Austrian, Hungarian?

Question

I just found my paternal grandmother's family listed on the 1920 Census records and I found some great uncles and a great aunt and a woman who I believe to be is my great grandmother that was listed as Head.

It also shows that my family is from Austria and I know that Austria and Hungary are two separate countries, but I have not really heard of people who are Hungarian, Italian, etc, so does this make my family Austrian, Hungarian, Slovakian or what?

Can anyone tell me what free websites I could try to search for records other than fee-based websites like Ancestry.com of where I might look to find information before 1910 (I tried looking on the 1910 Census, but it didn't show anything) that pertains to my family since they are not originally from the US?

Any answers would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Until the end of WWI, there was just one country and it was called "The Empire of Austria-Hungary". It encompassed everything east of Switzerland, north to the southern 1/2 of Poland and east into the Ukraine and all the way to the fringes of the Ottoman Empire. When your ancestors left, their passport would have been recorded as "Austrian". After the empire broke up and all the smaller countries developed, your ancestors would have used the name of whatever country ruled their hometown at that time. Note that it's "who ruled their hometown", not their ethnicity. People may have kept their ethnicity in their hearts, but their legal allegiance was to whomever ruled their homeland on a given date until they were naturalized.

The first place you want to check is their passenger record from http://www.ellisisland.org so that you can find either their hometown or last town of residence. Also look to see if any records listed them as "Magyar" under ethnicity. That would make them Hungarian. Then contact the National Archives regional records center that holds the records for where they lived when they became permanent aliens or naturalized citizens. That will not only give you their hometown, but also the names of their parents. http://www.archives.gov

Answer 2

google

Answer 3

if your family is from Austria it's possible you might have Hungarian Ancestry i am of Austrian Ancestry but i might have also have Hungarian Ancestry a lot Austrians have Hungarian Ancestry because Austria was part of the Austro Hungarian Empire for 51 years from 1867 to 1918

have a look at this website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hun...

Answer 4

Because until 1918 it was called Austria-Hungary (which also encompassed Czechoslovakia and part of Poland as well as part of Germany, Austria & Hungary.

Because most of my family that came from that area came over to the US when it was Austria-Hungary, I guess that is what I should consider myself.  But I tell people that I'm slovakian, because the part of the country that they are from (the Village of Sambron) is now considered part of Slovakia.  My great-grandmother came here from Austria-Hungary, but she spoke Russian & Hungarian.  The only reason I have any family info at all is that my family has kept a written history of it and there are some distant relatives that still live in Slovakia.  I've heard that to do research for Slovakia you actually have to go over there and do it yourself because alot of it isn't on the internet.

Answer 5

It is quite difficult to find all information in a single site, considering all what happened in that area after 1910: the fall of an Empire,  country and borders re-designed several timestwo World Wars, the annexion by t n**i Germany (anschluss), Yalta, the allied occupation and new sub division, Soviet influence.

The best should find starting a search of the family name and possible of a name of a town/village in a local search engine. Then find someone ready to help you in the area checking the only long term reliaable data often remaining, that are Parish data  (of baptism, christening, wedding, death) in local churches.

Remember that up to 1918 and over, the Bourbon Empire was the Austro Hungarian Empire: there was no distinction between current regions in North West Italy, Austria, Slovenia , Croatia, Serbia Czech Republic, Slovakia and even parts of Romania. Up to  late 1800 situation was even more complex, Bourbons dominion extending to a biger share of Europe (up to Sardinia in Italy)  and even Mexico.

It is a big mess to find now an unitarian set of data. That is why it will be important first to establish a geographic area (a city , a region) or to see the incidence of your family name in that area and define its origins through etymology  

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hun...

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, also known as Austria-Hungary, was a dual-monarchic union state in Central Europe from 1867 to 1918, dissolved at the end of World War I. The dual monarchy was the successor to the Austrian Empire (1804 to–1867) on the same territory, originating in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 between the ruling Habsburg dynasty and the Hungarians.

   The Habsburg dynasty ruled as Emperors of Austria over the western and northern half of the country and as Kings of Hungary over the Kingdom of Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was geographically the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, and the third most populous (after both Russia and the German Empire).

  Habsburg (sometimes anglicized to "Hapsburg") and the successor family, Habsburg-Lorraine, were important ruling houses of Europe and was founded by Otto II, Count of Habsburg. The House of Habsburg ruled over the countries of Austria,Hungary, Portugal, Mexico, Bohemia, and Spain. The dynasty reigned for over six centuries.

   Aside from inherited dignities and lands, the dynasty's members were frequently elected to be the "Emperor of the Romans", who nominally led the far flung, fragmented and factional states of the Holy Roman Empire, including the roughly 1800 states of the Germanies.

     Their principal roles were as:

1. German Kings  to 1806

2. Rulers of Austria (as Dukes 1282-1453, Archdukes 1453-1804, and Emperors 1804-1918),

3. Kings of Hungary (1437-1439, 1445-1457, 1526-1918),

4. Kings of Spain (1516-1700),

5. Kings of Portugal (1580-1640)

6. Grand Princes of Transylvania (1690-1918).

Other crowns held briefly by the House included:

1. Dukes of Parma (1814-1847) --Italy

2. Dukes of Modena (1814-1859)

  3. Emperor of Mexico (1864-1867)

4. Empress consort of the French (1810-1814)

5. Empress consort of Brazil (1822-1826)

(a full article about this royal house is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg)

If you have heard of the city of Vienna, you've heard of Austria, as it is the capital city.

    Hungarians (Hungarian: magyarok) or Magyars are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. Magyars were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium.  After the Treaty of Trianon Magyars became minority inhabitants in the territory of present-day Romania (1,440,000);  Slovakia (520,500), Serbia (293,000; largely in Vojvodina), Ukraine and Russia (170,000), Austria (40,583), Croatia (16,500), the Czech Republic (14,600) and Slovenia (10,000). There are 1,400,000 in the United States,  but unlike the Magyars living within the former Kingdom of Hungary, only some of these largely preserve the Hungarian language and traditions.

    The word "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from the Bulgar-Turkic Onogur, possibly because the Magyars were neighbours (or confederates) of the Empire of the Onogurs in the sixth century, whose leading tribal union was called the "Onogurs" (meaning "ten tribes" in Old Turkic). The "H-" prefix in many languages (Hungarians, Hongrois, Hungarus etc.) is a later addition. It was taken over from the name of the "Huns", a semi-nomadic tribe that briefly lived in the area of present-day Hungary and, according to legends originating in the medieval period, was the people from which the Magyars arose.

    Budapest, once considered as two separate cities, is the capital city of Hungary. It became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with the unification on November 17, 1873, of right-bank (west) Buda and Óbuda (Old Buda) together with Pest on the left (east) bank.The Kingdom of Hungary existed with minor interruptions for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centers of the Western world. (A longer article is at the site below)

www.familysearch.org is free and has countries Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

www.rootsweb.com is a sister site of ancestry.com and is free.