Arcanum & Other Hungary Databases English-language Guidance Arcanum Online I. Genealogy of Hungarian Genealogy in the 20th Century Based on the work of Gudenus and his book "A magyarországi fonemesség XX. századi genealógiája" (Genalogy of hungarian genealogy in the 20th century). The website is completely in Hungarian and the access is not so easy: the website is http://www.pim.hu click on the link in the left part marked with "Adatbázisok" (databases), than it appears a picture - click on it - you will see a list of links - interesting are the last two: - A magyarországi fonemesség genealógiája in this database is only higher nobility to find - Magyar családtörténeti adattár in this database are also people which are not from noble families both databases have entries form the 19th and 20th centuries. Click on "Keresés" (Search) or you can use this two links directly: http://www.pim.hu/Online/Adattar/csaladfa.php http://www.pim.hu/Online/Adattar/gudenus.php You have now the possibility to search - a small translation first field: Név - Name Születési hely - Birth place Születési dátum - Birth date Halálozási hely - Death place Halálozási dátum - Death date second field: Egyenlo - is equal Kezdodik - begins with (I think the best value) Tartalmaz - includes Kisseb - less than Nagyob - greater than third field - here you can enter what to search for fourth field Vagy - Or, És - And, Vagy nem - Or not, És nem - And not When everything is comleted - click on "Keresés" and you will recieve a list of results. Credit to Laco R (Slovak Roots) slovakroots@justh.sk
Title Die „Josephinische Aufnahme” – Siebenbürgen und das Banat von Temes / Transylvania and Temes
Title John von Lipszky: The Map and Nameregister of Kingdom of Hungary (1804–1810) / Johann von Lipszky: Die Karte und Namensverzeichnis des Königreichs Ungarn und dessen Nebenländer (1804–1810)
Connected to the millenary celebrations, a series entitled “Book-house of a Hundred Hungarian Villages” (Száz magyar falu könyvesháza) was published between 2000 and 2002. It contains 94 monographs on selected villages within present-day Hungary and six on settlements in the neighbouring countries – all of which were considered significant or representative “of the continuity of Hungarian history”, or which are connected to significant personalities or events in national history. The uniformly designed volumes in this series, commissioned by an editorial board consisting of historians, journalists and other cultural personalities, were intended to give an overview of smaller local units of rural Hungary, as an admitted contrast to the enterprise started in 1896 on counties and towns. In spite of the editorial efforts, the quality of the individual volumes remains uneven, and the monographs do not always convey the viewpoints and achievements of modern history writing. The whole series has also been published on a single CD-ROM by the Arcanum Database Ltd. ( arcadat@axelero.hu, http://www.arcanum.hu ).
www.arcanum.hu/gesta (családkutatás) gives information on Hungarian Janet
It is now available also on CD and can be ordered from
www.arcanum.hu.
Other data bases from the MOL made available by Arcanum on CD include the "Kiralyi Konyvek" 1527-1683 (in English: Royal Books), which is a collection of documents issued by the Royal Office, the "Illesy Gyujtemeny" (see above),and "Magyar kozepkori adattar" (Hungarian Medieval Database) by Pal Engel. As new titles are added constantly, it is worth checking the Arcanum web site periodically. The single most complete and thereby most valuable work for family researchers is a DVD published by Arcanum and entitled “DVD Konyvtar IV. Csaladtortenet – heraldika –honismeret.(In English: DVD Library No. 4, Family History – Heraldry – Homeland Privity”). Review of Janet Kozlay, March, 2005 I recently gave out the information that I now have the DVD (Könyvtár IV) from Arcanum that includes the Nagy Iván and Kempelen Béla databases that were previously offered for free on the Arcanum website. These databases are often looked upon as bibles of Hungarian nobility, containing historical, genealogical, and heraldic information on a great many Hungarian noble families. Nagy has more information on coats of arms, including verbal descriptions (blazonry) and in many cases illustrations; Kempelen has more extensive family trees and many more family names. Bill Tarkulich has asked me to give a brief review of the DVD for the benefit of anyone who is thinking about purchasing it. First of all, it is quite expensive. Arcanum charges 200 euros for the DVD and another 50 for "postage." On top of that, they do not honor credit cards and ask for a bank transfer, which adds more money. Finally, my husband (who purchased this for me as a Christmas gift) had to cobble together an email in Hungarian, without knowing the language, in order to communicate with them. I previously had purchased a CD from them, but I did it by finding a friend in Budapest who went to their store to buy it and then sent it to me. It was considerably cheaper that way. The DVD contains much more than just the Nagy and Kempelen databases, including Siebmacher's Wappenbuch, which focuses on illustrated coats of arms of about 12,000 noble families. The coats of arms are beautifully rendered, much better than the ones in Nagy. There is much less, however, in the way of text or genealogies. The text is in German. There are a total of 35 entire books and volume sets on this DVD, which concentrates on works that relate to Hungarian nobility and heraldry but that also include information on history and different regions of historic Hungary. Most of the books are in Hungarian; some are in Latin. Some of them contain additional genealogies and coats of arms, often in beautiful color. There are also many illustrations and photographs in some of the books, others are strictly text. You can use the DVD two ways. You can search on a word or a name by clicking the binoculars. That opens a screen on which to enter the word you are searching for. The left side of the screen will give you a listing of every instance on the entire DVD, usually with enough surrounding text to determine if it is relevant to your search. It is not necessary to use diacritical marks because all words are listed in alphabetical order, like a dictionary. For example, if you type "jaszkis" you will be offered: Jászkisér Jászkiséren Jászkisérén Jászkiséri Jászkisérieket Jászkisérre Jászkisérrel Jászkisérről Jászkisérrre You can double click on as many of them as you wish, and it will give you every instance of all of them. Double clicking on the word or name on the left will give you the corresponding text on the right. I found this very easy to use. The second way to use it is by looking at the individual books, which are listed at the beginning of the DVD. I found several of them fascinating to simply scroll through, even though I am unable to read the Hungarian text. (A good Hungarian-English dictionary, such as Országh, is a huge help if you want to at least get an idea of the text.) Some of the books are lavishly illustrated and include such things as ancient maps of villages, views of towns and countrysides, old houses that illustrate regional architecture, castles, etc., in addition to many coats of arms. It is easy to lose yourself in them for hours. In sum, if you choose to purchase this DVD, you are essentially buying a library. Is it worth the price? Well, to me it was, but that is because I find myself tracing a lot of Hungarian noble family names. If you found yourself frequently consulting Nagy and Kempelen when they were online, you would probably love this library. If you only have a name or two in which you are interested, it would probably not be worth the high cost. Someone (!) would probably be more than willing to look up the names for you to find what is there. Janet Kozlay
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