Help me decipher this Hungarian Ellis Island name

Question

In 1907, my great-grandmother Ann(a) Schneider came over to the US as a baby from what was then the Hungarian region of Austria-Hungary. Later records showed that they listed their country of origin as Yugoslavia, leading me to conclude that they probably came from upper Serbia. I seem to be correct, as I came across an Ellis Island that perfectly matches the ages of her and her parents. The name of her mother also matches other records that we have. Her father, however, leaves me scratching my head. Our records indicate that his American name was John, which would be consistant with the Hungarian name listed (seemingly Jercucz). However, after that, I am lost. First of all, Anna takes her mother's last name, and after they entered the US, it seems like John took it as well. Was this common in Hungarian and/or Serbian culture? The name of the father is listed below, but I cannot make out the original last name. It is listed twice in the manuscript, but appears different. It's also theoretically possible that this is not the father. Can anyone make sense of this?

http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAxOTc1MTAwMTA1Ijs=/czo4OiJtYW5pZmVzdCI7

Comments

Dear,

I am Marta Balan,  I was born in Sombor, Bacska, Voyvodina, ex Yugoslavia (today Serbia) and migrated to Australia as an adult ( http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Balan-15 ). My native tongue is Hungarian and second native tongue Serbo-Croatian, my mother was a teacher of Latin language (the language of the old registry books) which I studied too and I can read German as well.

I am able to give a contribution to your search:  Jercucz is NOT a name or a word in Hungarian!  John would be in Hungarian János.

I am 100% sure   that the name above reads in Hungarian as Ferencz Klaszki, a Hungarian name for Frank, written with "cz" at the end, which is how the  letter "c" was written in the books in Latin.

A man would not take the family name of the wife, but immigration was an exceptional situation. There may have been some benefits to do that.

The original documents do exist in the registry offices. However, the place of birth in the passengers' list is not Bacska Palanka, Bacska, but Bocsár (Botschar in German) in Banat. At the end of the 19th century Germans moved there from some nearby places and there were more Germans then Serbs (not today). There were always Hungarians there too. The place seemed to be predominantly Catholic at the time, it has an old Catholic church. See: http://vajdasag.rs/Bocs%C3%A1r  The place is in Banat, one of counties of Voyvodina Province (Vajdaság those times). The province was abolished in teh recent war for political reasons, but it always stands for a distinctly different history of the: Austro- Hungarian Monarchy.

Ferencz declared himself as Hungarian (Magyar), which may mean that he was a Catholic, no 100% sure..

The  registry offices have entries from 1900 onwards. Before 1900 the books used to belong to churches, but were transferred into the local archives. I was told by a Catholic Bishop that a new law came out recently which requires these old books to be returned to churches. That transfer may be in process now, though not complete. It would be important to know what was their religion.

I also checked the Ellis Island book enlarged and could clearly see the names: Ferencz Klaszki and Margit Schneider, her last name written there also as above the name of Ferencz Schneider. Where did you get that name? In the passengers' list he appears only once, I suppose. In the passengers list they had different family names and Anna's name was Schneider, not Klaszki, may well be that they were not married at the time.

If you need more help, please do not hesitate to contact me on balan609@gmail.com

Good luck!

Cheers,

Marta

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Hi hun,

I am currently working on a space page for Ellis Island. I have a section for stories of the immigrants. Can I use some of this information to put her story in the section on the page and link the page to her profile?

Answer 1

Looks to me like the first name is what you have, Jercucz. On the Ellis Island website it shows the first name as Fenencz Klaszki from Hungary, Magyar. In doing more research on this. The second name is Fenencz Schneider, Margit's husband and father to Anna. By the way it looks he came over before the rest of the family so he could find a place to live. The Schneider family was heading toward Chicago, IL, and Klaszki was going to Philadelphia.

 

FIRST NAME 
Ferencz

LAST NAME 
Klaszki

MARITAL STATUS 
Single

GENDER 
Male

AGE AT ARRIVAL 
17y

ETHNICITY 
N/A

 

 

Comments

I am glad, somneone says also that it is FERENCZ

I realise the Ellis Island would be in the US.

Answer 2

The first letter of the first name looks more like an F to me, which would match the EI entry Chris located.  A script J has a loop to the left, not the right.

Answer 3

You might want to send a message to Maggie. Hungarian research is one of her strengths:

http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/user/N.-17

Answer 4

Chris is right as the first name is Ferencz on this record snip up above.

 John's  name in Hungarian would be JANOS (for John).Plus, the man you have snipped is traveling to Philadelphia. I do not think he is related.

Janos Schneider is already living in Chicago when his wife, Margit, and daughter, Anna, traveled to him as they stated " headed to husband" , ....."headed to father" ,Joh. Schneider, in Chicago, Illi. at 300 ___ ( looks like Wabash ?) Street ? .

So John Schneider came first which is the typical pattern of family immigration.Husbands first, then send for their wives and children.

Comments

Thank you for your help, everyone. Ferencz must have been a family friend since he was also from Bocar. Hopefully I can track down the husband as well, but I'm guessing there's quite a few John Schneiders in Hungary. Still, I never thought I'd be able to track down these two.

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here is a link that might help you out with trying to find your relatives that came over by ship.

 

http://www.immigrantships.net/newcompass/pcindex.html

Answer 5

An update: I was able to track down Janos Schneider. Now to find evidence that he is the son of Nicholas Schneider...

http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAxOTQ1MDgwMTM2Ijs=/czo4OiJtYW5pZmVzdCI7

Comments

 You did find some great evidence ! I would check on that brother-in-law at Chicago ... a census ? Chicago papers for obits that may tell more about them.

Janos and his family appear to be ethnic Germans that settled in Hungary, typical of Banat region of Hungary bordering at Serbia.

http://www.dvhh.org/banat/

http://www.rodoslovlje.com/documentation/guide-researching-ethnic-serbian-ancestors-austria-hungary

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Banat

 

 

 

 

Answer 6

The comments and guides people have listed below:  I read and understand them as  valid after years of trying to decipher this handwriting. I have relatives from northern, middle and lower Germany, and the Old Poland, later Lithuania and Belarus.

Let me know what other questions you have. This is an enormous adventure!

Answer 7

Much better image: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C95S-B4TQ?cc=1368704

Ferencz K-whatever is a red herring: he's coming from the same place, but otherwise unrelated to Margit and Anna. John Schneider is already in the U.S. by this time, as he's Margit's and Anna's destination in Chicago.

Their previous residence and birthplace appears to be Bocsár, which was in Torontál county, and is now Bočar in Serbia. The 1877 gazetteer says it had both a Roman Catholic and a Greek Orthodox church locally. The 1913 gazetteer says the residents predominantly spoke German, but with significant minorities speaking Serbian and Hungarian.