HUNGARY : Tracing a family - where to begin ? - HALAM

[gbrowne]

I have discovered that my Great Uncle who lived in Buxton, married a Hungarian woman called Anna HALAM in the 1960s. 

Her death cert records that she was born 16th August, 1906, Budapest, Hungary.  I can't find her name in the UK BMDs, so I suspect they married abroad.

I would like to get hold of her birth certificate and their marriage cert if possible.  Could anyone suggest where I should begin please ?  I have no knowledge of the Hungarian language whatever - though I do make a wicked goulash

Cheers,
Geoff.

[jorose]

I checked a couple of GRO overseas indexes but didn't see anything for "Halam" around that time.  Can you give your uncle's name, and do you know if he might have been in the military at the time?

[gbrowne]

So sorry for not coming back to you sooner.  For some reason I didn't get a notification of your reply.  Very grateful for your help.

My Great Uncle was called Edward BROWNE and he was born 13/5/1904 in Barton, Manchester, LAN.

Interesting you mention the military.  I don't have any record of him having served in the Regular Army, but we do know he was involved with the League of Frontiersmen, possibly in South Africa.  We also know that he was in Tangier, Morocco at least around 1948/1949as we have his gun license from then. He was also in Gambia  in 1954 as he came back from there to England on 21 June aboard the RMNV Aureol.

Cheers,
Geoff Browne

[gbrowne]

Looks like this is more difficult than I thought it might be 

[Bluebird Research]

Hi

The spelling of this surname is probably Hálám. I do not believe it is a common name but records in Hungary, and also within Budapest, are decentralised - there are no central nationwide or citywide indexes.

If they married in the 1960s in UK then I would guess that she was either a post-WW2 Displaced Person (i.e. arrived in England after 1946) or else fled Hungary in late 1956 following the Soviet invasion.

There would also have been Hungarian emigres and refugees in countries such as France, of course, so they may have married overseas.

Do you wish to research her family tree or just find out more about your great uncle?

[gbrowne]

Hi Bluebird,

Thanks for the reply and the info.

Unfortunately all I know is what I have from her death certificate ie that she was born on 16th Aug 1906 in Budapest.  Another snippet is that the informant was a Ferenc Jozsef DODOG.

It would be great to find anything out about her really, though I suppose I am mainly interested in terms of what she might lead to shedding a little light on part of my Great Uncle's life.

From your experience of Hungarian research, would you say I am unlikely to be able to find her birth cert ?

I was told by my late father that Edward married a French woman in the mid-1960s, but I suppose he might have misremembered a marriage in France to a Hungarian woman.  We know that Edward certainly travelled around Africa, but so far we have no details to any european travel.

All the best,
Geoff Browne.

Hi

The spelling of this surname is probably Hálám. I do not believe it is a common name but records in Hungary, and also within Budapest, are decentralised - there are no central nationwide or citywide indexes.

If they married in the 1960s in UK then I would guess that she was either a post-WW2 Displaced Person (i.e. arrived in England after 1946) or else fled Hungary in late 1956 following the Soviet invasion.

There would also have been Hungarian emigres and refugees in countries such as France, of course, so they may have married overseas.

Do you wish to research her family tree or just find out more about your great uncle?

[Bluebird Research]

Hi Geoff

If she was indeed born in Budapest, it should be possible to obtain a copy of her birth or baptism certificate, although you would need to look at each of the Budapest districts in turn until you found it. So it's possible but time-consuming.

If she was born in the Budapest district outside the city limits, of course, the task suddenly becomes much more speculative.

Have you looked for wills for Anna and Edward? If either or both left a will, the bequests might be interesting.

[gbrowne]

As far as I can tell, neither of them were likely to have left much estate, so wills are unlikely.
Obtaining birth/baptism certs sounds like my best hope.

You say I should look at each of the districts - could you please tell me the best way to go about this from the UK ?

Geoff.

[Moncsisag]

Hi Bluebird,

Thanks for the reply and the info.

Unfortunately all I know is what I have from her death certificate ie that she was born on 16th Aug 1906 in Budapest.  Another snippet is that the informant was a Ferenc Jozsef DODOG.

It would be great to find anything out about her really, though I suppose I am mainly interested in terms of what she might lead to shedding a little light on part of my Great Uncle's life.

From your experience of Hungarian research, would you say I am unlikely to be able to find her birth cert ?

I was told by my late father that Edward married a French woman in the mid-1960s, but I suppose he might have misremembered a marriage in France to a Hungarian woman.  We know that Edward certainly travelled around Africa, but so far we have no details to any european travel.

All the best,
Geoff Browne.

Hi

The spelling of this surname is probably Hálám. I do not believe it is a common name but records in Hungary, and also within Budapest, are decentralised - there are no central nationwide or citywide indexes.

If they married in the 1960s in UK then I would guess that she was either a post-WW2 Displaced Person (i.e. arrived in England after 1946) or else fled Hungary in late 1956 following the Soviet invasion.

There would also have been Hungarian emigres and refugees in countries such as France, of course, so they may have married overseas.

Do you wish to research her family tree or just find out more about your great uncle?

My name is Monika Dodog from Hungary. Can I help you?

Best regards
Monika