Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use various ways to obtain this information about families / family trees including, historical records, genetic analysis, surveys, interviews and other records. In this section we would like to provide those South Africans who suspect or know that they might have some family or ancestral link to Hungary, and would like to explore this further.

This can be particularly useful to those South Africans who are interested in:

Searching for their relatives in Hungary
Researching their Family Tree and European Roots
Pursuing the opportunity to prove their Hungarian lineage and thereby applying for Hungarian Citizenship and Passport

We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.– Lian Callanan

It is important to note that the Hungarian Government made some significant positive reforms with regards to claiming Hungarian citizenship based on Hungarian ethnicity and also Ancestry for e.g. On 26 May 2010, Hungary’s Parliament passed a bill granting dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living outside of Hungary. There are other laws and statutes that have also been promalgated by the Hungarian government which now provide the opportunity for people with an ethnic or ancestral relation to Hungary to apply for citizenship.

A useful Guide to Researching Your Hungarian Ancestors – Using Central European Records

It is important to note that Hungary was far larger than its present day area. For e.g. Hungary lost more than two-thirds of its territory after the I and II World Wars. Hungary original territories included present-day Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, north Serbia, Slovenia, Transylvania (today northwestern part of Romania, and sub-Carpathian – Western region of Ukraine.

1867-1918 it was a partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire, with a dual monarchy. Hungary controlled not only controlled its core territories including Transylvania (Erdély in Hungarian), Upper Hungary (Felvidék in Hungarian), Kárpátalja (today part of South-West Ukraine), Vajdaság (South of Hungary), but also the following regions: * Banat next to Transylvania * Carpatho-Rus or Sub-Carpathia Region * Croatia including Slavonia * Slovenia * Serbia * Bosnia *

Early civil registration records have been catalogued at town / village levels and placed on microfilm at the Family History Library. However good quality effective civil Registration of vital records in Hungarian territories began in 1895.

To Note: Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size.

Church records have proved to be excellent sources of information covering earlier periods, with many registers being available on microfilm. Before 1781, all major records were kept by the Roman Catholic Church; while following this period, for research periods, it would be useful to have some idea of the religious affiliation of your forefathers.

Interestingly there are also some census records for the Austri-Hungarian empire; which have been used by genealogists and researchers. The census records date back to the periods: 1828, 1848, 1857, and for the year 1867.