First Generation
1. 
Gyula Gábor József HESZLÉNYI1,2,3,4,5 was born on 9 August 1872 in Budapest, PPSK m, HUN.6 He was baptized on 19 Sep 1872 at the Roman Catholic church of Ferenczváros (a section of Pest). The godparents were his aunts Vilma Osztróvszky and Emma Heszlényi and the latter's husband Ferenc Wachsmann. He died on 20 September 1934 at the age of 62 in New York, NY. Cause of death was heart failure, after a long bout with rheumatoid arthritis.
After being orphaned in 1877, he was brought up by his Osztróvszky grandparents and his maiden aunt Vilma in Budapest. From 1880, they lived at 44 Damjanich Street in wealth and comfort -- his grandfather being presiding judge of the Kuria, a Hungarian high court.
He was educated as an architect at the Joseph Technical University of Budapest. He apparently became estranged from his Osztróvszky family about this time. In 1891, he enlisted as a cavalryman in the KuK 1st Huszár Regiment where he served 10 years, 1 month, and 10 days. He then served two-years with the 4th Huszár Militia receiving his discharge from the 14th Military District headquarters in Szeged on 31 Dec 1904. Following his discharge, he was subject to recall and had to report his whereabouts through 1908, and would then be on inactive (2nd tier) status through 1913. The last notation in his Militia Identification Book ("Népfölkelési igazolványi könyv" ) was when he presented himself to the militia commander in Técsö, in Maramaros megye, in 1908.
On 06 May 1912, he obtained a passport, for purposes of emigration to North America, in Budapest. In the passport he is listed as a "building designer" and described as being "tall, long visage, blue eyes, brown hair and moustache." On 13 May the passport was stamped at Gyékénes, where the railway crosses from Hungary-proper into Croatia, and on 17 May it was stamped in the port of Fiume. On the 18th he set sail aboard the Cunard line's "Saxonia" -- one of 1600 third-class passengers aboard for the Trieste-Fiume-Naples-New York sailing. In the ship's manifest, he gave his home address as Hernád utca 11 in Budapest, and was identified as a married man, age 39, whose occupation was a "drawer" -- draftsman; he was described as being 5 feet 9 inches tall, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. His destination was given as the home of a friend in Trenton, NJ. He arrived aboard the Saxonia at Ellis Island on 04 Jun 1912 with $25 to his name.
Some facts concerning his life in Hungary remain in doubt. He told his children here that he never contacted relatives in Hungary because he had a falling-out with his sister. The lack of contact was, in truth, probably because he left a wife (and family?) in Hungary. He told his children in NY that he came to America as a result of winning a design competition for a Roman Catholic church in Los Angeles. The archives of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles show no record of any such contest. The only evidence of his first marriage in Hungary (other that his immigration manifest) is an entry on the 1930 census stating that he was first married at the age of 18. It appears that -- like so many others -- he simply walked away from his old life in Europe with the desire to start a new life in America. This may be evidenced by his meeting a Catholic priest in New York who he had known in Hungary ... he carefully avoided further contact with him.
In New York, he was employed as a machinist and toolmaker. During the 1st World War, he worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. According to the 1920 census, he was a machinist in a straw-hat factory and his wife was a cigar-maker. Later he worked at a Queens factory which manufactured oxygen valves and other medical equipment. While there, he invented a metal-framed ladies pocketbook (prior to this, women carried simple pouches).
After their 1913 marriage, the Heszlenyi's lived on Avenue A until the birth of there oldest child, my mother Helen. Then the family lived on 77th Street for a long time. The family moved to Tinton Ave in the Bronx when Helen was in HS, then to 95th St, and finally to 113th St. After Helen's father died in 1934, they leased a house on 106th St and Broadway where her mother took in boarders.
In 1927, he and his family were among the founders of the Hungarian Evangelical Lutheran Church of New York, though he nominally remained a (non-practicing) Roman Catholic until his death. His progressive rheumatoid arthritis no longer permitted him to work from about 1931. During his illness, the family received disability support from the Verhováy Sick Benefit Society. In New York's Hungarian-American community, he was considered the epitome of the old-country gentleman.