Boundaries of some Greek-Catholic Parishes in Old Hungary

This post is limited to the area around the triple-point where present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine meet. The scale of the map below is approximately 50 km horizontally from western to eastern edge. The dashed lines are present-day international borders (shown only where they do not overlap with the old parish borders). The wavy/scalloped line is the Tisza River. It flows from east to west, reaching its northernmost point near the middle of the map. For the most part, parishes do not cross the Tisza. The one exception is parish No. 25. In 1920 part of the northern border of Hungary was placed along the northernmost segment of the Tisza. The remainder of the northern border of Hungary on this map diverges from the Tisza, off to the west and off to the southeast. The dashed line extending north from the river is a border established only after World War II. West of that line is present-day Slovakia, east of there is Ukraine.

Following are three tables listing the parishes, grouped according to the location of the parish's town namesake.

First Group: Parish town located in present-day Slovakia

No.	Old Name	Current Name and District	Old County and District
1	Sámogy (musovce) (includes Lasztomér)	Šamudovce, Michalovce (separate Lastomír)	Zemplén, Nagy-Mihály
2	Kráska	Zemplínska Široká (Krášok), Michalovce	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
3	Sólymos	Iňačovce, Michalovce	Ung, Szobráncz
4	Sáros-Reviscse, Sárosrőcse	Blatné Revištia (te), Sobrance	Ung, Szobráncz
5	Porosztó	Porostov, Sobrance	Ung, Szobráncz
6	Felső-Némethi (mete)	Vyšné Nemecké, Sobrance	Ung, Ungvár
7	Korumlya (lak)	Koromľa, Sobrance	Ung, Ungvár
8	Falkus	Falkušovce, Michalovce	Zemplén, Nagy-Mihály
9	Dubróka (ovka) (includes Butka)	Dúbravka, Michalovce (separate Budkovce)	Zemplén, Nagy-Mihály
10	Márk	Markovce, Michalovce	Zemplén, Nagy-Mihály
11	Szalók (Szlavkovce)	Slavkovce, Michalovce	Zemplén, Nagy-Mihály
12	Bező (Bezsovci)	Bežovce, Sobrance	Ung, Ungvár
13	Lakárd (árt, Lekárt)	Lekárovce, Sobrance	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
14	Petrik	Petrikovce, Michalovce	Zemplén, Nagy-Mihály
15	Csicser (Csicsarovci)	Čičarovce, Michalovce	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
16	Mátyóc	Maťovské Vojkovce, Michalovce	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
17	Lelesz-Polyán (Bodrogmező)	Poľany, Trebišov	Zemplén, Bodrogköz
18	Zemplén (Zeume)	Zemplín, Trebišov	Zemplén, Sátoraljaújhely
19	Kis-Dobra	Dobrá, Trebišov	Zemplén, Bodrogköz

Any of the Slovak place-names can be searched for in the familysearch.org online catalog. There you will find, in addition to information about the availability of microfilmed Greek-Catholic records for that parish, an alert that church records for Slovakia are available online. Follow that link, and you will find another link inviting you to browse [an incredibly large number of] images. That link takes you to a list of denominations, from which you can re-select Greek-Catholic. You are then presented with a list of Districts (even though the page title says Counties). Selecting a district provides a list of parishes, and from there a manageable number of images. Most of the 19 parishes in the table above are listed on the browsing pages under one of two official Districts (Sobrance or Michalovce). But there appears to be an ongoing project to transfer some of the parishes into pseudo-districts named for a nearby main town. For example, Parishes 17 and 19 are listed under Kráľovský Chlmec (Chlumec, Hungarian Királyhelmec, the main town in the Old-Hungary district of Bodrogköz). Parish 15 has recently been moved out of Michalovce and into its own Vel'ké Kapušany (Hungarian Nagy Kapos) district. Similarly, parish 13 has recently been moved into its own Užhorod district. The link for Parish 2, although still listed under Michalovce, has recently been changed to its secondary Slovak name (Krášok). Parish 16 was available recently, but has since disappeared. I emphasize that these remarks refer only to the links as they are presented at the online site.

Second Group: Parishes in present-day Hungary

No.	Name	Old County and District
20	Cséke	Zemplén, Bodrogköz
21	Dámócz	Zemplén, Bodrogköz
22	Agárd	Zemplén, Bodrogköz
23	Ajak	Szabolcs, Kis-Várda
24	Tornyos-Pálcza (Tornyas-Pálcza)	Szabolcs, Tisza
25	Bács-Aranyos (Bácsaranyos)	Szabolcs, Tisza

Microfilm numbers for these parishes can be found in the familysearch.org online catalog.

Third Group: Parishes in present-day Ukraine

No.	Old Name	Old County and District
26	Ungvár	Ung, Ungvár Town
27	Alsó-Domonya	Ung, Ungvár
28	Neviczke	Ung, Ungvár
29	Or (Or-Darma, Ör)	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
30	Minaj	Ung, Ungvár
31	Palágy	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
32	Kereknye	Ung, (Nagy)Kapos
33	Sztrabicsó	Bereg, Munkás
34	Gorond	Bereg, Munkás
35	Makkos-Jánosi	Bereg, Tiszahát
36	Árok	Ung, Ungvár
37	Antalócz	Ung, Ungvár
38	Köblér	Ung, Ungvár
39	Radváncz	Ung, Ungvár
40	Darócz (Ungdarócz)	Ung, Ungvár
41	Nagy-Láz	Ung, Ungvár
42	Horlyó	Ung, Ungvár
43	Iglinz (Unggesztenyés)	Ung, Ungvár
44	Orosz-Komorócz	Ung, Ungvár
45	Lehócz	Ung, Ungvár
46	Szerednye	Ung, Ungvár
47	Dubróka	Ung, Ungvár
48	Ignécz	Bereg, Munkás
49	Nagy-Lucska	Bereg, Munkás
50	Uj-Dávidháza	Bereg, Munkás
51	Rákos	Bereg, Munkás
52	Ruszkócz (Nagy-Ruszkócz)	Bereg, Munkás
53	Zsukó	Bereg, Munkás
54	Nagy-Mogyorós	Bereg, Munkás
55	Orlyova (Ungasfalva)	Ung, Ungvár

I have just started to participate in a project intended to establish what may have been microfilmed for these Ukrainian parishes. Information about the Munkacs Records Project can be found at the rusyns group site at yahoo.

In constructing the map of the parish boundaries, I relied on the online images of the 1877 Dvorszák Gazetter from the the University of Pécs, along with the Lazarus Military Maps (ca. 1910) from the Eötvös Loránd University, and the radixhub digitized extract of the information in the 1877 Gaztteer. The only additional information content here is the geographical relationship of the parishes to each other. To determine which villages belonged to which parishes, and how the villages were related to each other and to nearby topography, those sources should be consulted.

Family Finder Results, Part I

Results are back for both me and my Mom. There is much information to digest, and I will have more posts later. For now, some initial impressions about the matches.

Aside from the obvious parent-child match, the remaining matches (44 for me, 113 for my Mom; 25 overlap) are all distant cousins, perhaps very distant. FTDNA distinguishes between distant and speculative cousins, and provides an estimate of the relationship. My early reaction is to take those distinctions with a grain of salt. Initially my focus is on the length of and the number of segments in the matches.

On the list of matches results page, there are two lengths provided for each match: (1) the sum of the lengths of all of the matching segments and (2) the length of the longest matching segment. Those lengths are reported in centiMorgan values (FTDNA FAQ 52). The Chromosome Browser page provides more detail, but for only five matches at a time. Although I have looked at those details for only a portion of the matches, a consistent pattern has emerged. In each case there are several (usually at least eight, sometimes 16 or more) matching segments. All but one of those segments fail to meet the 5 centiMorgan minimum length required by the program for a match (FTDNA FAQ 30). But there is one much longer segment, and it is because of that one long segment that a match is reported (FTDNA FAQ 30). In each case the longest block happens to be the only segment longer than 5 centiMorgan.

Besides hypothesizing with distant cousins about possible connections that we may never be able to prove, it is also interesting to look at the results collectively. For example, there are 19 of my matches that do not overlap with my Mom's. About half of those are clearly tied to Eastern Europe; certainly their connection is through my Dad's ancestors. And about half of those ties are to the parts of present-day Poland and Ukraine that were known as Galicia when they were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It suggests that at least some of my distant ancestors migrated south across the Carpathian Mountains and subsequently became assimilated in Old Hungary. About three or four of my matches that do not overlap with my Mom's look like they ought to be connected through my Mom's ancestors--those matches have strong connections to the British Isles and Ireland. For each of those the longest block is less than 10 centiMorgan. This FTDNA FAQ 15 indicates a possible way that most of the match could still be through my Mom.

Genealogy DNA Tests

I recently ordered the Family Finder test from Family Tree DNA. Reading this, you probably don't need to be found; we already know how our trees are connected. Still if any of my known cousins were to take the Family Finder test, they would at least have a match with me. If on my Mom's side of the family, then they would also have a second, closer match. I had her order the test during FTDNA's recent sale.

Like other genealogy DNA tests, the utility of this test is limited by the number of people who have been tested. Unlike the original tests (YDNA and mtDNA), which potentially match along only one branch (father's-father's-father... or mother's-mother's-mother... ), the relatively new Family Finder test potentially matches along any branch. The more distant the relationship, the less the chance of detecting a match. So that is why I had my Mom take the test.

I first had my YDNA tested a little over eight years ago. The results appear as kit 10698 at the Hungarian/Magyar project, and also at the R-U152 project. Those two projects continue to answer my initial curiosity about how my Toth grandfather fits into the big picture in that part of Europe. Though I've been in contact with European Toth cousins, finding someone willing to do a YDNA test to prove the connection is of secondary interest.

On the other hand, the possibility of proving a Meagher connection was the primary reason I encouraged my mother's first cousin to have his YDNA tested. He did that a little over seven years ago. I started a Meagher surname project solely for the purpose of obtaining a discounted, group price for his test. That Meagher project has taken on a life of it's own, as part of the big picture in Ireland.

In the hope of proving my great-grandfather's connection with the James and Ann Meagher family of Ohio, I contacted about two dozen Meaghers in Ohio, encouraging them to have their YDNA tested. It's kind of a Catch-22. If I was certain about their connection with my family tree, I wouldn't need the YDNA for proof. Since I and they are uncertain, I haven't asked more than twice.

It will probably be the same way with the Family Finder test. Any descendant of the Patrick and Nancy Meagher family of Ireland would be, at most, a third cousin of my Mom, perhaps once or more removed. That would probably be getting close to the limit of the Family Finder test, but there could still be a faint trace of a connection. It will be interesting to see what may develop.