The Official Blog Of Hungary Exchange

     Many are familiar with the Reformed and Roman Catholic baptism index collections at FamilySearch.org, however not all are aware that there is further beneficial information on these indexes other than the genealogical content. The indexes include source material to aid in viewing the actual image. In this article, I will explain the process in locating the digitized images for these baptisms and I will be using my 2x-great-grandfather's baptism index as an example. [All images to the right can be clicked for further enlarging.]      On the right side of the index, you will see what is listed as the "GS Film number". "GS" stands for Genealogical Society, which is otherwise known as the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Take the newly-found microfilm number and search for it in the microfilm catalog at FamilySearch.org. This search will result in the exact catalog title being found; click on that title and continue onward to review wh...

The theme of today's tip is: Religion ! Knowing the religion of your ancestors is crucial to moving forward with your genealogy research. Most of the time, in old Hungary, people tended to marry within their own religion. But this wasn't  always  the case, and you must be cautious of this. It can be very easy to overlook the religion column in the baptism, marriage and death registers, by just assuming they were a specific religion. An ancestor having originally come from a different religion, leaves the door open to an entirely new parish and set of records to search in. One of the most common mixes of religions in Hungary, is Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic (top image; click for larger view). In this image you can see that the groom, Czundra Mihály, was "rom. kath." (Roman Catholic) and from Lenártó. The bride, Bucsko Maria, was "gr. kath." (Greek Catholic) and from Hrabszke. The next example (bottom image) is a case of a Reformed and Ro...