Perhaps some of you have begun your genealogical research and have run into some difficulty when it comes to researching the Slavic regions. For me several years ago in my first foray into my family tree journey, the stumbling block was an odd word: "Györkeháza." Go ahead and google this word. You likely will not find any results. This was such an annoying stumbling block for me when researching my great grandfather who immigrated to America and had this city scrawled on his ship manifest record at Ellis Island. As such this is a common problem for people starting with their Slovak research.
If you have read my previous article on Slovak immigration to America, you may have heard of the term Magyarization. This is a cultural warfare that Hungary had waged on Slovakia many years ago where they attempted to "Hungarianize" (The Hungarian word for Hungary is Magyar) much of the Slovak culture. So it is quite important to use tools such as gazetteers to aid you in your search. One such site is excellent at least for the country of Slovakia: https://www.cisarik.com/.
This site was incredible when I first discovered it. It gives all listed historical names for cities, their surrounding cities, and census data for surnames from historical documents as well as common last names from the 2005 phone book. For anyone conducting research on Slovak ancestry, this site is a must. Particularly for me, I am interested in the field of onomastics - the study of surnames. I've always thought surnames were so peculiar and odd that at some point somewhere someone had a word they just declared was theirs (or that was given to them based on their disposition).
For me, Babčanec is so odd of a last name with no apparent socio-economic origin, so hence I am interested in this. As I have discovered, Slovaks in the 18th and 19th century might have altered their name when they moved to a different town - at least this was the case for me. From the root Babčan to accomodate the city of Rajec, my family's new church parish. This is why cisarik.com is such a useful website: I can see that other neighboring villages carried my last name stem Babčan close to Rajec. Further, A neighboring city of Babkov and the last name indicating land ownership Babcsanszky may give further indication of family history. Other surnames are commonly derived from their field of work, or attributes of ancestors. Wikipedia lists some instances
derived from professions:
Kováč – smith, Mlynár – miller, Bača – shepherd, Rybár – fisher, Kráľ – king, Pekár – baker, Kuchár – cook, Mäsiar – butcher, Holič – barber, Maliar – painter, Kľúčiar – key maker, Mečiar – sword maker, Sklenár – glass maker.
derived from adjectives:
Čierny – black, Biely – white, Suchý – dry, Mokrý – wet, Slaný – salty, Smutný – sad, Šťastný – happy/lucky, Malý – small, Široký – wide, Tichý – quiet, Surový – raw.
other:
Koreň – root, Chren – horseradish, Repa – beet, Slanina – bacon, Polievka – soup, Cibuľka – little onion, Malina – raspberry, Dobrovodský – good water, Holub – pigeon, Chrobák – beetle, Komár – mosquito, Medvedík – little bear, Koleno – knee, Mráz – frost, Okienka – little window, Otčenáš – our father (as in the “Our Father” prayer), Bezdeda – without a grandpa, Dolina – valley, Kocur – tom cat.
For me the last name transformation and the combination with nobility names (in my case Bapcsanecz-Gyurcsanszky) is also common. Keep this in mind when researching. In this case, Gyurcsanszky is very close to the Magyarized Györkeháza. And indeed, the Slovak town of Ďurčiná was named after this family.
Records are slightly more complicated. Unfortunately, baptismal records are virtually the birth certificate for mid-18th century records and back. This is troubling primarily because of the recycling of given names and the lack of parental birth dates. In this case, marriage records may be of help. But educated guesses can also be useful when there is little to work off: they have been for me, estimating childbearing around the age of 24-30 and working backwards to find parent birth years. Keep in mind this may be difficult for men as there can be age discrepancy and with the fact men can be fertile for slightly longer. Combined with the fact that infant mortality is high and people have many children, and you have some conundrums on your hand. But there are still a couple more techniques.
Consistency in baptismal sponsors may help collect siblings that are otherwise disjoint or hard to find due to common names. Often times given family names are consistent through many generations: this is definitely the case with my family tree. You might be able to split the difference on a couple of records close in year. Next, there are also some passport records you can find for early 20th century/late 19th century records. I will attach an example I have found that helped me trace some of my family. Some of these consistent records can really be helpful in finding siblings who did not immigrate to America whereas your direct ancestor may have. Lastly, you may find it useful to contact an archival agency or library in the town you are interested in. I have found these resources very responsive, and have gotten some public domain catalogs of township history. All in all, there are many tools you can use, and hopefully some of these will be helpful.
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