Now for the Eastern European Side of the Family: Using FamilySearch Records in Slovakia to Find my Hungarian Ancestors

My grandfather, Jeno^” Major (pronounced "My-yor") and his wife, Anna Gávay, immigrated to the United States from the Hungarian town of Szepsi in 1920. Szepsi, now called Moldava nad Bodvou, is now in Slovakia (formerly part of Czechoslovakia, formerly Hungary) near the city of Kassa (now Kôsice) in northeast Hungary and Slovakia.  The Major and Gávay families lived along the towns around the Bodva River in the former Hungarian county of Abauj-Torna, which now approximates the border between modern Hungary and Slovakia. 

In order to trace your Hungarian roots from border areas that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, you need to know the current name of the town. My Hungarian ancestors came from towns that are now in Slovakia and are now known by Slovakian names. You will need to know what the current name is.

A great web site for the translation of old Hungarian village names to the current Slovakian names is http://www.cisarik.com/index.html.  Since my grandparents came from the old Hungarian county of Abauj-Torna, click on the list of village names from that county: http://www.cisarik.com/0_former_Abauj-Torna_Abov-Turna_county.html.

Since I had known that they came from the village of Szepsi, I just looked for that village name and clicked on it. The current name of the village is now Moldava nad Bodvou: http://www.cisarik.com/0_Moldava_nad_Bodvou_Kosice_okolie_KI_AbaujTorna_AbovTurna.html.

With the current name of the village, now a search can be made for church records on https://familysearch.org. Don’t look in Hungary! Look in Slovakia. Familsearch.org has the records organized by the current village name and the current county. In my case I had to search in Slovakia: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/location/1927146?region=Slovakia and search on the Slovakia Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1935. These are not indexed, so you have to browse the images, and there are over 1.6 million church images! 

Click on the “Browse through 1,624,867 images” and then click on the appropriate denomination. I knew my grandparents were Roman Catholic, so clicking on “Roman Catholic (Rímsko-katolícká cirkev)” presents a list of villages (in Slovakian). Now, since I know that Szepsi is now Moldava nad Bodvou, clicking on that name provides an additional list of villages in the area. I want Moldava nad Bodvou, so clicking that presents the following:

 

There is some overlap in the years for the various church records, so it takes some digging to find the right records.  Most of the church records are clearly organized by Baptism or Marriage and then by dates. Fortunately, most of the records are in Church Latin, and the handwriting is fairly clear and precise (unlike those Irish parish church registers!).

An example below is the birth/baptism of my grandfather, Jeno^” Major

Item No. 20 is the record of the birth and baptism of my g.grandfather. It reads:

Item 20. 1895, April 11 [born] 14 April [baptized] Jenó; fiu, a boy (son), törvényes (legitimate); Parents: Major, István and Hágan, Maria; Home: Szepsi, House No. 131; godparents: Tśinef Tómasi and Mária Tómasi; Presider: Joseph Kiss; Remarks: indicates that Jenó married Anna Gávái 1920 Apr. 5, so a church official had entered this information at a much later date.

 

Item No. 12 below is the marriage record of my g.grandather István Major and Mária Hágan, 7 February 1875. István’s birthplace: Torna-Ujfalu (a town near Szepsi); Maria’s birthplace: Szepsi. István was 26 years old and Maria was 18. Witnesses: Kalmán Shakanls and Béla Bartalos.

The old Hungarian church records contain a wealth of information including birth and baptism, parents names, mother’s maiden name and where they are from. Marriage records contain the town where the bride and groom were born and ages. The family had thought that István was born in Szepsi, but he was not. Since the record indicated that he was from Torna-Ujfalu, that prompted me to search in that town for additional family records (that town is now known by its Slovakian name: Turnianska Nova Ves.

George Washington Slept Here!

Washington at the Morehouse Tavern

In my last post, I wrote about my 5^th g.grandfather’s tavern in Dutchess County, New York during the Revolutionary War. Col. Andrew Morehouse operated what was called the “Morehouse Tavern,” which was on the main highway from Hartford, CT to Fishkill, NY on the Hudson River.  Historical accounts by the French military officer Marquis De Chastellux, writing in his “Voyage De M, Le Marquis De Chastellux in North America in 1780, 1781, and 1782” and other accounts mention that Washington, Gates, Putnam, Arnold, Lafayette, Rochambeau and other prominent officers stayed at Morehouse’s. On or about 24 September 1780, General Washington and his entourage stayed at the tavern when Col. Morehouse presented a bill for $808.00 for 26 meals, “cyder,” and caring for 49 horses.

G.Washington to Rochambeau from Morehouse, 2 Mar 1781

In March 1781, General Washington and his aids Tench Tilghman and David Humphreys unexpectedly left Washington’s Headquarters at New Windsor, NY to pay a visit to Comte de Rochambeau, the commander of the French Fleet at Providence, RI. They left on March 1, 1781 and stayed at the Morehouse Tavern on March 2-3, probably leaving sometime on the 3^rd of March. While at the Tavern, Washington wrote two letters one to Jean B. Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau at “New Port,” and one to Charles Rene D. Sochet (Chevalier) des Touches also at New Port. According to the Library of Congress, both of these letters were written by Alexander Hamilton, but signed by George Washington. There is some controversy as to whether Alexander Hamilton, then an aid to General Washington, was on this trip. He certainly was not with the entourage, as he is not mentioned in several documented meetings along the way or in Newport. Washington and Hamilton had a famous falling out in February 1781 at New Windsor, however it is possible that Hamilton accompanied the entourage across the Hudson only to return to New Windsor.

 

G.Washington to Destouches from Morehouse, 2 March 1781

A document is Tench Tilghman’s handwriting, details the expenses for the trip providing 1,034 dollars to Col. Morehouse on the trip to Rhode Island and 592 dollars on the return trip, when the entourage again stayed at Morehouse’s before returning to New Windsor. A full account of this trip can found in: Chadwick, French E., "The Visit of General Washington to Newport in 1781" (1913). Rhode Island History. Book 12. https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/ri_history/12/

Tilghman's Expense Account to Morehouse $1034

Tilghman's Expense Account to Morehouse $592

The Spy

Andrew Morehouse was a Colonel of the 3^rd Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia and was actively engaged in anti-Tory actions in the area. In another event, made famous by James Fenimore Cooper in his novel, The Spy, Col. Morehouse was involved with Washington’s spy, Enoch Crosby. In February 1777, Crosby had infiltrated the local Tory militia and joined them, which allowed him to know the militias movements and personnel. He got word to Col. Morehouse: “it was at a house situated half a mile from the road & about three miles from a house then occupied by Col. Morehause a militia Colonel After the time was fixed for the marching of Capt. Sheldens company” Crosby “went in the night to Col, Morehause & informed him of the situation of the company of the time appointed for meeting of the place &c. And Morehause informed” Crosby “that they should be atended to…” and that Crosby “was obliged to give the information to Col Morehause.”

The party of Tory milita were arrested by Col. Moreshouse’s militia along with Crosby, who somehow managed to “escape.” “The Col. The ordered them to be tied together, two & two.” Crosby begged to be excused because he was lame and could not travel, to which “the Col replied  you shall go dead or alive & if in no other way you shall be carried on the horse with me.” Crosby was put onto the horse with Col. Morehouse and “all went to the house of Col. Morehause and when the prisoners were marched into the house” Crosby “with the permission of Morehause left them & made the best of his way to Col Ludingtons & there informed him of the operations of the night.” Of course, Morehouse knew who Crosby was, but could not let on that he was not really a Tory.

A Plea to President Washington

Col. Morehouse had a more personal encounter with George Washington shortly after he became the first President of the United States. On 29 May 1789 from Dover, Dutchess County, Andrew Morehouse wrote a personal letter “To His Excelency George Washington, Esqr [Esquire] President of the United States of America” to beg for his intercession to save his son from execution. He writes, “Your Excelency during the course of the war often deign’d to call upon me at my own mansion in Dover [NY] which gave me an opportunity of being an eye witness of them exalted Virtues which has rendered your Excelency so serviceable to your Country…..But oh! Most Excellent President, once think what Anxious Tortures tears my Aged breast and brings me with the most Excruciating sorrow to the brink of the Grave. My youngest son, a promising youth of twenty three now lies under the sentence of Death on the City of Newyork & will be executed in the 5^th of June unless mercy can be extended, he was convicted of a Certain forgery, and many peopl thinks unjustly but whether that is the case or not, I do not know, but Your Excellency must be sensible that Guilty or Inocent his dying so shamefull a death must bring an Irreperable disgrace upon me and my family.”

On 20 January 1789, at a trial between the People of the State of New York and Abraham Morehouse, at the Supreme Court in New York City, he had been inidicted on two charges of forging a bond and for uttering and publishing the bond, knowing that it was forged. He was apparently acquitted of the first charge, but not the second, which in 1789, was a crime punishable by death. He was found guilty and ordered to be exceuted. Col. Morehouse’s letter must have worked because a newspaper account on 6 June 1789 stated that the Governor (who happened to be George Clinton, a friend of Washington and a General during the War and also a frequent visitor to the Morehouse Tavern) granted a respite to Abraham Morehouse “who were to have been executed yesterday.”

More on Abraham Morehouse in another post, but he was a very bad boy, indeed. He was involved in several other shady deals in New York City and could not be found when ordered to court. He eventually made his way to Louisiana, where he fell into a number of dubious (and rather infamous) land transactions, married in Louisiana while still married to his wife in New York City, and after his death, caused his family over 30 years of court litagations in the Supreme Court of Louisiana. From the contemporary, private journal of De Witt Clinton, Abraham Morehouse was referred to as a “complete villian, who was pardoned when under sentence of death.”

The primary sources of material on Washington came from the Library of Congress, The George Washington Papers and the National Archives, The Papers of George Washington. The exploits of Enoch Crosby,  are well documented, but the primary source is H.L.Barnum, The Spy Unmasked: Adventures of Enoch Crosby, alias Harvey Birch, the Hero of Cooper’s Tale of the Neutral Ground, 1828. The exploits of Abraham Morehouse, youngest son of Col. Andrew Morehouse, are well known. The best source is Mitchell, Jennie O’Kelly and Robert Dabney Calhoun, The Marquis de Maison Rouge, the Baron de Bastrop, and Colonel Abraham Morehouse: Three Ouachita Valley Soldiers of Fortune. The Maison Rouge and Bastrop Spanish “Land Grants.” The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 2, April 1937, pp. 289-462.