Hungarian Citizenship & Genealogy - EverGens

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Your Roots, Our Expertise: Genealogy & Citizenship

VIDEÓN A „BANÁNOSDOBOZ TITKA” – amikor az iratmentés életre kelEgy banánosdoboz. Egy kisnemesi levéltár. Egy különös bel...
05/09/2026

VIDEÓN A „BANÁNOSDOBOZ TITKA” – amikor az iratmentés életre kel

Egy banánosdoboz. Egy kisnemesi levéltár. Egy különös belga királyi örökség. Kongói arany- és gyémántbányák. És még II. Erzsébet királynő is.

2026 tavaszán az Iratmentő Alapítvány egy aukción mentett meg egy teljesen rendezetlen, banánosdobozba zsúfolt iratanyagot. A rendezés során kiderült: a doboz Péterffy Franciska (1879–1961) hagyatékát őrzi, és vele együtt egy olyan történetet, amely a Balaton-felvidéki nemesi családoktól a belga királyi udvarig és a kongói gyémántbányákig vezet. Franciska idős korában még II. Erzsébet királynőhöz is segítségért fordult.

A „banánosdoboz titkáról” korábban már részletesen beszámoltunk. Most azonban maguk az eredeti dokumentumok kerülnek a kamera elé.

Az Iratmentő Alapítvány kurátorai, Dr. Neumann Tibor történész és Dr. Rácz György levéltáros a Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltárában mutatják be a megmentett gyűjteményt és mesélik el, mi minden került elő abból a bizonyos banánosdobozból.

A filmet érdemes megnézni: ritkán látható ennyire közelről, hogyan válik egy doboznyi régi papírból megmentett magyar történeti örökség.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrbTIjMpY-M

Az EverGensnél nap mint nap olyan történeti forrásokból dolgozunk, amelyeket előttünk valaki megőrzött. Ezért is fontos számunkra az Iratmentő Alapítvánnyal való együttműködés: nemcsak feltárni szeretnénk a magyar családok múltját, hanem hozzájárulni ahhoz is, hogy legyen mit kutatnia a következő generációknak.

A teljes történet itt olvasható:

https://iratmentoalapitvany.hu/a-balaton-felvidektol-a-kongoi-gyemantbanyakig-avagy-a-bananosdoboz-titka/

Ha pedig első kézből szeretne értesülni a következő mentésekről és felfedezésekről, érdemes követni az Iratmentő Alapítvány Facebook-oldalát:

https://www.facebook.com/iratmento

Mert amit ma megmentünk, abban holnap valaki megtalálhatja a saját családja történetét.

Three successful submissions. One very special day. 🇭🇺🇺🇸Today, three of our American clients successfully submitted thei...
02/09/2026

Three successful submissions. One very special day. 🇭🇺🇺🇸

Today, three of our American clients successfully submitted their Hungarian Simplified Naturalization applications — both in Hungary and in the United States.

One of them even surprised us with this wonderful little New York gift for the baby Éva Feldmann and Dr. Bence Erdős are expecting soon. ❤️

Moments like this remind us that our work is about much more than citizenship. It is about reconnecting families with Hungary, building friendships along the way, and creating a connection that can be passed down to their children, grandchildren, and generations yet to come.

Hungarian citizenship can be a truly transgenerational gift — a lasting connection to Hungary that can become part of a family’s legacy for generations.

We are incredibly grateful to be part of these journeys.

Congratulations to all three of you! 🇭🇺

— EverGens Europe Ltd.

🇭🇺 Did Your Hungarian Ancestor Sail from Fiume?If your family came to America from Hungary in the early 1900s, there is ...
01/09/2026

🇭🇺 Did Your Hungarian Ancestor Sail from Fiume?

If your family came to America from Hungary in the early 1900s, there is one place you may want to remember:

Fiume.

Today it is Rijeka, Croatia. But at the turn of the 20th century, Fiume was Hungary’s great seaport — and for many emigrants, one of the last places they saw before leaving Europe.

Behind its transformation stood a Hungarian engineer whose name is largely forgotten today:

Antal Hajnal.

In 1877, Hajnal was entrusted with the direct supervision of the port’s construction. In 1884, his plans for its further development were adopted. Over the following decades, new quays, piers, warehouses and railway infrastructure transformed the waterfront.

By 1901, Hajnal had been directing the construction of the port for 23 years. A Hungarian engineering journal wrote that Fiume’s past, present and future had become almost inseparable from him — and that he deserved the “lion’s share” of the credit for its rise.

Then Fiume became something else:

a gateway to America.

Beginning in 1903, direct passenger service connected Fiume with New York. Emigrants from across the Kingdom of Hungary traveled to the Adriatic and boarded ships bound for a new life in America.

Remarkably, many of their names can still be found.

Between 1903 and 1907, the Kivándorlási Értesítő — the Emigration Bulletin — published information about emigrants leaving through Fiume, including names, ages, and places of origin.

For Hungarian-American families today, these records can provide the clue that leads back to the town an ancestor left behind.

And Hajnal’s own records hold a surprise too.

For generations, Hungarian reference works have listed his birthday as September 1, 1838.

His original church record says otherwise.

Hajnal was born in Makó on August 31, 1838.

September 1 was the day he was baptized.

A one-day error survived for more than a century — until the original record told the story differently.

From an 1838 church register in Makó to the docks of Fiume and thousands of journeys to America, records still connect families across generations and across the Atlantic.

Did your family’s journey to America pass through Fiume?

Perhaps the answer is still waiting somewhere in the records.

Dr. Bence Erdős & Éva Feldmann
Hungarian Citizenship Advisors & Expert Genealogists
EverGens Europe Ltd.

Sources: Gazdasági Mérnök (1901); József Szinnyei, Magyar írók élete és munkái; Géza Forgó, Makótól Fiuméig – Hajnal Antal, a fiumei (Rijeka) kikötő tervezője; Hungarian National Archives; National Széchényi Library.

Image: Antal Hajnal, Gazdasági Mérnök, January 6, 1901.

🇭🇺 Egy napot tévedett az utókor Hajnal Antal születésnapjával„Az ő lelkével egészen egybeforrott már a fiumei kikötő múl...
01/09/2026

🇭🇺 Egy napot tévedett az utókor Hajnal Antal születésnapjával

„Az ő lelkével egészen egybeforrott már a fiumei kikötő múltja, jelene és jövője” – írta Hajnal Antalról a Gazdasági Mérnök 1901-ben.

A korabeli lap szerint abban, hogy Fiume méltó helyet foglalhatott el Európa kikötői között, „kétségtelenül őt illeti az oroszlánrész.”

Ugyanez a cikk azt is írta, hogy Hajnal 1838. szeptember 1-jén született Makón.

Csakhogy ez nem igaz.

Az eredeti makói református anyakönyv szerint Hajnal 1838. augusztus 31-én született, és másnap, szeptember 1-jén keresztelték meg.

A téves dátum mégis több mint egy évszázadon át öröklődött. Szinnyei József lexikonában már szeptember 1. szerepel, később az 1967-es Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon is ezt közölte – és a tévedés egészen napjainkig eljutott: az OSZK Jeles napok adatbázisában ma is szeptember 1. Hajnal Antal születésnapja.

De ki volt az az ember, akinek még a születési dátumát is érdemes helyretenni?

Hajnal Antal mérnök életműve Fiume lett.

1877-ben bízták meg a kikötő építésének közvetlen vezetésével, 1884-ben pedig elkészítette a kikötő további kiépítésének tervét, amelyet a munkálatok alapjául elfogadtak.

Irányítása alatt évtizedeken át formálódott a modern kikötő: új rakpartok és mólók épültek, feltöltésekkel területeket nyertek a tengertől, raktárak és vasúti kapcsolatok létesültek, és külön petróleumkikötő is épült.

Amikor a bejegyzésünkhöz használt portré 1901-ben megjelent, Hajnal már 23 éve vezette a kikötő építését. A századfordulóra Fiume Magyarország tengeri kapujává és Európa egyik jelentős kikötőjévé vált.

És innen a történet már családtörténet is.

1903-tól közvetlen hajójárat kötötte össze Fiumét New Yorkkal, és magyarországi kivándorlók tömegei érkeztek a városba, hogy innen induljanak tovább Amerika felé.

Ennek ma is kutatható nyomai vannak. Az 1903 és 1907 között megjelent Kivándorlási Értesítő a Fiumében hajóra szálló kivándorlók nevét, életkorát és származási helyét is közölte.

Így ér össze egyetlen történetben egy 1838-as makói anyakönyv, egy 1901-es portré, Fiume rakpartjai és az Amerikába induló magyar családok története.

Hajnal Antal tehát nem szeptember 1-jén született. Aznap keresztelték meg.

De egy több mint száz éve öröklődő tévedésnél aligha kaphattunk volna jobb alkalmat arra, hogy ma megemlékezzünk a magyar Fiume egyik legfontosabb megalkotójáról.

Ha szereti az ilyen történelmi nyomozásokat, kövesse az oldalunkat!

Források: Gazdasági Mérnök (1901); Szinnyei József: Magyar írók élete és munkái; Forgó Géza: Makótól Fiuméig – Hajnal Antal, a fiumei (Rijeka) kikötő tervezője; Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon; OSZK Jeles napok.

Kép: Hajnal Antal korabeli portréja, Gazdasági Mérnök, 1901. január 6.

Can We Find Dr. Dezső Silberstein’s Family? Please Share.In 2025, I rescued the original photographic identification boo...
30/08/2026

Can We Find Dr. Dezső Silberstein’s Family? Please Share.

In 2025, I rescued the original photographic identification booklet of Hungarian attorney-at-law, Dr. Dezső Silberstein, from a flea market.

Today, I am trying to find his family so I can return it to them. Please help me by sharing his story.

Inside the booklet is something especially precious: his photograph.

As a genealogist, I have always felt a responsibility to rescue old personal documents when I come across them. A passport, an identification card, or a photograph may look like an old piece of paper — but sometimes it is one of the last surviving personal traces of a human life.

So I began researching the man behind this face.

Dezső Silberstein was born in Szarvas, Hungary, in 1884, the son of Fülöp Silberstein and Lujza Glasner. He married Anna Nyiri and built his legal career in his hometown.

And the newspapers brought his world back to life.

Dozens of contemporary newspaper articles document his life as an attorney at law and member of his community. We find him arguing cases in court, representing a client in the purchase of Szarvas’s Árpád Hotel and Café, and participating in the social life of the town.

Then, in 1944, the story changes.

A May 1944 newspaper reported that twelve Jewish attorneys were removed from the Szarvas district.

Dr. Silberstein was one of them.

He was later deported to Auschwitz and never returned. After the war, the Szarvas District Court dealt with his legal declaration of death.

But his identification booklet — and his face — survived.

My research revealed one more important clue: Peter Page of Toronto, Canada, a great-nephew of Dr. Silberstein, submitted a Page of Testimony to Yad Vashem to preserve his relative’s memory.

Now I would like to find Peter Page or his family and return Dr. Silberstein’s original identification booklet to them.

If his family cannot be located, the document will be preserved through the Iratmentő Alapítvány (Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation) and placed in an appropriate Hungarian public collection.

But before that, I want to try to bring it home.

If you know Peter Page of Toronto, his descendants, or anyone connected to the Silberstein family of Szarvas, please contact us.

And even if you don't: please share this post. You never know who may recognize a name.

Perhaps one share will be the one that brings this small piece of Dr. Silberstein’s life back to his family after more than 80 years.

A name. A face. A story. And, hopefully, a way home.

— Dr. Bence Erdős
Genealogist, EverGens Europe Ltd.
Curator, Iratmentő Alapítvány – Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation

🇭🇺 Explore the Heroes of Mohács — by NameFor those interested in exploring further after today’s 500th anniversary post,...
29/08/2026

🇭🇺 Explore the Heroes of Mohács — by Name

For those interested in exploring further after today’s 500th anniversary post, an exceptional new digital resource is now available.

The “Heroes of Mohács” project brings together individuals identified by name who fought in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 — including those who fell in battle, were taken captive, or survived and returned home.

Their biographies, family and social connections, estates, and individual fates can be explored through an interactive map and visualization based on historical research.

A fascinating resource for anyone researching Hungarian history and genealogy — and perhaps even an opportunity to discover a familiar name.

🔗 Explore the interactive map:
https://mohacs500.mnl.gov.hu/hosok/

500 Years After Mohács: When Family Memory Meets the Archives 🇭🇺This remarkable family tree preserves a memory reaching ...
29/08/2026

500 Years After Mohács: When Family Memory Meets the Archives 🇭🇺

This remarkable family tree preserves a memory reaching all the way back to the Battle of Mohács in 1526.

Five hundred years ago today, on August 29, 1526, King Louis II of Hungary fell at Mohács, where the Hungarian army suffered a catastrophic defeat against the Ottoman forces of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The battle changed the course of Hungarian history and marked the beginning of an era of partition and Ottoman-Habsburg struggle.

But Mohács survived not only in chronicles. Hungarian families preserved the memory of those they had lost there for centuries.

This monumental, several-meter-long family tree of the noble Szmrecsányi family, created centuries after the battle, records beside András Szmrecsányi:

“Andreas cadit ad Mohacs cm Rege Ludovico.”
“András falls at Mohács with King Louis.”

A family tradition recorded centuries later might easily be dismissed as legend.

Except that the original records confirm it.

A surviving 16th-century charter from the archives of a cathedral chapter in present-day Slovakia mentions András making a testamentary disposition during King Louis II’s military campaign. Another contemporary record preserves his fate:

“mortuo quondam Andrea Zemercseny in conflictu Moachensi … cm serenissimo principe quondam Ludovico rege”
“…the late András Szmrecsányi, who died in the Battle of Mohács … with King Louis.”

Centuries separate this family tree from Mohács. Yet the family memory it preserved can still be traced back to records from the generation that lived through the battle.

That is genealogy at its best: family memory tested against the original sources — sometimes across half a millennium.

Today, 500 years later, we remember András Szmrecsányi and all those who fell at Mohács on August 29, 1526.

EverGens Europe Supports the Preservation of Hungarian Documentary HeritageEverGens Europe Ltd. has entered into a coope...
25/08/2026

EverGens Europe Supports the Preservation of Hungarian Documentary Heritage

EverGens Europe Ltd. has entered into a cooperation agreement with the IRATMENTŐ – Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation, supporting its mission to preserve historically significant Hungarian documents for future generations.

Under the agreement, EverGens will promote the Foundation and its work entirely free of charge among our international clients and community, helping IRATMENTŐ reach families of Hungarian descent in the United States and around the world.

The initiative is a natural extension of our work in Hungarian genealogy, archival research, family history, and Hungarian citizenship. Every day, we work with families whose ancestors left Hungary or the territories of historical Hungary generations ago. Many still preserve letters, photographs, passports, certificates, diaries, and other documents that have remained in their families for decades — sometimes for more than a century.

These materials tell individual family stories, but they may also constitute valuable sources for Hungarian historical and genealogical research.

IRATMENTŐ works to identify historically significant materials held in private hands and helps facilitate their transfer to appropriate public archives and collections in Hungary, where they can be professionally preserved and safeguarded for future generations. In this way, documents that might otherwise be lost, dispersed, or forgotten can become part of Hungary’s preserved documentary heritage and remain available for future historical research.

Through our cooperation, we hope to raise awareness among Hungarian descendants abroad that documents preserved in their homes may have significance far beyond their own family history — and that there is a responsible way to help ensure their long-term preservation.

The initiative forms part of EverGens Europe’s commitment to social responsibility and involves no commercial compensation.

Dr. Bence Olivér Erdős, Managing Director of EverGens Europe, also serves on the Board of Trustees of IRATMENTŐ, reflecting his longstanding commitment to Hungarian genealogy, historical research, and the preservation of documentary heritage.

At EverGens, our work is about reconnecting families with their past. Through this initiative, we also hope to help preserve that past for generations still to come.

Because sometimes preserving one family’s documents means preserving a piece of Hungary’s history.

🇭🇺 Thank You for Joining Us!A heartfelt thank you to everyone who registered for our Understanding Hungarian Citizenship...
24/08/2026

🇭🇺 Thank You for Joining Us!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who registered for our Understanding Hungarian Citizenship webinar yesterday! We were thrilled to welcome more than 400 registrants and truly grateful for the incredible interest and thoughtful questions.

A special thank you to Réka Bakos for making this wonderful event possible!

📩 The recording has now been sent to everyone who registered.

And stay tuned — we’ll be back with another webinar this fall! 🇭🇺

Thank you for being part of it! ❤️

🇭🇺 Happy August 20th to Hungarians and Hungarian descendants around the world!Today, on St. Stephen’s Day, we celebrate ...
20/08/2026

🇭🇺 Happy August 20th to Hungarians and Hungarian descendants around the world!

Today, on St. Stephen’s Day, we celebrate more than a thousand years of Hungarian statehood — and the heritage that generations before us carried across borders and oceans.

Whether Hungary is the place you call home, the homeland your family once left behind, or a part of your story you are only now rediscovering, our roots still connect us.

Hungarian heritage knows no borders. ❤️🤍💚

Wherever you are in the world, we wish you a beautiful August 20th.
Boldog augusztus 20-át! 🇭🇺

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