Family: Their Nobility and Coat of Arms!; December 08, 2008

Only two weeks ago, I finally came across our Tóth family's nobility information, along with a coat of arms. In the very reliable source called 'Magyarország Vármegyéi és Városai' by Sámuel Borovszky, I found this information about our Tiszadob Tóth's:

Rudolf királyt

ól kapott armálist. Kihirdettetett Külsõ-Szolnok vármegyében.

T. Mihály 1725-ben Dobon lakott.

Which basically means: Mihály Tóth, living in Tiszadob in 1725,

whose family from Külsõ-Szolnok county was granted nobility by King Rudolf.

Here is the Nobility and Coat of Arms information for the Tóth:

On 26 Feb 1580 in Prague, King Rudolf granted nobility and a coat of arms to four brothers: Imre, Benedek, Jakob a

nd Ambruzs Tóth. It was later recorded in Eger, Heves megye, Hungary in 1583.

It's Been A While; December 08, 2008

I haven't written a blog in quite a while, so I decided it was time to do so.

I'm nearly complete with my Tiszadob transcription project. I have all baptism, marriage and death complete, except for 20 years worth of deaths. I'm hoping it'll be done before the year ends. I'm also contemplating on whether I should begin the same project on a neighboring town to Tiszadob, Taktaszada.

Another addition to the census page for the Tiszadob records soon will be the 1720 census. The Hungarian archives is currently digitizing and transcribing this census.

Soon, I'll also begin undertaking a project for Langlade County, Wisconsin. I ordered the Indexes to the Naturalization records for the county, and I plan on transcribing them and placing an index online. I'll then offer my services to retrieve copies of these records, for a small fee. That small fee will be used to cover my travel, copying and microfilm costs. Don't worry, it'll be a VERY small fee.

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!

RadixLog: Hungarian genealogy news blog; March 31, 2008

I was mentioned on János Bogárdi's genealogy blog RadixLog today! RadixLog has been a great source for links to new records and archives available in Hungary, including news in the Hungarian genealogy world.

János's Radix website is an invaluable resource for the Hungarian genealogist.  With links to such a variety of records and archives, and records held on his site.. it's my first stop when searching for anything.

Thank you, János.. keep up the great work!

Tiszadob, Hungary: Marriage & Census Records; March 31, 2008

I recently decided to gather and put together records to aid in my genealogy research of Tiszadob.  I was contemplating a book, but I later decided a website would be much easier to do.  It'd be more easily available to others also researching in Tiszadob.

I so far have all the marriages of Tiszadob indexed.. that's years 1786 to 1895.  The records began in 1786, go to 1895 and then civil registration began in Hungary in 1896.

I have also added census records for the years 1714, 1715, 1744, 1746, 1828 and 1832.

Tiszadob, Hungary: Eszter Tóth's Ancestry & Family; March 08, 2008

It's been a while since I last wrote, so I decided to write a new entry.  I've done an extensive amount of research in the Tiszadob church parish registers.  In my first entry I mentioned how I had 1,255 individuals from Tiszadob in my database.  After just under a month's worth of research, I now have 1,602.. that's 347 new individuals!

I've also received an email from a wonderful woman named Linda (Toki) Walters, who is a distant relative of ours through the Bódogh family.  Her contacting me with information has added a whole new line of descendancy information to the family tree!

I've recently been thinking about adding a section to the website devoted to the nobility of Tiszadob, which involves our family.. and those that tie into our family.  Of the 1,602 individuals in my database, 699 of them are of noble birth.. so far.  I'm sure I've skipped a few that I need to find.  They're mostly from these families:

Balogh Dancs Péchy Tóth

Baráth Jánossy Porkoláb Zákány

Bódogh Lakatos Szük .