The Official Blog Of Hungary Exchange

Over 1,200 marriage records for the Evangelical and Roman Catholic parishes of Nagy-Várad, Bihar county, Hungary ( present-day Oradea, Bihor county, Romania ), have been added to the Hungarian Marriage Project  at Hungary Exchange . Nagy-Várad was the capital of Bihar county and in 1880 had a population of over 30,000 people. At that time, the population in Nagy-Várad was about 87% Hungarian and about 7% Romanian. You can find more about this history of Nagy-Várad/Oradea here . The Evangelical records date from 1827-1915 and are comprised of 491 marriage records. The Roman Catholic records date from 1889-1910 and are comprised of 748 marriage records. Work is currently in progress to index the Reformed marriage records from 1853-1908. Contributions and donations to Hungary Exchange will help make even more records available.

Just recently, I have received word from my photographer stating that the Bihor county archives in Romania will be reopening soon. They had been closed for quite a long time due to construction and renovations going on at the archive, thus restricting access to researchers and photographers. We're hoping that the archive will be reopening by March/April of 2014, about three months away. Bihor county, Romania was formerly Bihar county, Hungary. There were many important towns and areas in the former Bihar county, Hungary, including Nagyvárad (today Oradea). The other important towns were Belényes (Beiuș), Margitta (Marghita) and Nagyszalonta (Salonta). There was a large mix of religions in Bihar county, Hungary, including: Evangelical, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Reformed and Roman Catholic.