Jewish Family

Research in Greater
Hungary Using
JewishGen and Other
On-Line Resources

Vivian Kahn, Director

JewishGen Hungarian SIG
www.JewishGen.org
 Hungarian SIG
https://www.jewishgen.org/Hungary/

JewishGen's Hungarian Special

Interest Group (SIG) is for those
with Jewish roots in the area
known as "greater Hungary" or pre-
Trianon Hungary and covers all
those lands that were part of
Hungary before World War I
including all of present-day
Hungary and Slovakia and lands
that are now within Romania, the
Ukraine, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia,
and Serbia. Records primarily in
Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian
archives.
 Sub-Carpathia Research Division
https://www.jewishgen.org/Sub-Carpathia/

Sub-Carpathia Division covers

region of the historical Sub-
Carpathia region including
formerly Hungarian areas in
Bereg and Ugocsa megyek and
parts of Maramaros and Ung
megyek currently in Ukraine
(previously in Czechoslovakia,
Hungary and the Ukrainian
Soviet Socialist Republic) with
records in Ukraine archives.
4
 A Brief History of Austria-Hungary
1772 Partition of Poland creates Galicia as royal
domain of Habsburg triggering significant migration
of Jews to Hungary
1804 Francis II becomes Francis I, emperor of
Austria
1867 Dual monarchy created by compromise (the
Ausgleich) between Emperor Franz Joseph and
Hungary
1918 Austria-Hungary defeated; Treaty of Trianon
strips Hungary of 2/3 of its territory
Treaty of Trianon Divides Hungary

6
 Hungary Database Census Records
1828 Census 30,000 (all completed)
1846 Pest Tolerantis
1848 Census 113,000 in database
(1848 Szepes pending)
1850 Census Mohacs
1869 Census 89,000 (all available
completed)
Other Census More than 86,000 from
mid-18th to early 19th
centuries including Ung
records (1782-1847),
Zemplen (1782-1825),
Maramaros (1771-1822)
Hungary Database Census Records Highlights
About 121,000 records with recent additions including:
• 3,744 from Abauj-Torna including new records from Kassa (Kosice) for
1848-75
• 2,077 from Pest family list bringing total for Pest-Pilis to 28,596
• New records from Bartfa (Bardejov) for 1782-1846 bringing total for
Saros to 7,133
• Mohacs, Baranya megye, 1850 Census
• Various lists from Szecseny and nearby places in Nograd megye for 1783
to 1894 including circumcision records and family lists with birth dates
• Recent acquisitions from Hungarian State Archives include tax lists for
years 1782-1847 for Ung being reviewed before uploading
• New Hungarian Census Record account makes it easier for supporters to
make donations!
 Hungary Database
Vital Records Project
• Database now includes close to 842,000 BMD records including
250,000 from Pest, 36,000 from Miskolc, more than 45,000 from
Bihar (now Romania)
✓ Unique records from Transylvania, Nagymihaly, and other areas in
eastern Slovakia (formerly Saros, Zemplen, and Ung megyek) not
filmed by Family Research Library
✓ More than 25,000 for 1895-1940 from areas formerly in Maramaros in
Sub-Carpathia Jewish Vital Records
• Since 2017, additional records from Abauj-Torna, Arad, Bekes,
Bereg, Besztercze-Naszod, Bihar, Borsod, Brasso, Fejer, Heves,
Lipto, Monok, Nograd, Nyitra, Szolnok-Doboka, Szatmar, Szilagy,
and Tolna, and Vas
• Raising funds to acquire 23 civil registers from Oradea (formerly
Nagyvarad) for years 1914-1920 to substantially increase resources
for researching Transylvania families
 Slovak Archives Project
• Digitizing and transcribing all records in Slovak State,
Regional, and municipal archives not filmed by Family
Search
• To date, all available vital records from Abauj-Torna,
Zemplen, and Ung digitized and most added to database:
✓ Abauj-Torna: 8755 records from 240 books in Kosice—1077
transcribed
✓ Zemplen: 7880 records from 237 books in Trebisov, Michalovce,
Vranov, Humenne, Svidnik, and Bardejov
✓ Ung: 4074 records from 119 books in Trebisov and Michalovce
• 1857 Census records from Saros, Abauj-Torna, Zemplen,
Komarom, Zala, and Torna
• 92,628 names in 1930 Czech Census from project led by Peter
Absolon
 Maramures Jewish Records

• First phase completed in 2012 included all available

Jewish registers from c. 1850-1895
• Phase 2 underway since 2014 brings total to 76,800:
✓ Acquisition and indexing of more than 450 Jewish and civil
registers
✓ 25,000 records from Maramaros megye as well as other
formerly Hungarian areas now part of Maramures, Romania
✓ More than 26,000 records, primarily from civil registers from
1895 to 1906
✓ Recent acquisitions include 27 civil registers from Sighetu,
Seini, and other towns with some to 1917
• Recent additions include 8,000 records for survivors from
Maramaros including more than 2,000 from Sziget, from
two books digitized by Daniel Horowitz
 Transylvania (Szekely) Vital Records
• Acquisition and transcription digital images of birth,
marriage, and death records of Jewish families in
Transylvania except former Maramaros megye
• Religious and civil records from registers in National
Archives of Romania in Bucharest and in regional branches
in region’s counties including:
Arad
Bihar 26 localities, 115 books
Besztercze-Naszod/Bistrita 2 localities, 23 books
 Hunyad Szatmar/Satu Mare 52 localities about 150 books
Temes/Timis 10 localities, 79 books
Szilagy/Zalau 7 localities, 26 books
 Hungary Holocaust Databases
• Wallenberg Passport List
• Deportation, victim and resident lists
from Kisvarda, Oradea, Subotica,
Szombathely, Gyor, Spisska Nova
Ves, Sered, Tirgu Mures,Bardejov,
and Mosonmagyarovar
• Survivors from Debrecen, Slovakia,
and lists published in periodicals
• Hungarian Jewish KMSZ (Military
Forced Laborer) List
• Kasztner Transport
• Hungarian Lawyers
• Holocaust Memorial Database—
more than 23,000 names
transcribed from Holocaust
memorials in communities in
present-day Hungary, Romania,
Slovakia, and Ukraine
 Hungary Holocaust Database Recent
Additions
• USC Shoah Foundation Survivor testimonies
• Yizkor Book necrologies and community histories including:
 Hungary: Debrecen, Kisvarda, Mateszalka, Miskolc, Pápa,
Székesfehérvár and Ujpest
 Romania: Borsa, Oradea (including Szalonta), Satu Mare, and Targu
Mures
 Slovakia: Kráľovský Chlmec (including Király-Helmec, Lelesz, and
other villages in the Bodrog district); Michalovce, Šahy, Stropkov, and
Topolcany
• Hungarian-Speaking Families Wanting to Immigrate to Palestine listing
nearly 8400 people from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia
• Slovak Jewish Census (1941)--Records relating to 18,125 Jews from
Slovak towns prior to the deportations
• 2283 records of individuals receiving passports or certificated of protection
by Angel Sanz Briz, head of the Spanish Legation in Budapest
• Beit Theresienstadt Index with information on 162,224 Jews from Czech
Republic, Slovakia and other countries imprisoned in Theresienstadt
Ghetto
• Proposed future additions include Budapest flat sheets
 JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR)

Records from Satoraljaujhely, Berehove,

Zilina, and other cemeteries in Slovakia,
Transylvania, and Hungary, and Ukraine
including:
• Hungary (87 cemeteries, 48,000 burials)
• Formerly Hungarian areas in:
✓ Romania (85 cemeteries, 51,000
burials)
✓ Slovakia (194 cemeteries, 48,000
burials)
• Ukraine (Transcarpathia (231 cemeteries,
20,0500 burials) including Uzhhorod (3
cemeteries, 4187 burials)
 Hungarian KehilaLinks Websites

• Hungary - 25 including Debrecen, Miskolc, Tokaj and

more in progress
• Slovakia - 17 including Homonna, Kassa, Nagymihaly,
Szobrancz, Sztropko
• Romania (Transylvania) - Including Ermihayfalva, Nagy-
Bocsko, Ruszpolyana with Nagyilonda and others in
progress
• Sub-Carpathian Ukraine - About 200 including
Beregszasz, Huszt, Munkacs, Ungvar, and more
Hungaricana
Hungarian Library of Parliament
website with vast collection of
digitized documents, records,
directories, maps and other
digitized resources from Hungary
and other countries including:
• 19th century cadastral maps
(including some identifying Jewish
owners),
• Legal documents
• Budapest directories
• School records and yearbooks
• Newspapers
• Links to Hungarian Jewish Archive
collections of Jewish community
documents
• And more....
 1944 Flat Data Sheets
• Searchable images of 6300 documents from 1944
census found behind wall in Budapest apartment in
fall 2015
• Search by name or address
• Names and building description:
− Building height (floors)
− Date of construction
− Number of apartments and other spaces (e.g. shops)
− Apartment with the main tenant obliged to wear a
yellow star
− Flat with main tenant not required to wear a yellow star
− Number of owners
− Number of owners obliged to wear a yellow star
− House rating (whether inhabited by Jews)
 Slovakiana
https://www.slovakiana.sk/
On-line collection of documents,
records, and other resources created
by Slovak Ministry of Culture as part
of a comprehensive system for
preservation of digital cultural
resources in Slovak archives,
museums, and libraries including:
• Town pictures and family photographs;
• Virtual exhibitions of objects from
Museum of Jewish Culture in
Bratislava and synagogues;
• And, digital images of pages from the
1930 Czech census!
Slovakiana
A magyar–zsidó oklevéltár [Monumenta Hungariae Judaica]

• 18-volume compendium of
documents about Hungarian
Jews covering almost 800 years
of Hungarian Jewish history and
published over 77-year period!
• Includes census records,
rabbinical court records, business
transactions, inheritance records,
etc.
• Contents not in chronological
order e.g. Vol. III, 1711 to 1740
(1937), Vol. IX, 1282 to 1739
(1966), etc.
• Text in Hungarian, German,
and/or Hebrew
 MACSE [Magyar Családtörténet-kutató
Egyesület]
• Hungarian Society for Family History Research
primarily Hungarian-language website
• Searchable databases include name changes, civil
records w. links to FamilySearch.org and other
resources
• Projects underway includes Jewish individuals listed
in Christian BMD registers and additional civil records
from outside Budapest
• $30/year US fee
• Membership info and application at
https://macse.hu/society/en/belepes.php
Köszönöm szépen, Дуже
дякую, Ďakujem ti veľmi
pekne, and ‫!א גרויסן דאנק‬