My article for the 22nd Edition of Carnival of Eastern and Central European Genealogy

When I first received the email from Al Wierzba asking me to write a genealogy article, I was very excited by the idea. The article would be included in the 22nd edition of The Carnival of Eastern and Central European Genealogy. The topic of this edition is roadblocks and breakthroughs.

I immediately began to think of which family line I would write about. I have several lines of ancestry originating from Eastern or Central Europe. As I was thinking about the article and which line I would write about, it dawned upon me that I really haven't had very many roadblocks in my European research. I finally decided on one specific family, thinking the significance of this family would give a sliver of hope to others.

My decision rested upon my 2nd-great-grandmother, Anna Weishaupt, and her family. Anna was born in 1867 in Bohemia to Joseph Weishaupt and Maria Anna Kasper. She was one of eight children. Anna married my 2nd-great grandfather, Johann Phillip Stuempges, 20 years later.

When I initially started my research about 7-8 years ago, I knew very little on Anna and her family. Not long after I began, I obtained a 'family story' written in the 1960's by Erma Stuempges Kerska, about the Stuempges and Weishaupt families. The story went into great detail about the personalities of every family member, passing on the memories she remembered as a girl. As I read, I finally came upon information on Anna's parents. It had stated that her father, Joseph Weishaupt, had been a soldier in the Austrian army prior to the family's immigration.

This tiny piece of information would finally lead me to find out where the Weishaupt family had come from in Bohemia. I then went to my local FHC and ordered a microfilm containing Bohemian military personnel records for the years 1820-1864. On these records I found exactly what I had been hoping for! The record listed his name and birthyear (which was correct), along with his birthtown and the county it was in, in Bohemia.. Graber, Leitmeritz, Bohemia. Graber is known today as Kravaře, Litoměřice, Czech Republic.

Using that information I then proceeded to check the Family History Library Catalog for records for this town. Nothing existed. Further research along with correspondence with the Leitmeritz archives revealed that the records had never been filmed and there were no plans in the future for them to ever be filmed. Knowing that informtion, I figured the only way to research this line was to physically go there and do the research or hire a professional. Neither of those would have worked at 17 years old; I never could've afforded either! I had completely given up on that line for good.

Six years passed and the LDS released great news that they were beginning to digitize and put online their mountain-full of microfilm. Knowing the records for Graber had never been microfilmed, I didn't give much hope or thought to the idea of Bohemian or Czech Republic records appearing on the LDS's new website, RecordSearch. Now boy was I surprised when I logged onto RecordSearch one day in late 2008. I saw Czech Republic records from the Litoměřice archive! I immediately clicked on the database and scrolled through the list of towns and villages and saw neither Graber or Kravaře.. I had gotten my hopes up for nothing! It wasn't until six or seven months later when RecordSearch updated the database a second time, when Kravaře finally appeared!

Now the records available on RecordSearch ended in 1833/1834, so I knew I couldn't find Anna's baptism or even her parent's marriage record. Thankfully, I knew both of her parents full birthdate.. her father Joseph being born in 1827 and her mother being born in 1834 (how lucky was I that it wasn't after 1834!) I've now been able to trace at least 6 generations of ancestors for Anna and her siblings

I know this article isn't necessarily a brick-wall or a roadblock, but it is by far a breakthrough. Researchers all over the world are now gaining the capability of knocking down brick-walls, that we never would've imagined possible.

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.

Hungarian Parish Records Guide #1

I thought it would be a great idea to create a few guides to help others with their research. These series of guides will be all about parish records and how to decipher them. I'll include image examples to help explain as well. I'll also do a range of records from different points in time. I'll do this because the records usually tended to change drastically from whenever they began to 1895.

The first few guides will pertain to the Hungarian Reformed Church (Magyarországi Református Egyház). It is the second-largest denomination in Hungary. The first is, of course, Roman Catholic. The Hungarian Reformed Church is in the Calvinist tradition, therefore it is sometimes refered to in English as the Calvinist Church.

Let's begin with a style of record you're most likely to encounter when you first begin your research. This is a baptism from 1895.

(Click the image for a larger view)


The top left and right of each page should give a page number, no matter which denomination church records you're viewing. Beginning on the left page are the typed words "Keresztségi anyakönyv a" , meaning "Baptism register the". This is followed by written words "taktaszadai ev. ref." This is simply the name of the town and which denomination church these records belong to. The following page begins with "egyházban 1895-ik esztendöben. This means "church in the year 1895". So the heading of the pages mean "Baptism registers of the Taktaszada Evangelical Reformed church in the year 1895".
The first column is "Sorszám" which means "Number".
The second column is "Napja a", meaning "Day of". This is followed by two subsequent columns below it: "születésnek" and "keresztelésnek". The first meaning birth and the second meaning baptism, so naturally "Day of birth" and "Day of baptism".
The third column is "A keresztelendõ", meaning "The christened's". Then this is followed by four subsequent columns. The first of which is "neve", which translates literally to mean "name". The next is "neme" which means "gender", and followed by two more subsequent columns. The first is "fi" meaning "male" and the second is "nõ" meaning "female". The last two subsequent columns are "törvényes" and "törvénytelen". They mean "legitimate" and "illegitimate".
The fourth column is "Nevük és polgári állásuk a szülléknek". This means "The names and occupations of the parents".
The fifth column, which begins on the second page, is "Lakhely, házszám". "Lakhely" means "location" and "házszám" means "house number".
The sixth column is "Nevük és polgári állásuk a keresztszülléknek". This means "The names and occupations of the baptismal parents". They are otherwise known as the god-parents or sponsors.
The seventh column is "Keresztelõ személy neve". This means "Name of the baptizer". This was usually the priest or pastor of the church.
The eigth and last column is "Észrevételek". This means "comments".

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/

New Website!!!

I've finally moved my website from rootsweb onto a server hosted by my friend Cathy Napolitan, and i'm able to use the Gombash domain name. (THANK YOU, CATHY!!) From now on, please use:

http://www.gombash.com/

I've been thinking and i've done quite a bit in the past few months already. I've created indexes to several more of the Naturalization records for Langlade County (which you can find here: http://www.gombash.com/rodgers/langlade/)

I've also created two indexes related to Hungarian nobility research. They are the Hungarian Nobility Investigations 1725-1726 for Szabolcs megye (county) and Zemplén megye (county). It's a listing of all the nobles living in specific towns through-out then entire counties. You can find them here: http://www.gombash.com/gombash/hungary.html

I've also been doing research in the Catholic parish records for Kravare in Bohemia. RecordSearch recently updated the database and the records for this town are now available. Kravare.. which was called Graber before all the World Wars happened, was the birthplace of 2nd-great-grandmother Anna Weishaupt. I've come across some pretty interesting and different surnames I've never seen before: Grundmann, Heller, Kasper, Matzken, Paschant, Reichenbach, Sandrich, Schicketantz, Schneller, Seeman, Tietze/Tieze, Vogel, Weishaupt, Wenzel. If you're researching any of these names from the Bohemia area, PLEASE contact me! They include the towns Graber, Bleiswedel, Johnsdorf, Schönau, Schönborn and Sterndorf. They are in the county of Leitmeritz in Northern Bohemia, roughly 40 miles North of Prague.

New Blog & Hungarian Resources

I decided to transfer my old blog from my genealogy site (which I made by hand), onto this site the other day.  This way it should be much easier to write whenever I feel like it, and without having to do a lot of HTML stuff.

Recently I decided to make a website and publish myself 'out-there' in the world, as a genealogist-for-hire.  It took a few weeks to create and finally fix all the wording and such.  My main areas of research consist of German and Hungarian research.  You should take a look at my website.. you might find me of some use to you in the near future (I hope!.. haha):

http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gombashfamily/hire/

I also wanted to devote part of this entry for a list of links that I use on a continual basis for my Hungarian research.  I always seem to find myself returning to these links for help/information.  Give them a try:

http://www.familysearch.org/ (The LDS.. most important link, by far. TONS of Resources.)

http://www.radixhub.com/ (Great Hungarian resources, by my friend János in Hungary)

http://www.radixlog.com/ (My friend János's "Hungarian genealogy news blog")

http://dict.sztaki.hu/english-hungarian (English-Hungarian / Hungarian-English Online Dictionary)

http://www.sciway3.net/scgenweb/oconee-county/names.html (Versions of Names: Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovakian, Rusian)

 

http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/maps/1910/vmlista.htm (1910 Austria-Hungary County Maps)

http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm (1910 Austria-Hungary Military Map survey)

http://www.maproom.org/00/32/index.php (1880 Hungarian County Maps)

http://lazarus.elte.hu/moterkep/indul.htm (2006 Hungarian Road Map Online.. Great Map!)

http://www.arcanum.hu/mol/ (Hungarian Archives Online, includes the 1715 census)

http://www.arcanum.hu/oszk/ (The National Széchenyi Library Databases)

http://www.arcanum.hu/gesta/ (Old Hungarian Geography Database)

http://www.szabarchiv.hu/lt/regeszta/keres_telep.php (Online archives of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, LOTS of valuable census and taxation records.. digital images!)

http://genealogy.euweb.cz/ (European Royalty/Nobility.. Great Section on Noble Hungarian Families)

There may be more to add later on!  I hope these help at least one person.  :)

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.