HUNGARIAN FAMILY HISTORY TUTORIAL
Church Marriage Registers

1869 Puconci Lutheran Marriage Register

This register is from the Lutheran church in the town of Puconci (Báttyánd) in southern Vas county. This example illustrates the high quality and legibility of church records of the Dual Monarchy period (1867-1895) -- even for early period records from this tiny back-water town.

The towns and villages in this area had both Slavic and Magyar names. For further information about the Vendish towns of the Muravidék area: Click to See Note.

In this example, I will focus on entry #34 which records the marriage of my great-grandparents.

Format: Printed Tabular Marriage Register.
Preview of 1869 Marriage Register.
Click to See Enlarged Document.

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Content of Register by Column.


The page title is: Marriage Register (Esketési Anyakönyv). Columns are:

  • Sequential Number: (Folyó-Szám) Sequential numbers are normally restarted at the beginning of each year. My ancestor is entry #34.
  • Year and Day of Marriage: (Az esketésnek éve és napja) Entry #34: 07 February 1869.
  • The Groom: (A Völegény).
    • Name and Occupation: (neve és jelleme) the latter word literally means character, but here it's used here to document the occupation of the groom. The first three grooms are all Army soldiers, so their units are identified in the long descriptions. My great-grandfather (Iván Godina -- entry #34) is identified as a földész, which is one of the several terms used to describe small farmers ... now that it was no longer politically correct to call them peasants. In this poverty-stricken village, pretty much everyone was either a peasant or in the Army.
    • Places of Birth and Residence: (születés- és lakhelye) with the manuscript addition of ház szám (house number) and szülei (his parents). I'll translate entry #34 literally: Lehomér 9 Néhai Godina István és eló Bánfy Ilona which means "House #9 in the village of Lehomér -- the late Stephen Godina and the living Helen Bánfy." Lehomér was both the place of birth and residence for Iván. I suspect the word eló was added to avoid ambiguity.
    • Confession: (vallása) ev is the abbreviation for evangélikus a synonym of Lutheran.
    • Age: kora means "his age" and it is given in years (év).
    • Status: (állapota) with the choices nötelen (bachelor) or öszvegy (widower).
  • The Bride: (A menyasszony) -- all the columns in this grouping are pretty-much the same as for the groom. The differences are:
    • All the women are identified as "polgárnö" -- "woman citizen" -- another indication of the political correctness of the time.
    • Under "Status" the word hajadon -- "maiden" -- replaces "bachelor."
    • For a comment on the age of the bride in entry #34: Click to See Note.
  • The Witnesses Names and Occupations: (A tanúk neve és jelleme) It is interesting that women, in some cases, are included as witnesses now that we're in the Dual Monarchy era. Entry #34 reads Godina Mihály és neje Friskits Judit -- Michael (a cousin of the groom) and his wife Judith. Unfortunately the jelleme is not very legible on the page. For entry #34, it may be some form of lakásberlö -- leaseholder.
  • The Marriage Pastor: (Az esketö lelkész) His name is given on the first entry of the page. Subsequent entries are: fentebbi or its abbreviation fent. This is an old form of fenti meaning the "aforementioned."
  • Banns Announced or Under Dispensation: (Kihirdetés vagy dispensatio mellet) In each case the abbreviation kih is used to note that banns were announced.
  • Notes: (Jegyzet) For the first three entries (the soldiers) the 06 Nov document giving permission for the marriages from the Royal Army Ministry is referenced. The 2nd and 3rd entries read: fentebbi oklél -- "the aforementioned document" -- oklél was apparently used as an abbreviation for oklevél or "document." No notes are used for the non-military grooms.