How I went from a memory of the word Magyar, to finding the documents that made me eligible for Hungarian Citizenship via the Simplified Naturalization Procedure.
Magyar. I've known that word since I was a little girl and heard my grandmother say it. I knew it meant the people in The Old Country, but didn't know it meant Hungarian, specifically.
Because borders in Central and Eastern Europe changed many times in the 20th century, the villages in which my ancestors were born have been part of many different countries. Though some of my great-grandparents were born in the Kingdom of Hungary, by the time I was born in the 1970s, their villages were part of the Soviet Union, and then in the early1990s, became part of Ukraine. And in between, were part of Czechoslovakia. And independent Carpatho-Ukraine for a day.
Confusing, yes, but not impossible to unravel, as I discovered, with a lot of determination and some luck. Here's how I was able to find my great-grandmother's Hungarian birth record, which was the key to gaining my citizenship. I hope this story can help you, if you are too are searching for your family's documents.
The Memory:
I was lucky that two of my great-grandparents lived well into my childhood, so I knew them. Both were born somewhere in The Old Country.
Where, specifically, they were born, I didn't know. But I knew that The Old Country was important. I remember my grandparents and people at church talking reverently about The Old Country.
I was also partly raised in Old Country culture -- celebrating holidays and keeping family traditions as they did for hundreds of years. Growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, I wasn't alone. Many families there came from The Old Country and still felt a part of it.
And of course, we heard stories of my ancestors' travelling from The Old Country to the US. In particular, we often heard the story about my great-grandmother Anna, leaving her home with one suitcase and travelling with a friend, to the US to meet her brother who had come before her. I knew Anna as an old woman, and loved imagining her as a young woman, taking such a big risk.
I knew the broad stories of my ancestors by heart. But I just didn't have their exact details nor their paperwork.
First Steps:
Around 2017, when I started searching for the documents I needed for Hungarian citizenship, I turned to people I know. My father searched through his records and asked his cousins if they had of my my great-grandparents' Old Country paperwork. My sister and I searched through some boxes of papers and photos that my grandmother had neatly packed up before her death. The only thing we could turn up was a birth record for my great-grandfather, who was born in a town in Galicia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but not specifically Hungarian. (The fascinating history of Galicia is worth reading more about.)
But chatting with my relatives did help me with details which later became important. I remembered and confirmed with relatives that my great-grandmother had entered the US via a port in Philadelphia, while my great-grandfathers had come through Perth Amboy. My grandmother used to talk about this. This info became important as a cross-reference point.
At the same time I was quizzing family members, I also started looking at online ancestry databases. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com were the most useful for me, but I was careful when using these databases. I made sure to always look for documents on these sites (rather than relying on information entered by users.) I checked various possible spellings of my ancestors' names. I took care not to of cross my ancestors' records with another person of the same name. (Though at one point I went down a rabbit hole, thinking I had found my great-grandmother's birth record, only to realize it was a woman by the same name in Buffalo, New York, hundreds of miles away.) And finally, I didn't get discouraged. Yes, I sometimes spent hours searching to only find dead ends. But I carefully started tracking information and began to piece it together.
Finding the original spelling of an ancestor's name can be a big challenge. The other challenge is unraveling the names of Hungarian villages to find their birth records. Some villages have two names, a Hungarian name and a Ukrainian, Polish or Slovakian name for example.
Along with the ancestry databases, I looked to researchers who have compiled information about The Old Country online. Some that I used were:
I also joined Facebook groups about Hungarian and Carpathian ancestry and culture. In one of these groups, I had a stroke of luck, or perhaps diving timing....
It took about 5 months of research, from talking to relatives, searching online databases, googling for advice and deep diving into the comments in Facebook groups, to finally be about 95 percent sure I had the correct spelling, birth date, and birth place for one of my ancestors from The Old Country: Anna Solyák, (who I had heard speak the word "magyar" decades ago.)
So how did I specifically get there?
1.) First of all, I compiled everything I could easily get --like my grandparents' US birth certificates, which listed their parents' names (these were the people I knew were born in The Old Country.) This helped me narrow down the spellings of their names. I figured these records would be the most accurate and indeed they were. Though my great-grandmother's last name was spelled incorrectly on many documents, it was correct on my grandmother's birth certificate.
2.) I spent hours and hours searching through the databases turned up many false leads, but finally a ship manifesto and US Immigation arrival card with her name spelled slightly wrong, but every other detail in line with what I knew of my great-grandmother's broad life story -- in particular that clue about her arriving in Philadelphia, her age, her father's name, and she was going to Scranton, Pennsylvania, to work as a maid and that she would be joining her brother there. There was a lot of information on that arrival card!
3.) Cross-referencing that arrival card, a ship manifesto and a US census form with my great-grandmother's death certificate and my grandmother's birth certificate, I felt I had some certainty. But one question remained--where could I find her birth record now after the borders had changed so much? Her arrival card listed her as being from Hatarszog, Hungary. So I dove into the Hungarian Village Finder to confirm that town was in what was Ung County
4.) To find out the present day name and location of that village, I studied maps like this one. But mostly, I got lucky, by googling the heck out of "Hatarszog" which is how I ended up here on Carpatho-Rusyn.org "Guide to the Homeland" which clearly notes Hatarszog is also known as Verkhovyna Bystra in present day Ukraine.
5.) I got lucky again--I found another US document from the 1940s which listed my great-grandmother's birthplace at "V. Bystra,Czechoslovakia" which made no sense, at first, but then made total sense when I realized that in the 1940's Hatarszog, Hungary was indeed "V. Bystra, Czechoslovakia." It was all coming together.
6.) A final stroke of luck introduced me to the right person to help me with the final step. In one of the Carpathian culture Facebook groups, another member posted a glowing reference for Róbert Kozora, a researcher in Hungary, who specializes in: Felcsík; Zemplén county, Tőketerebes district and Ung county: Ungvári, Nagykapos and Szobránci districts. I reached out to him tentatively, as I was worried about how much research into my great-grandmother would cost, considering he woud need to go to Ukraine and search hundred-year-old records. I also worried anything could have happened to these records. Would they even still exist? Robert quoted me a very fair price and got to work right away. Within a couple of weeks Róbert replied:
"I've arrived back from Ukraine. I found the birth record of Anna Solyák in the Greek Catholic church register. I found her 4 siblings beside her. You can find the pictures about the records attached."
And yes, like many times during this journey, I cried. But it was less about this successful treasure hunt, but more about seeing my great-grandmother's birth record. To imagine this old lady I knew, as an infant was just mind-blowing and heart- expanding.
I was on my way to becoming a Hungarian citizen. But it took many, many more steps, and about five more years. I'll outline it all in my next blog posts. Stay tuned...!
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