The Official Blog Of Hungary Exchange

The theme of today's tip is: Hungarian Surname Origins & Meanings The origins and meanings of Hungarian surnames can date back to well before the creation of the Kingdom of Hungary, and can be broken down into several categories. Patronymic Patronymic surnames are derived from the given name of male ancestors. They can appear several different ways in Hungary and are easily distinguishable. One variation they appear as is simply a male's given name, such as György, Péter, Mihály, Antal. Any given name could be a surname. Another variation is slightly different in that it includes the suffix of -fi, -ffi, -fy and -ffy. This suffix, which as you see can has many spelling variations, means 'son' and when combined with a given name creates surnames very recognizable to English speaking countries. Examples of these surnames are Péterfi/Péterfy (Peterson), Jánosfi/Jánosfy (Johnson), Pálfi/Pálfy (Paulson). A sub-category of patronymic surnames originates from th...

          An interesting discovery today on the internet! I found this publication written by Mihály Hajdú which contains approximately 1,230 of the most common surnames up to the 19th century. In addition to explaining the frequency of the surname, it also explains the surname's origin, meaning and spelling variations. Surnames of other common languages such as German, Slovak and Romanian is also provided. You can find the publication HERE .

944 new marriage records spanning 1788-1833 have been indexed and added to the Hungarian Marriage Project at Hungary Exchange . These marriage records are for the Roman Catholic parish of Jánoshida in Jász-Nagy-Kun-Szolnok county, Hungary. Thank you to Dániel Gerhát for taking the time to index and contribute these records to Hungary Exchange! If Hungary Exchange and the Hungarian Marriage Project in particular have helped your research in any way, consider volunteering your time to index and make more marriage records available! I will provide you with everything you need from the indexing templates and marriage records to index. Feel free to contact me if you're interested! nickmgombash@yahoo.com

510 new marriage records spanning 1857-1900 have been indexed and added to the Hungarian Marriage Project at Hungary Exchange . These marriage records are for the Roman Catholic parish of Öttevény (sometimes spelled Eöttevény) in Győr county, Hungary. If Hungary Exchange and the Hungarian Marriage Project in particular have helped your research in any way, consider volunteering your time to index and make more marriage records available! I will provide you with everything you need from the indexing templates and marriage records to index. Feel free to contact me if you're interested! nickmgombash@yahoo.com

711 new marriage records spanning 1852-1908 have been indexed and added to the Hungarian Marriage Project at Hungary Exchange . These marriage records are for the Roman Catholic parish of Vitnyéd (formerly Vittnyéd), in Sopron county, Hungary. If you haven't done so already, make sure to submit your surnames and villages to the Surname Database to aid in connecting with others researching the same surnames or villages as you.

1,020 new marriage records spanning from 1809-1895 have been indexed and added to the Hungarian Marriage Project at Hungary Exchange . They are for the Greek Catholic parish of Bács-Aranyos in Szabolcs county, Hungary. This was a rather large parish, as it presided over eleven  villages! The villages are as follows, and all are in Szabolcs county apart from the last two in Bereg county: Bács-Aranyos, Cserepes-Kenéz, Gyüre, Kis-Varsány, Kopócs-Apáti, Lövő, Lövő-Petri, Nagy-Varsány, Pap, Tisza-Kerecsény and Tisza-Vid . If you haven't done so already, make sure to submit your surnames and villages to the Surname Database  to aid in connecting with others researching the same surnames or villages as you. Happy Thanksgiving to those in America!

It's the last day of the year, and I thought it'd be a good idea to highlight all the new information added to Hungary Exchange over the past year. Happy New Year! Boldog Új Évet Kivánok! Databases: Hungarian First Names With English And Latin Variations Digital Books: Census & Taxation: Germans & Hungarians: 1828 land census, Vols. 22-25 Family Histories: A history of the Bartay/Bartay von Bártfa-Bartfeld family Family Histories: Az inárcsi Farkas család története Family Histories: Genealogy of the Bathiany, Batthany, Batthyany, Battany etc. families Gazeteer & Geography: Magyarország helységnévtára tekintettel a közigazgatási, Vols. 1-2 History-General: A History of Hungary History-Hungarians in America: A St. Louis és vidéke jubileumi nagyszáma. The fifth anniversary issue of the "St. Louis és vidéke," a Hungarian weekly newspaper. Published in 1918. History-Hungarians in America: Hungarians in America History-Medieval: Az Árp...

The theme of today's tip is: Spelling Variations The Hungarian language is one of the most complex languages in all of Europe. This list/post is aimed at being a guide to help understand all the possible spelling variations you may come across in your Hungarian research. *The confusion between CZ and TZ: The Hungarian language is infamous for the use of CZ, and sometimes it's [technically] inaccurate use of TZ. As for the pronunciation of CZ/TZ, it's pronounced as the "C" in "dance" or the "TS" in "pots". Although CZ and TZ are used interchangeably, CZ should always be the correct spelling. The TZ variation is more commonly found in older documents; 1800's and prior. Here are a few examples: Bencze & Bentze Berecz & Beretz Czakó & Tzakó Ferencz & Ferentz Herczeg & Hertzeg Koncz & Kontz Kurucz & Kurutz Lőrincz & Lőrintz Rácz & Rátz Vincze & Vintze *The additional confusion ...