1869 Hungarian Census

The 1869 Census is a “people” census, attempting to enumerate all individuals of all religions, regardless of property ownership.  The Census was created by the Hungarian Government.  The broad scope of the census makes it particularly valuable for genealogical research.  The census was mainly recorded in the Magyar (Hungarian) language, though census records from some areas may also include other languages, such as Slovak.

There are 15 former counties contained within the present-day boundaries of Slovakia.  The Mormon Family History Library (FHL) has microfilms available for twelve former Hungarian counties (megye), including:

Abauj-Torna Bars Esztergom Győr Hajduszoboszló Komárom

Nyiregyháza Nyitra Szentes Szepes Sáros Zemplén

These microfilms can be located in the LDS' Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) as Place ("Hungary"), Topic ("Census - 1869").  See here.  The microfilms present the towns in alphabetical order of their current Slovak name, with the Hungarian name (under which the records were created) in parenthesis.  Not all records are available on microfilm, e.g.: records for the 13 largest cities in Szepes megye and the three largest cities in Sáros megye are not included in these microfilms.

Information in the Original Data:

The original Census includes 14 columns of information (as per Daniel Schlyter), as follows:

1. Consecutive number of residence.
2. Consecutive number of individual.
3. Surname, given name, title and rank of the resident to be recorded, in the order:
   1) head of household, 2) wife, 3) child, grandchildren according to age, 4) relatives, 5) guests, servants, apprentices, etc, 6) roomers and lodgers.
4. Sex   (ferfi=male;   no=female).
5. Year of birth.
6. Maritial status
   (notlen=single male;   hajadon=single female;   hazas=married;   nos=married man;   ferjezett=married woman;   ozvery=widowed;   elvalt=divorced).
7. Occupation
8. Profession
9. Birthplace   (country, county, town).
10. Citizenship   (helybeli=native;   idegen=foreigner).
11. Residency   (innen ideiglen=temporary;   tul huzamosan=prolonged).
12. Absence   (same as above)
13. Literacy   (olvasni=reading;   irni=writing;   tud=knows how;   nem tude=doesn’t know)
14. Remarks

Some records are signed by the head of household as well as the census taker.

Creation of the Database:

Marelynn Zipser, a member of the JewishGen Hungarian Special Interest Group (H-SIG), has been the main force behind the 1869 transcription effort.  Her interest began as a result of a one-person search for ancestors in Szepes megye (county).  She reviewed and transcribed Szepes records, and these were part of the initial data in the JewishGen Hungary Database.  Alex Miller contributed transcriptions from Vrannov, Cigand and Homonna in Zemplén megye.  All other transcriptions have been contributed by Marelynn Zipser, who also acted as the project coordinator.

We wish to thank the Genealogical Society of Utah and the Magyar Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives) for granting permission to create this index.  Individuals interested in contributing transcriptions in advance of the formal project should consult the H-SIG website at /Hungary/1869.html for information and the template.

We thank Marelynn Zipser and Alex Miller, as without their donation of time and effort this index would not exist.  We thank the support team from JewishGen: Warren Blatt, Michael Tobias and Joyce Field.

Database Format:

The fields displayed in this database are:

• Town — Hungarian shtetl name (town/village name).  The name spelled as listed in the original census.
• District — Hungarian járás (district).
  The name is spelled in accordance with the actual record, or if not listed in the record, spelled in accordance with the information from the 1877 Hungarian Gazetteer (FHL microfilm # 599564, microfiche # 6000340-1).
• County — Hungarian megye in which the shtetl is located.
• Household # — A number assigned by the census taker to the household.
• LDS Microfilm # — LDS Family History Library microfilm reel where this record can be found.
• Name — Surname and Given Name of the individual.
• Maiden Name — Maiden name of wife (or widow), if listed.
• Relationship — Relationship to head of household, which is an optional field.
• Birth Place — Birth Place of the individual (if transcribed – this is considered an optional field).
• Birth Date — Birth date of the individual.
• Comments — Miscellaneous notes.

Transcription Rules:

Names from the original Census were entered exactly as they appeared on the original list.  If the name was abbreviated, it was transcribed exactly as abbreviated.  No changes were made in the spellings of the name, either.

All diacritical marks (the accent marks used above certain letters) were ignored.  This simplified transcription and data entry. Their only function is to guide pronunciation, which was not necessary in the construction of the database.

Records in the database:

The database currently contains more than 88,000 records, as follows:

County (megye)	Status	# of Entries
Abauj-Torna	Completed (mainly Torna járás)	1,174
Bars	Completed	2,571
Esztergom	Completed	112
Fejér	city of Székesfehérvár only	1,838
Győr	city of Győr only	941
Hajdu	city of Debrecen only	1,942
Komárom	Completed	4,737
Nyitra	Completed	26,854
Sáros	Completed	11,249
Szentes	city of Csongrád only	930
Szepes	Completed	3,321
Zemplén	Completed	32,350

Click here for a gazetteer of Szepes Megye.

Notes on Searching the Database:

The 1869 Census is searchable via the JewishGen Hungary Database.  In addition to the usual search of surnames and towns, you can use the "Global Text Search" of all fields to find all entries for a particular county (megye), given name, or LDS microfilm number.

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 problem.