Simple name-and-date lists of pastors (both Protestant and Roman Catholic) are much more common than the type of list seen above for Vadosfa, with its heavily annotated history of the congregation. Lists of school teachers are much less common than lists of pastors. Though less valuable, these simple name-and-date lists can be useful to a researcher with clergymen or teachers in their ancestry.
Fokszabadi Reformed Teacher List
GENERAL: The following note provides an overview of where you might find clergy and teacher records, and how those records may assist your family history research.
The small village of Nemescsó, in northwestern Vas county, was important because it was one of two articulated places in the county where Lutheranism was permitted to continue during the 18th century Protestant repression. This simple list goes from early in the 1630s to the 1930s, much longer than is typical for such lists. But, the introductory sentence says the list was begun in 1787. So, obviously earlier pastors were recorded at that time or later from memory and records. [The earlier pastors from 1701 could be identified from the contents of this register itself. But note that there is an error -- the renowned Gregory Fabri (who assumed the pastorate in 1759) was mistakenly identified as George Fabri.] Later pastors were added -- probably many by themselves -- as they assumed the pastorate.
The Reformed Church of Fokszabadi in Veszprém county (now known as Balatonszabadi) remained open during the period of Protestant repression, and therefore had a historical continuity at least back to Turkish occupation times. This list of teachers, which was put on two blank pages at the end of the church register, seems to have been produced by 5-8 or more different people over more than a century, ending in 1909.
A list of teachers such as this is highly unusual. It is included here to let the reader see the kind of valuable information that can be gleaned from what was a very lucky and unexpected find. Family history longshots can be worth pursuing, and can produce some real surprises ... as we found in the popular novel The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier. And, like that novel, these longshot finds often leave new and more difficult questions for you to answer.
The following note provides a general sense of the organization, origin, and content of this teacher list.
This note describes the detailed entry that relates to my ancestor, and why it was so important to my family history efforts -- this longshot paid off!