Hungarian Immigration Collection

by: Chris Kovach

The following is many years of work from Chris Kovach on the Hungarian Immigrants to the United states with many coming to the St. Joseph County area. His quoting below:

I am an amateur genealogist with an interest in the Hungarian-American community of St. Joseph County. I have abstracted information on the Hungarian-Americans from St. Stephen's Catholic Church, St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, Sacred Heart Independent Hungarian Catholic Church, Memorial Presbyterian Church, Nemeth Funeral Home, Zahoran Funeral Home and Sacred Heart Hungarian Cemetery records, all of which are on microfilm at the St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, Indiana. I have combined all this data into one large word-processing document, about 380 pages, arranged alphabetically by last name. I would like to post this somewhere on the web, where it is likely to be found by people.

I have 2 Jubilee Albums for Our Lady of Hungary Catholic Church that I've scanned as jpegs. I used the names from these albums to put together a collection of obituaries and emigration records. For the most part, these people are Hungarian-Americans. I have approximately 1000 obits and 1000 passenger records (although not necessarily for the same 1000 people). The obits are not word-for-word transcriptions, but contain birth, parents (if given), and survivors (immediate family only, no grandkids or nephews/nieces, etc), as well as funeral info: church, funeral home, cemetery.

Thank you Chris for the hard work and dedication to the Hungarian people who have immigrated here

Immigration records Extractions

Updated 04/04/2009

Vital Records Extraction

Updated 04/04/2009

Obituary Extractions

Updated 04/04/2009

1972 Jubilee for Our Lady of Hungary Church - added 04/09/2009

1996 Diamond Jubliee for Our Lady of Hungary Church - added 04/05/2009

List of Villages and the locations of their Roman Catholic Church Records - 09/30/2009

Location of Roman Catholic Church Records in Select Hungarian Counties

This is a list of villages and the locations of their Roman Catholic Church Records.  The following counties are included in this document:  Bacs-Bodrog, Baranya, Győr, Moson, Somogy, Sopron, Vas, Veszprem, and Zala.

C.S. = is Current Status, the current name of the village and/or its current location.

J = is the Jaras or District

M = is the Megye or County

Rec = is the village where the Roman Catholic Church Records are kept. IF Rec = * then the records are kept in the same village as the entry name. For example, in the second entry, the church records for the village of Abda in Győr county are kept in Abda. In the third entry, the church records for the village of Abdalócz in Vas county are kept in Szentkatalin.

Alternate names for a village are listed in () right after the village name.

St. Stephen’s Schism - Time Line

Sacred Heart Cemetery

information - by Pat Nowak of Zahoran Funeral Home

Oct 01, 2009

HUNGARIAN MARRIAGES

In St. Joseph County

 The information on the St. Joseph County Marriages 1921-1924 spreadsheet was obtained from the marriage record books at the St. Joseph County Archives.

  The information on the St. Joseph County Marriages 1905-1920 - Hungarians spreadsheet was obtained from marriage license applications at the St. Joseph County Archives. I began by going through the WPA books of “birth information obtained from marriage applications”. If either parent had a “Hungarian”-looking name, I recorded the page number of the license application. I then went to the Archives and looked at that application and transcribed the information I was interested in (for both bride and groom). In the earlier records, I used the bride’s name or groom’s name as printed at the top of the application. At some point (I don’t know when), I realized that the name at the top of the application did not necessarily match the signature at the bottom, and I began to use the name as signed.

 The information on the St. Joseph County Marriages 1921-1924 - Hungarians was obtained by going through the “St. Joseph County Marriages 1921-1924” spreadsheet, and noting each marriage where either the bride or groom had a “Hungarian”-looking name. I then went to the SJC Archives and looked at the marriage license application, and transcribed the information I was interested in (for both bride and groom).

I recorded the names as they appear on the MARRIAGE RECORDS, not the applications.

Oct 01, 2009

THE HUNGARIAN-AMERICANS OF SOUTH BEND

“The Hungarian-Americans Of South Bend” is a booklet I scanned at the St. Joseph County Public Library’s Local History Room. It is part of a series of “Ethnic Heritage” booklets created by IUSB faculty and students in the 1970’s.

Oct 01, 2009

DRAFT

The World War I and World War II Draft Registration Card information was obtained from the draft cards on ancestry.com.  I performed a search using “Hungary” as the birthplace. Most, but not all, of the names on the spreadsheet are based on the signature as it appears at the bottom of  the card, not the name printed at the top of the card.

Note: For the World War I draft cards, ancestry.com’s search engine makes a distinction between “St. Joseph” and “South Bend” for the “Locality” field. So if you don’t find someone using “South Bend”, try “St. Joseph”, or leave the field blank.

Note: For the World War II draft cards, ancestry.com’s search engine makes a distinction between “St. Joseph”, “Saint Joseph”, “St. Joe” and “Saint Joe” in the “County” field, and between  “South Bend” and “So. Bend” in the “City” field. Try all combinations if you’re having trouble finding someone, or just “Joseph” and “Joe” in the “County” field or “Bend” in the “City” field (or leave both fields blank).

Oct 01, 2009

CENSUS

The census data was compiled by going through the various censuses on microfilm and recording the sheet numbers of census sheets that contained “Hungarians”. I then used ancestry.com to look at the pertinent sheets and transcribe the information. My definition of “Hungarian” is quite arbitrary. I included:

1. People who said they were born in Hungary, and their family members.

2. People who said their native language was Magyar or Hungarian and their family members, regardless of nativity.

3. People who said they were born in Austria, if they had a “Hungarian” name like Szabo or a Croatian name like Buczolits, but not if they had a German name like Hammerschmidt.

4. Various other people, just because I felt like it.

Oct 01, 2009

WPA RECORDS

The WPA birth information was obtained from the WPA birth index books at the St. Joseph County Public Library and Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library. I went through the index and transcribed the index information for children born to a father with a “Hungarian”-looking name. I added a column called “Standardized Name”  which  gives a  common spelling for  a name. For example, the names Kovacs, Kovach, Kovatch, Kowatch, etc. would all have “Kovacs” in the Standardized Name column. In addition, gross spelling errors in the recorded name are compensated for in this column. Names unfamiliar to me were left as they appeared in the index books. There are many discrepancies in birth dates between the WPA index and church records for people I have transcribed. I don’t know how to account for this, or which record is correct in any given case (or if the error is mine).

The WPA death information was obtained from the WPA death index books at the St. Joseph County Public Library and Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library. I went through the index and transcribed the index information for persons with a “Hungarian”-looking name. There are many discrepancies in death dates between the WPA index and church records for people I have transcribed. I don’t know how to account for this, or which record is correct in any given case (or if the error is mine).

If you have further information on Hungarian Immigration that you would like placed here or have photo's of St. Joseph County; land, people, etc. 

Please send to County Coordinator

Return To: Immigrantion

Saint Joseph County, Indiana INGenWeb Site

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~instjose

Started:  Sunday, March 29, 2009, 06:33:58 PM

Updated: Sunday, September 14, 2014 03:19:35 PM