Hungary

This section of our site is devoted to helping you understand Hungarian genealogy research and its processes. Visit the sections below to learn more of what you can be doing to uncover your Hungarian ancestors and how we can be of assistance in your quest.

• Primary record sources in which your ancestors can be found. This includes descriptions and examples of church records, civil registration, census records, and military records.
• Hungarian resources to help utilize records and manage research more efficiently. Gazetteers, maps, history, language, repositories and more can be found here.
• Learn how easy it is to enlist professional assistance for a scholarly presentation of your ancestors.
• When did who live where? See our maps showing the evolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, including modern-day Hungary.

Am I ready to do research in Hungary?

The town of origin is the most important piece of information needed to begin your research into Hungarian ancestry. Often a determination of locality is more difficult than adding four or five new generations to the pedigree once the location is known. With the knowledge of the town name, there are resources to help determine where the records of your family will have been deposited based on the family’s ecclesiastical affiliation.

If the town of origin is not known, research requirements will vary. There are few indexed sources allowing country-wide searches for inhabitants or surnames. Although emigration resources and a variety of records from families living in Hungary today can aid the researcher, interviews with family members and a careful search of all home sources are often the greatest help in finding clues to a precise location in Hungary. U.S. sources such as immigration records, naturalization, and even culturally-oriented church records will also be of tremendous value. We can help you with all of these aspects.

We hope you enjoy the material you find on these pages. If you have corrections or additions, or if you would like to contribute an article, please contact us.

Please ask about our free evaluation of what would be required to work with your specific ancestors in Hungary and throughout the world.