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Hungarian Genealogy: Research Tip #2

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 Roman Catholic marriage. The groom, Joannes Tsontos (Csontos), was "H.Conf." (Helvetic Confessions; commonly known in Hungary as Reformed). The bride, Catharina Tóth, was "R.Cath." (Roman Catholic). In both examples, there are two different towns of residence and two different religions which result in two different sets of parish registers.

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