HUNGARY-L Archives

From: jeff Kraft <>
Subject: Re: [HUNGARY-L] sharing your information through people 90 yrs.. to teens nee...
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 10:17:46 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <67.1bb882b4.2cdf05d8@cs.com>

Thank you So very Much for the nice responce... My Aunt's are asking me to add this information to the tree.. I found a web site that gave all kinds of books so I went to the library and got books targeted to Young readers and older readers.. spent my day just reading as much as I could..We had many stories told through our family that didn't fit..and it took me five years to crack into and lead me to family still alive in Hungary that survived and more here in the states we didn't know where here...
Because I'm reuniting so much family they want to have as much history put in to understand what happened as possible..
Thanks again

wrote:

You bring up a good point. I ran across those thoughts also in writing my family history. I'll tell you my story and what I did, and maybe it will give you a little insight.

I am a first generation American. My father and his family came to the US before WW1. They had the name of Kristoffy, spoke Hungarian and if asked, said they were Hungarian. As a result, all of us first generation cousins grew up thinking that that was the name, and that we were Magyar. The part of Hungary that they came from today is central Slovakia. My grandfather, who was Lajos Kristoffy died before he had a chance to come to the US. As a result, the first generation Americans didn't really know anything about him or his family. In researching church films the first thing I discovered was the fact that the name was Kristofik. Then I learned that it is a Slovak name. Then I started to study the history and learned that in 1778, the year after my grandparents married, was the peak year for "ethnic assimilation," or Magyarization, which ever you want to call it. They were married with the name Kristofik but Magyarized it to Kristoffy the following year. To make a !
long
story short, I learned that my grandparents were "Magyarized" Slovaks. So, what us first generation Americans thought, and what really was, were 2 different things. I am the youngest of the first generation. I am in the process of writing this history for my family and decided to "tell it like it is." History is history. Of course I realize that you are always going to have two or more view points about certain times in history, what I tried to do was be as objective as possible. I didn't take sides on that issue, I just stated the facts and how the process of Magyarization affected their lives. That is another story in itself and not the question at hand so I won't go into it.

The other thing is, that you can't please everyone. You have to write this family history from your heart, as historically accurate as possible, and if you think you might offend someone, copy the historical information from the book and footnote it and it won't be your words. That's what I did now and then and as a result didn't feel like I might offend my older first cousins who had thought they were Magyar for 60 or more years. As for the 2nd generation, I doubt they care if they come from Magyar, Slovak or what ever roots. We are a mix of different groups, everyone is and to think otherwise is pretty naive.

Good luck,
Joyce

This thread:

• [HUNGARY-L] sharing your information through people 90 yrs.. to teens need help.. generation gaps by jeff Kraft <>
  • Re: [HUNGARY-L] sharing your information through people 90 yrs.. to teens need help.. generation gaps by Sandi Barber <>

  • Re: [HUNGARY-L] sharing your information through people 90 yrs.. to teens nee... by jeff Kraft <>