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Hungarian Genealogy: Research Tip #4

The theme of today's tip is: Hungarian Churches in America!

As any genealogist with European ancestry knows, or should know, it's that church parish registers are the most important records in the aspect of family history. No matter when they arrived in America, whether it was the turn of this past century in the early 1900's through Ellis Island, the 1880's through Baltimore, Maryland or even the 1600's to the colonies, the most important records to continue further research are church records.

These church records documented the baptisms, christenings, marriages and deaths of our early family, and if you're lucky the presiding clergyman was very anal-retentive about the details in the records. That very anal-retentiveness, or lack thereof, could be the reason you have absolutely no leads on the next generation of your family or it could very well give you clues and hints to the next generation.

Today, I'm going to highlight the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If it were not for these records, I wouldn't have been able to locate the places of origin for a few relatives of mine. One of which I'm going to give an example of right now:


On entry number 96, you can find the baptismal record for my great-grand-uncle, Albert Dudash. He was born November 1st, and baptized six days later on November 7th, 1908. In the last column it states their residence (and presumably his birthplace?) was Whitsett, Pennsylvania. He was born a legitimate child to Dudás György and his wife, Diószeghy Juliánna. The fantastic part, is that it lists where Dudás György was born! "Csömöri szül." means "born in Csömör"!

When you think you have exhausted all of the records concerning your family in America, think again. You need to make sure to double-check and triple-check your information and all the documents for your family. There are always records somewhere that haven't been delved into and are waiting to be found!

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