Hungary/ Romania

[Roy G]

Sorry if I do things a bit wrong, but although I'm very active on the UK site, searching central  European stuff is still new to me.

My interest is in the following early 19th century Jewish families from Nagyvarad now Oradea (the Gutmanns & Sterns) and Abony and Budapest (the Czettels & Posners)

So many problems at the moment, so firstly think its best just to ask if any of you have an ancestral interest in any of these names, especially combined with these places?  If so would love to hear from you before getting down to the 'nitty-gritty.'

One family legend I am trying to prove (or refute) is the conection between our Stern ancestors of Nagyvarad, and Adel Diosy nee Brull who was the mistress of a famous Hungarian poet, Ady Endre.  I have established that Adel's mother was a Cecilia Stern (born Nagyvarad c 1852) and ......  here comes the dubious connection ..... am investigating whether our ancestress, Amelia Stern (born Nagyvarad 1849) could have been her sister.   Family legend says she was, but we have all found that sometimes families bend the facts to suit themselves.

Roy G

[JustinL]

Hello Roy,

I would urge you to join/register with JewishGen (www.jewishgen.org) and its Hungary Special Interest Group (http://www.jewishgen.org/Hungary/). The Hungary SIG will have its own mailing list that you can subscribe to and then post requests for help, etc.

There are a great number of people (304) researching various surnames from Oradea, including Stern and Guttmann.

You'll encounter a lot people who are very knowledgeable and very willing to help.

It will help if you brush up on your 19th century Hungarian geography (I  don't quite recall that from school).

Nagy-Varad was in the Korosvidek district of Bihar county
Abony was in Pest-Pils-Solt-Kiskun county.

All the best,

Justin

[Roy G]

Thanks for the well meaning advice about familiarisation with Hungary, its history, and J Gen Justin, and please don't take my response as a put down in any way.   I actually live in Budapest, and although you will find a few of my requests for info on the J Gen website I have since let my membership to them lapse.   Furthermore, in recent weeks I have actually been helping another Rootschatter with his own Hungarian researches
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=424228.new;topicseen#new
It then occured to me that dropping an intial request to European Rootschat would also be a way of getting my own message about a few of the names of interest to me, to a far wider audience.  Perhaps there could even be another Rootschatter out there that never even believed that anyone else shared their Hungarian line.  (Have you ever noticed how these chats of ours often come up on the search criterion of Google?)

Roy G 

[JustinL]

You actually live in Budapest! Is it as lovely as pictures would suggest?

I know exactly what you mean about google searches. It's always disappointing when the only search results one finds are one's own Rootschats posts.

But you are right, it is good strategy for reaching a wider audience.

Justin

[Roy G]

Budapest has a fascard of impressive magnificence, behind which, much of the bullet ridden deriliction of 2 world wars and a revolution remains untouched.  It's a haven for those with love of all architectural styles, from Austrian Gothic & Jewdismic, to Art Nouveau & Goudistic extremism, and includes forgotton pockets of rural properties, cut off by advancing time.   A little crazy in places but well worth seeing.

Can't give you our email address on this website, but Google the unusual family name of "Czettel + Emigrants" and you'll get into our blog.
Roy G

[Roy G]

During the intro to this I wrote

One family legend I am trying to prove (or refute) is the conection between our Stern ancestors of Nagyvarad, and Adel Diosy nee Brull who was the mistress of a famous Hungarian poet, Ady Endre.  I have established that Adel's mother was a Cecilia Stern (born Nagyvarad c 1852) and ......  here comes the dubious connection ..... am investigating whether our ancestress, Amelia Stern (born Nagyvarad 1849) could have been her sister.   Family legend says she was, but we have all found that sometimes families bend the facts to suit themselves.

I have since verified that my suppostion was correct, so the family legend is true.  Reinforcing evidence has come from many sources like Jewish birth registrations copied by the LDS, diary entries and the writings of Ady Endre himself.  Nice to have somone famous connected to the family line.
Roy G