The Hungarian Ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II; Part 2

Earlier today I posted an introduction to a series of posts I'll be writing, about the Hungarian ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II. Not many know she has a Hungarian Countess as a second great-grandmother, let alone much of her Hungarian ancestry at all. My goal is to document that.

In my first post I highlighted Countess Klaudina (various spellings of her first name) Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde and four generations of her ancestors. In this second post, I'll be highlighting Klaudina's paternal second great-grandfather, János Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde. His ahnentafel list is as follows:


First Generation
1. János Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde

Second Generation
2. János Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
3. Margit Kornis de Homoród-Szent-Pál

Third Generation
4. Pál Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
5. Anna Sutha de Ladmócz
6. Ferencz Kornis de Homoród-Szent-Pál
7. Judit Kornis de Homoród-Szent-Pál

Fourth Generation
8. Pál Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
9. unknown
10. György Sutha de Ladmócz
11. unknown
12. Farkas Kornis de Homoród-Szent-Pál
13. Druzsiánna/Katalin Petky de Derzs és Királyhalma
14. Boldizsár Bornemisza de Kápolna
15. Anna Patócsy

Fifth Generation
16. László Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
17. Erzsébet Recsky
18. unknown
19. unknown
20. unknown
21. unknown
22. unknown
23. unknown
24. Miklós Kornis de Homoród-Szent-Pál
25. Borbála Bikly de Bikal
26. János Petky de Derzs és Királyhalma
27. Katalin Kornis de Homoród-Szent-Pál
28. unknown
29. unknown
30. unknown
31. unknown

How To Locate Your Ancestor's Land

After researching my family tree for ten years, I've encountered my fair share of land deeds and records. One of my biggest problems was actually locating where that land lies on present-day maps. It can be quite challenging using old surveyor maps and even present day plat maps, and then matching them up to the maps of today.. like Google Maps. One reason I'm particularly interested in finding where their land actually was, is because this land most likely holds buried family members. Down in the southern states, many family members were buried in family cemeteries on the land the family owned before the time of modern public cemeteries. To even have a chance of finding them, if any markers of any kind still exist at all anymore, you'd need to figure out where the land was that they were living on.

In the past two weeks, I've been able to find some land deeds that pertain to my Howell family from Tippah County, Mississippi (thanks to the new database on FamilySearch!). The person I am most interested in, is Hiram Howell, my 5th-great-grandfather. He was known to have been murdered in 1853 by his son-in-law, Lindsey Slaughter.

Hiram Howell (mistakenly written as Wren Howell) had actually bought his land on 10 Oct 1846 (record on the left) from Lindsey Slaughter, who himself had received the land as part of the homesteading acts. The specific details of the land are the North-East quarter of Section 9, Township 5 South, Range 2 East (NE1/4 of S9 T5S R2E). Just the other day, I stumbled upon a website that would map the exact location of Section 9 for me, using Google Earth. Google Earth is a program that you install on your computer that is much similar to Google Maps, but with much more features and way more powerful. The website is called Earth Point, and it's specifically used as a tool for Google Earth.

Once you get to the page, navigate to the section called "Convert Township, Range, and Section to Latitude and Longitude", as seen on the right. Enter your your data into the drop-down boxes and then click on "Fly To On Google Earth". Open the file once it's finished downloading.

After opening the file, Google Earth will automatically open and bring you to the exact location of Section 9, Township 5 South, Range 2 East, in Tippah County, Mississippi. From there, I can easily find the North-East quarter of Section 9. Pretty cool, huh? To the left is a snapshot of what you'll see. What kind of tools do you use to locate the land of your ancestors?

The Hungarian Ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II; Part 1

With much fanfare going on about the royal wedding, I thought it'd be fun to analyze the Hungarian ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II. Not many people know, but the Queen's second great-grandmother was the Hungarian Countess Klaudina (various spellings out there) Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde.

Countess Klaudina died at the young age of 29 years old. While in Austria at a military event with her husband, Alexander Duke of Württemberg, Klaudina was trampled and killed by horses. Duke Alexander subsequently became mentally unstable afterwards, for the rest of his life. It sounds like it could've been true love, to me!

In the fifth generation of the Ahnentafel chart below, you will find links to information on that individual's ancestors.

Here is an Ahnentafel list for five generations, beginning with Countess Klaudina:


First Generation
1. Countess Klaudina Zsuzsánna Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde

Second Generation
2. Count László Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
3. Baroness Ágnes Inczédy de Nagy-Várad

Third Generation
4. Count Mihály Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
5. Baroness Terézia Bánffy de Losoncz
6. Baron Gergely Inczédy de Nagy-Várad
7. Karoline Barcsay de Nagy-Barcsa

Fourth Generation
8. László Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
9. Mária Toroczkay de Toroczkó-Szent-György
10. Baron Boldizsár Bánffy de Losoncz
11. Krisztina Kemény de Magyar-Gyerő-Monostor
12. Baron Gergely Inczédy de Nagy-Várad
13. Ágnes Kendeffy de Malomviz
14. Péter Barcsay de Nagy-Barcsa
15. Baroness Terézia Inczédy de Nagy-Várad

Fifth Generation
16. János Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde
17. Erzsébet Macskássy de Rápolt
18. István Toroczkay de Toroczkó-Szent-György
19. Borbála Kapy de Kapivár
20. Baron László Bánffy de Losoncz
21. Judit Dániel de Vargyas
22. Simon Kemény de Magyar-Gyerő-Monostor
23. Anna Vay de Vaja
24. Pál Inczédy de Nagy-Várad
25. Klára Lipcsey de Bilke
26. Gáspár Kendeffy de Malomviz
27. Katalin Kún
28. Mihály Barcsay de Nagy-Barcsa
29. Ágnes Wass de Diód-Váralja
30. Baron Sámuel Inczédy de Nagy-Várad
31. Anna Lészay de Szent-Márton

The Second Marriage of Leon Leśniewski

I was recently told about a website which holds some digitized records from the Poznan area of Poland. The website is called "szukaj w archiwach" and you can find it here: http://szukajwarchiwach.pl/ Not everything is digitized yet, but I was fortunate enough to find some records pertaining to my family, the Gotowy's and Leśniewski's.

Although the area is Poland, the records were actually kept in German.. well, these were at least. And if you know me, you know I can read these documents like their English. :-)


Document Number: 41
Registration town and date: Kurnik, 16 Oct 1885

Groom: häusler Leon Lesniewski of the Catholic religion, was born 07 Apr 1825 in Kurnik and is a resident of Daszewice. He is the son of the late (vestorben) maurer (a mason/bricklayer) Melchior and Marianna Kaminska Lesniewski, residents of Kurnik.

Bride: widow (wittwe) Marianna Maczkowiak of the Catholic religion, was born 13 July 1845 in Daszewice and is a resident of Daszewice. She is the daughter of the late (vestorben) häusler Franz and Marianna Smigaj Czubarra, residents of Daszewice.

Witness: Carl Sieben, 59 years old and resident of Kurnik

Witness: Michael Gasinski, 59 years old and resident of Kurnik

Signatures:
Leon Leśneski
+ + + (assumed to be Marianna's signature)
Carl Sieban
Michal Gasinski

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Genea-Wish List

1)  Think of the genealogy related wishes you have - what education, database, or information would make your genealogy research dreams come true?  Be specific - as many wishes as you want to list!

2)  Tell us about some of your genea-wishes in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.


Here's mine:

1)  I wish (a VERY large wish) that all land deeds from all of the United States were digitized and put online. I'd have no problem browsing through the images, if there were digitized index books A-Z. I enjoy browsing through the images.


2)  I wish that all the Hungarian parish registers were digitized and available online. Again, no indexes needed.


3)  I wish that the records for my German ancestors from Brandenburg and Pommern were readily available.. even on microfilm.


4)  I wish that the records for my Polish ancestors from Barycz (Brzozów County) and Osobnica (Jasło County) were readily available.. even on microfilm.


5)  I wish I could find some kind of clue on my 3rd-great-grandmother, Martha A. Miller, the first wife and mother of the children to James A. J. Costilow.


6)  I wish I could break down the brick-wall for my 5th-great-grandfather, Hiram Howell. He was murdered in Tippah County, Mississippi in 1853. Unfortunately, there was a court house fire and not much exists from that time period that is of use.


7)  I wish I knew the maiden name of Hiram Howell's wife, Rachel.


8)  I wish I could find the baptism record for my 3rd-great-grandfather of Martin Domagalski.


9) I wish I could find the original patent of nobility for each of my noble families.


10)  Finally, I wish all Hungarian land records/deeds of any kind could be digitized and available online. Like above, no index needed as long as they're organized by towns. This is a BIG wish!!

FamilySearch Find Of The Day: Tippah County, Mississippi Deed for G. W. Vance

Back in April, I had made a visit to the Newberry library in Chicago, which is known for it's genealogical resources. To my delight, I found a book entitled "Land Deeds of Tippah County, Mississippi, 1836-1870", by Don Martini. I made a post about this in a previous entry, which you can find here. I was thrilled to be able to browse through this book and find the indexed information I needed for my Howell and Vance lines. My brick-wall ancestor, Hiram Howell, was murdered in Tippah County, Mississippi in 1853. His daughter Temperance Howell was married to George W. Vance, place and date unknown.


I was ecstatic today to see that FamilySearch had added a database called "Mississippi, Tippah County Records, 1836-1923". Instantly, I knew I'd be able to view the actual documents from the indexes I had previously obtained. Oh boy, was I excited! The first entry I located was a deed concerning my ancestor, George W. Vance. He apparently owed Jesse Embry $200. George W. Vance's stallion, the "Duke of Gloucester", was taken as collateral and given to Simon R. Spight to sell upon the date the money was due, if not paid in full. Quite interesting! I wonder what made this stallion worth $200 in 1845! Was this stallion a predecessor and ancestor to some modern race horses? Below you can find an extract of the record:

Deeds, 1844-1846, Volume F
Pages 97-98

Simon R. Spight, in trust from G. W. Vance
This indenture made the 24th day of February in the year of our lord one Thousand Eight hundred and fourty five by and between G. W. Vance of the county of Tippah and State of Mississippi of the first partiam, Simon R. Spight of the county and State aforesaid of the other part whereas the said G. W. Vance is indebted to one Jesse Embry in the sum of Two Hundred Dollars by two notes of hand are of which is for one hundred dollars due the 25th day of December 1845 and one also for one hundred dollars due the 25th day of December 1846 each note dated the 25th day of February 1845 and the same G. W. Vance being willing to give Jesse Embry a certain assurance that his money shall be paid at the expiration of the time specified in each note Therefore this indenture witnessth that the said G. W. Vance as well in consideration of securing the said Jesse Embry in the faithfull payment of the debt as also the sum of one dollar to him the said G. W. Vance in hand paid by the said Simon R. Spight the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath granted bargain sold transfered and assigned and set over and by these presents doth grant bargains sell assign transfer and set over to the said S. R. Spight his heirs and assigns _?_ _?_ Stallion known by the name of Duke of Gloucester to have and to hold the said horse unto the said S. R. Spight his heirs and assigns forever in trust however and to the intent and purpose that if the said two notes for the sum of one hundred dollars each are not well and truly paid of and discharged before the expiration of the respective times specificed 25th December 1845 and 25th December 1846 for one hundred dollars each by the said G. W. Vance or some other person for him then in that case the said S. R. Spight shall in the executing the trust hereby taken upon himself Advertise the said Horse for the span of twenty days by written advertisement at four public places in said county one of which shall be at the court house door of the county aforesaid that he will expose to the highest bidder the said Horse on a particular day for ready money and if the money aforesaid be not still paid on the day designated as aforesaid then the said S. R. Spight shall proceed to sell the above described Horse to the highest bidder for ready money and aforesaid sale to make a good and sufficient bill of sale in for said Horse conveying all the right and will that said G. W. Vance or his heirs may have in and to hoe same provided nevertheless that the said money should be paid before the day of sale herein mentioned these this indenture to be wholely void and of no effect either in law or equily in witness whereof the said G. W. Vance sets his hand an seal the date above written.

G. W. Vance (Seal)

List
CHarles G. Yancey
Richard Shelton
James H. Embry

FamilySearch Find Of The Day: Death Certificate Of Eszter Tóth Gombash

Today I'm highlight the death certificate of my great-great-grandmother, Eszter Tóth Gombash. She was born in the village of Tiszadob, in Szabolcs county, Hungary. Her parents were Károly Tóth and Mária Tóth. Yes, that was also Mária's last name, they were actually 4th cousins. She was married to my 2nd-great-grandfather, Sándor Gombás, in both Tiszadob and Büdszentmihály (the village Sándor was from), in 1895. They had a few children in Hungary and eventually immigrated to America, settling in Butler County, Pennsylvania, until Sándor's death in 1931.

Here is an extract of the record:

Reg. Dist. No.: 475
Primary Reg. Dist. No.: 4719
State File No.: 23475
Registrar's No.: 3
1a. Place of Death, County: Guernsey
1b. Place of Death, City or Village: Richland Twp.
1c. Place of Death, Length of Stay: 2 yrs
2a. Usual Residence, State: Pa
2b. Usual Residence, County: Butler
2c. Usual Residence, City or Village: Emleton P.A.
3. Name of Deceased: Esther Gombash
4. Date of Death: 4-4-50 (04 Apr 1950)
5. Sex: Female
6. Color or Race: White
7. Married, Never Married, Widowed, Divorced: Widow
8. Date of Birth: Sept 22, 1874
9. Age: 76
10a. Usual Occupation: Housewife
10b. Kind of Business or Industry: Own Home
11. Birthplace: Austria Hungary
12. Citizen of What Country: USA
13. Father's Name: Charles Toth
14. Mother's Name: Mary Toth
17. Informant's Signature: Mrs. Michael Mayors (Julia Gombash)
18. Cause of Death, I. Disease or Condition Directly Leading to Death: (a) Aortic valvulitis, several years
18. Cause of Death, I. Disease or Condition Directly Leading to Death: Due To (b) Syphilis probably
20. Autopsy? No
22. I hereby certify that I attended the deceased from 3/7, 1950, to 4/2, 1950, and that death occured at 4:30pm, from the causes and on the date stated above.
23a. Signature: William W. Bryant MD
23b. Address: Senecaville, Ohio
23c. 4/14/50
24a. Burial, Cremation, Removal: Burial
24b. Date: April 7, 50
24c. Name of Cemetery or Crematory: Old Anadale
24d. Location: Anadale, PA
Name of Embalmer: Charles R. Corwin, (Lic. No.) 3164A
Date Rec'd By Local Reg.: Apr 19, 1950
Registrar's Signature: James Stevens
25. Funeral Director's Signature: Wayne D. Womer, Clintonville, PA, (Lic. No.) 3926