Other Hungarian Census Records, 1770-1850

Background

A number of major censuses were conducted by the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austrian Empire, including the Vagyonösszeirás - 1828 (1828 Landowner census), the "Conscriptio Judaerum 1848" (1848 Census of the Jews), and the 1869 Hungarian census, which was a total population census, not just a landowner census.  These census records have been included in the JewishGen Hungary Database in separate databases because of their scope and importance.

Other local census, tax lists and household lists were created in the Kingdom of Hungary.   Most of these “Conscriptio Judaerum” lists provided the data for calculating the notorious “Tolerance Tax” that was levied against the Jewish communities throughout Hungary.  Beginning in 1747, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa (1740-1780), the Jews were heavily taxed for the privilege of remaining in the empire, and were threatened with expulsion if they did not pay.  While the formula for calculating the taxes seems to have varied over time and location, it appears that size of household, occupation, and income-producing assets were taken into consideration.

The JewishGen Hungarian Research Division became aware of the records created by the Locotenential Council of Hungary, when one of its members, Bob Hanscom, received a reply from the Magyar Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives) in response to his request for information regarding available records for Trencsén (today, Trenčín, Slovakia).  At that time we learned that C 55 Departamentum Judeorum included census records for Trenčín city: 1798, 1818, and 1821 and Trenčín county: 1795, 1809, 1814, 1818, 1820, and 1821.  Bob Hanscom obtained paper copies of these records and agreed to head a transcription project.  Additional information about the National Archives of Hungary can be found at http://www.mol.gov.hu.  Information about the Locotenential Council can be found under "Description of Holdings".

Members of H-SIG previously had transcribed other early census and tax list records from various sources.   These data have been available as static files on the H-SIG website.  These records have been reformatted to the H-SIG standard 'Other Census' format and are included in this searchable database.  H-SIG also anticipates adding additional records in the future.

As a second phase of the project, Census records for all other Hungarian counties are being added to those of Árva, Liptó, Máramaros, Moson, Nógrád, Sáros, Szabólcs, Szepes, Trencsén, and Zemplén — the counties comprising the original database.  This phase of the project is being coordinated by Eric Bloch.  As new Census records are acquired, these will be transcribed and added to the database.

Information in the Original Data

Because these records were created in different parts of the Austrian Empire over many decades, the information varies by year and location.   These records generally contain less information than the 1828, 1848 and 1869 census records.  At a minimum the records include the given names and surname of the head of household (although prior to about 1800, most 'surnames' listed in the records are really patronymics).  They often also indicate whether the household included a father, mother, widow, the number of sons and/or daughters, and also sometimes the presence of other blood relatives and servants.

Oftentimes additional information was included, such as occupation, birthplace, and income producing assets such as livestock, farm land, gardens, and vineyards.  One of the more interesting bits of data in the records is whether the individual was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, or not; and if not, how long they had resided in Hungary.

For tax lists, the tax assessment of each household was shown, oftentimes with an indication of the status and condition of the household (whether poor, vagrants, or servants), and sometimes with further comments.  Column headings for the different types of lists varied depending on the purpose, time and place of the list.  Most appeared in the Latin language.  Some used pre-printed headings, but most used handwritten headings.

Except for a few cases where we have identified rabbis, cantors, and shochets, most of the occupations and other financial details and descriptions of individuals that were included in the census were not transcribed, since they were in Latin and would have added considerable complication to our transcription efforts.  If you are successful in finding an ancestor, we encourage you to obtain the microfilm and view the original record yourself to obtain this additional information.

Database Format

It is important to note that this database is intended to be an index of available records, and therefore only some of the data in the original record may be included.  Searchers should also be aware that the data is transcribed as written, and thus unexpected or erroneous spelling of names and towns may be due to the spelling in the original records.  Researchers are encouraged to verify entries by reviewing the original data themselves.  If transcription errors are found, please notify the coordinator so corrections can be made to the index database.

The database includes the following fields:

• Page Number:  These are handwritten numbers that appear to have been added to the record books many years after the original data was recorded.

• Record Number:  This is the entry number recorded with each name listed on the original census.  If the field is blank, it is an indication that there was no record/entry number in the original census.  This record number should not be confused with house number.

• Name: First Name (Given Name) and Last Name (Surname).

• Relationship: The relationship between the head of the household and the individual listed.   This field is generally left blank in head-of-household-only census records.

• Town:  This town is the town of residence listed on the census.

• District:  The járás (district) of the town. 

• County:  The megye (county) of the town. 

• Year:  The year the census took place.

• Comments:  This field is used to list other available information that the transcriber chose to transcribe, for example the presence of other family members, occupation, birth date or birthplace.

• Reference:  The reference to the source of the data such as the specific reference at the Hungarian National Archives or the LDS microfilm number.

As a general rule, the transcribers did not include diacritical marks for place names, surnames and given names.

Creation of the Database

The database was assembled by volunteers from the JewishGen Hungarian Research Division, serving as transcribers, data entry, and validators, and we thank them for their hard work.

We wish to thank the Magyar Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives) for granting permission to create this index.  We also thank the transcribers, as without their donation of time and effort this index would not exist.  Lastly we thank the team from JewishGen: Warren Blatt, Michael Tobias, Avraham Groll and former team-member Joyce Field.

Records in the Database

The database currently contains 107,163 records, as follows:

Notes On Searching the Database

The Hungarian Census Records Database can be searched via the JewishGen Hungary Database interface.

The database is searchable by community (town name), surname, and/or given name, using any of several options:

1. "Phonetically Like" (Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching),
2. "Sounds Like" (Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex),
3. "Starts with" (Prefix wildcard),
4. "Is Exactly" (Exact spelling),
5. "Fuzzy Match" (Damerau–Levenshtein distance),
6. "Global Text" search.

The last search type, "Global Text", performs a search of all fields.  This search can be used to find records containing a particular search term, such as a county (megye) or district (járás) name, or LDS microfilm number.  To do a "Global Text" search, select "Any Field" from the "Data Type" pulldown.

If you are searching for a hyphenated town name or county, you must enter only the name before the hyphen or after the hyphen, but not both.  At this time, the search engine is not capable of handling hyphenated names.  JewishGen technicians are working on this issue.