I've finally started looking into my family tree. When I lived in Western Romania, I kept asking my sister to send me the family tree that our mother made before she died. I knew there was something to do with Hungary, and figured it might turn out that it was someplace close that I could visit. I didn't get the family tree while I was there (sorry, Rose, I don't mean to complain!), but when I did, I found that my great-great-great-grandmother was from Debrecen, a city I've been to dozens of times! So, now I'm determined to learn more.
Our particular branch of the family may find it hard to trace its roots because the spelling of the surname changed after our ancestors arrived in the United States. Those doing research on the family name Antlick will probably find an ancestor who was actually named Antolik, as I did.
I welcome input from anyone who can help me get back beyond my great-great-great-grandparents' generation in the 1800s. I recently managed to trace a line of Antoliks in the town from the early 1700s to the early 1800s, but I need to finish going through the microfilmed records to make the connection with my own ancestors, if there is one. See the latest information here! These Antoliks were from what is now Spisske Podhradie in Slovakia (back then it was known as Kirchdrauf or Szepesvaralja in the Austro-Hungarian Empire). My great-great-grandfather was Michael Antolik, and he actually moved to the city from the neighboring locality of Kolbach (Studenec). His brother's name was Joseph and his sister was Kathe. Kathe married into the Kissley or Kiszely family, who owned a French Pastry shop in Budapest. Descendents of theirs later settled in Tannersville (Hunter), New York. My mother's notes mention a coat-of-arms featuring a pelican, but so far I've found no record of it. The family may have had some connection with nobility, and my mother's notes mentioned some connection with the Kubinyi family, although I do not yet know what the connection is. What information I've found suggests that the family was pretty ordinary.
The Szalacsi family's place of origin is uncertain. My great-great-grandmother was born in Debrecen, but her father was a soldier, and I suspect that he may have been stationed there rather than that being his hometown. Her parents died when she was 8 years old, and she was thereafter raised by an aunt and uncle, presumably in Spisske Podhradie. The Juday family was from Kosice (also called Kaschau or Kassa) and were connected with the Austrian army base there. Gabor Juday was apparently the quartermaster there in the last decades of the 19th century. I hope to get his military file in the near future. I've found many Judays in Indiana who came sometime earlier, but if you are a Juday (or a Jaskocy) from New York, please get in touch! :-)
This is my address if you want to contact me. To avoid excess spam, I've made it an image, which means you unfortunately have to type the address in by hand. Sorry for the inconvenience!
My own personal web page can be found at http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/
For a page devoted to my wife's side of the family, visit http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/genealogy/ungurean.htm
I will, eventually, provide further information on other branches of my family - particularly the McGrath branch (from someplace in Galway) and the Flanagan branch of Co. Galway (the Oranmore area) in Ireland, but also the Burke branch from Galway or Roscommon, and the Murray branch from Dublin. Eventually I could put the whole family tree will be up here as a convenience to interested relatives - it already spans more than 70 pages, so that will be far better than sending it through the mail! J But first I will take steps to protect information about the living.
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