A historical guide to Hungarian genealogy research. László “Laci/Les” Apáthy assembled these twelve pointers from decades of family-history and heraldry research. The guide was first circulated in April 2003. Websites, prices, software, mailing lists, and researcher details may have changed; verify them before relying on them. Broken links, duplicate signatures, and private home-contact details in the imported copy have been removed.

1. A handy Hungarian genealogical-records guide

Handy Guide to Hungarian Genealogical Records, by Jared H. Suess and originally published by Everton Publishers, is an 8½ × 11-inch, approximately 81-page paperback. The guide includes:

• a short history of Hungary;
• the Hungarian alphabet and basic grammar rules;
• examples from parish registers;
• Hungarian personal names and English translations;
• Hungarian, Latin, and German genealogical vocabulary; and
• German, Russian, Serbian, and Croatian alphabets.

The author found the Latin vocabulary especially valuable when reading Roman Catholic records. The original page listed Everton Publishers and Genealogy Unlimited as sellers, with a historical price of about US$10.50 plus shipping. Those purchasing details are preserved only as historical context.

2. Hungarian nobility and heraldry

For research into Hungarian noble families, the guide recommends Iván Nagy’s Magyarország családai czímerekkel és nemzékrendi táblákkal, originally published in thirteen volumes between 1857 and 1868 and later issued digitally. It catalogs Hungarian noble families and includes coats of arms and genealogical tables.

The author also recommends Béla Kempelen’s family-history works and the Arcanum databases. Searching required the correct Hungarian spelling, including accents: a search for “Apáthy,” for example, produced 24 results. The guide’s original private seller addresses and time-sensitive CD prices have been omitted.

3. FEEFHS resources

The guide strongly recommends the Hungarian genealogy resources once maintained by the Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS). Its server linked to many specialized Eastern and Central European research sites. Some paths cited in the original document did not survive the import, so researchers should search the current FEEFHS site or web archives by resource title.

4. Professional researchers

The original guide listed the following researchers and services. This is a historical directory, not a current endorsement; confirm that each person or organization is still active.

1. József Berkes, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest.
2. Family Tree Ltd., Genealogical Research Bureau; George Eötvös was listed as partner and research director. The service was associated with the Hungarian Roots List.
3. Hungarogens, then directed by Dr. Sándor Harmath. Historical domains: genealogy.hu and genealogy-hungary.hu.
4. Gordon Hillman, Ontario, Canada. The original guide quoted a historical hourly research rate.
5. Péter Bárdossy, Budapest. Historical website: bardossy.hu.
6. Felix G. Game, an Austro-Hungarian genealogy specialist in Ontario.
7. Yourself. The guide’s central advice is to learn the catalog structure and begin your own search before hiring someone.

5. Telephone directories

A national telephone directory can help locate a surname, address, telephone number, and occasionally an occupation. The Hungarian and Romanian directory links were missing from the imported copy. Search for each country’s current official directory and remember that modern privacy rules make these listings less comprehensive than they were when this guide was written.

6. Hungary mailing lists

HUNGARY-L and Hunroots served people interested in genealogy and history across Hungary and lands formerly within Austria-Hungary. The guide gave the historical subscription addresses HUNGARY-L-request@rootsweb.com and hunroots@euroweb.hu. These addresses may no longer operate; archived list discussions may still be searchable.

7. Banat genealogy

Banat genealogy resources focus especially on German settlers who arrived between 1748 and 1835. The historical Banat—formerly part of the Austrian Empire and later divided among Romania, Yugoslavia, and Hungary—included Torontál, Temes, and Krassó-Szörény counties, north of the Danube, east of the Tisza, and south of the Maros.

The guide praised the Banat genealogy site’s map room, surname search, and carefully organized regional material. It also cited BANAT-L, a mailing list for researchers of the region, with the historical subscription address banat-l-request@rootsweb.com.

8. FamilySearch and its catalog

In May 1999, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints placed a large family-history database online through FamilySearch. At the time, the church described a collection of more than 400 million names. The service allowed searches by a relative’s name and parents, and connected users with the church’s catalog and other genealogy websites.

The author found the online Family History Library Catalog faster and easier to use than its earlier CD edition. It revealed records that might otherwise have been missed and allowed researchers to prepare film requests from home.

Place search

The catalog is organized largely by the jurisdiction that created a record. Start with the town, village, county, or country. Leaving the “part of” field blank often produced better results in the older interface. After finding a promising collection—church records, for example—open its film notes to see the contents of each microfilm.

Surname search

The surname search covers catalog holdings; it is distinct from databases containing individual genealogical records. Think of it as a library card catalog organized around books, films, and collections.

Other searches

The catalog also supports searches by author, title, subject, film or fiche number, locality, and surname. Choose the search type that matches what you already know.

How the catalog is structured

For an ancestor from a settlement in historical Hungary, search at three levels: the settlement, the megye (county), and the country.

• Settlement level: church records, some civil records, local histories, muster rolls, and related material. Records may be filed under a neighboring village if that village contained the church.
• County level: nobility records, county histories, maps, and records created by the county administration.
• Country level: national histories, bibliographies, feudal land records, immigration and emigration records, and some census collections.

When borders moved, search every later country and every known spelling. A village now in Slovakia may have resources filed under both Slovakia and Hungary. A county may appear under both Hungarian and Slovak forms—for example, Zemplén and Zemplín.

The guide used the 1869 Hungarian census as an example: catalog entries could appear under Hungary and under the relevant county. Researchers should open each county entry to see detailed film notes.

9. Local Family History Centers

Look for a FamilySearch Center—historically called a Family History Center—near you. These centers provide access to genealogical collections and volunteers who can help visitors understand catalogs and records. The guide emphasized that Hungarian church records formed an extensive part of the microfilm collection.

At the time of writing, researchers could order films for a small handling fee and consult them locally for a limited period. Film-circulation procedures have since changed, so check FamilySearch’s current center information before visiting.

10. Making full use of FHC collections

The original guide repeated this recommendation because the centers provided free access to computers, CD-ROMs, microfilm, microfiche, and trained volunteers. Its practical advice remains useful:

• check opening hours before traveling;
• bring all known spellings of people and places;
• identify the historical county and country before searching;
• learn a small working vocabulary of Hungarian and Latin; and
• record catalog titles and film numbers carefully.

Digital access has replaced much of the old film-ordering system, but local centers may still provide access to restricted images and subscription collections.

11. Historical maps

Detailed maps of historical Hungary and its counties are essential when a village changed county, country, or spelling. The original link was lost during import. Useful search terms include the village name, its historical megye, alternate Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, German, Croatian, Serbian, or Rusyn spellings, and “Hungary 1910 map.”

The guide also points to the Eötvös Loránd University Department of Cartography map pages.

12. Personal Ancestral File

The author recommended Personal Ancestral File (PAF), a free genealogy program formerly distributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. PAF has since been discontinued, but files created with it may still be imported into newer genealogy software. FamilySearch remains the relevant starting point for current tools and guidance.

Reference websites from the original guide

These addresses are preserved as a historical research list. Some may now be inactive or available only through web archives.

• Apáthy Family / Apáti–Apáthy Ancestral Association: apathyfamily.org
• Hungarian Genealogical Word List: FamilySearch Research Wiki
• Hungarian Genealogy: xcelco.on.ca/~genealog/hungaryl.htm
• Hungary GenWeb: rootsweb.com/~wghungar
• Hungarian Heraldry: heraldica.org/topics/national/hungary.htm
• Hungarian Village Finder and Gazetteer: hungarianvillagefinder.com
• Hungarotips: hungarotips.com
• Online Hungarian–English Dictionary: freedict.com/onldict/hun.html
• Radix: bogardi.com/gen
• RootsWeb’s guide to tracing Hungarian family trees: rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson27.htm
• Writing letters to Hungary: austro-hungarian-genealogy-translations.com/dodont.html
• The Carpathian Connection: tccweb.org
• Carpatho-Rusyn genealogy: rusyn.com and carpatho-rusyn.org
• Slavic Cyrillic transliteration: Library of Congress
• Ellis Island passenger records
• Canadian immigration records
• Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS)
• Banat genealogy resources
• FamilySearch catalog records
• Arcanum databases
• Bárdossy family resources: bardossy.hu
• Latin genealogical terms and phrases

Books

• Jared H. Suess, Handy Guide to Hungarian Genealogical Records.
• Edward Reimer Brandt, Contents and Addresses of Hungarian Archives, 2nd edition (listed as out of print).
• Robert D. Reed, Finding Your Hungarian-American Roots: A Guide to Researching Your Ethnic-American Cultural Heritage (listed as out of print).
• James Lucas, Fighting Troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army: 1868–1914 (the imported page gave the apparent typo “1868–1974”).
• Steven Béla Várdy, The Hungarian Americans (listed as out of print).
• Paul Robert Magocsi, Our People: Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Descendants in North America.
• Paul Robert Magocsi, The Rusyns of Slovakia and the Rusyns of Hungary.
• Paul Robert Magocsi, The Carpatho-Rusyn Americans (listed as out of print).

Organizations and archives

• Apáti/Apáthy Ancestral Association, established in 1995.
• Hungarian Genealogy Society of Greater Cleveland.
• American Hungarian Foundation, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
• American Hungarian Library and Historical Society, New York.
• Budapest City Archives.
• National Archives of Hungary.
• Carpatho-Rusyn Society.

Reader notes preserved from the original page

• Bill Tarkulich asked permission to reproduce the twelve pointers on his own genealogy site and offered to credit the author.
• One reader asked about the Hungarian origin of the surname Szilaj and ways to contact others researching the same name.
• Another reader, researching the Makk or Makkos family of Sárvár in Vas County for his late mother, asked how to obtain pre-1890 Catholic birth, baptism, and death records without fluent Hungarian.
• In a later note, the author wrote that he had first posted the guide in April 2003 and was pleased that researchers still used it after more than 35 years of his own genealogy, family-history, and heraldry work.

Good luck and happy hunting!
László “Laci/Les” Apáthy

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