Confusion about records for Soľ, Slovakia
Hello all,
I have found family in the Roman Catholic records for Soľ, Slovakia on Family Search. The problem is that it's impossible to tell if the records are from Soľ, Veľky Berezny, Slovakia, or from Slovakia, Vranov nad Topľou, Soľ . That's because both are indexed together as the same source in the Cirkevná matrika, 1769-1896 for these locations. In fact, below, in the "locality subjects" it lists:
1) Slovakia, Vranov nad Topľou, Soľ - Church records
2) Czechoslovakia, Podkarpatská Rus, Veľký Berezný, Soľ - Church records
3) Hungary, Zemplén, Sókut - Church records
Clicking on any of these takes you to the same group of records. The problem is that these are two entirely different places, separated by nearly 100 km by road! Sókut simply means "salt" and both of these locations derive from that name. The first location (still spelled Soľ ) is in Slovakia in the Prešov region, and the second (currently spelled Sil') is in Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine. That part of Ukraine was part of Hungary, then Slovakia until it became part of Ukraine in 1945-46.Looking at the cover of the parish book doesn't help, because it just says "Sokut" in the original writing with "Sol'" written in later. Although the location is described as in "Zemplin" by the operator, that could be an error- or the error could be from including the Veľký Berezný, Soľ notation in the first place.
How can I definitively find out which location these are from? This is complicated by the fact that the same records are also indexed on the Ancestry.com site, with them being listed as coming from Soľ, Veľky Berezny, Slovakia. I contacted Ancestry about this and they've said that since the source is from Family Search, I'd have to inquire there. Any suggestions on how to find out the truth and get this cleared up? Thanks in advance for your help. I'm absolutely sure I've found my family there (2 sisters, brother and parent- all of whom are also verified in the United States), only I'm not sure where "there" is!
Robert Thomas
Kommentare
-
(Sorry, nitpick: Sókút is "salt well" [as in, a water-well with highly mineralized water]. "Salt" is just só.)
The registers are from the place that was in Zemplén county. That's the only Sókút with a Roman Catholic church. (In fact, in most of the gazetteers, it's the only Sókút, period. The only other one that I could find is an outlying settlement listed in the 1873 edition as being in Ung county but belonging to Szolyva, which was in Bereg county.) The place in Zemplén has neighbors matching the residences listed in the register (such as Csáklyó and Komarócz).
The catalog has an error: the place has nothing to do with Veľký Berezný. The correct post-Trianon higher jurisdiction is Vranov nad Topľou, found among the cross-references.
For some reason, the place attracts errors like flies. Putting "Sókút" into the search field on a map on Mapire (https://maps.arcanum.com/en/) takes you to Sóskút ("salty well"), a totally-different place in Fejér county, just southwest of Budapest. It's only if you write it with a short second vowel (Sókut) that it finds the correct place.
1 -
Thank You! I think you are completely correct. I looked again and did indeed find some family members from Čaklov, Vranov nad Topľou, Prešov, Slovakia in this same set of records, which is right next door to Soľ, Vranov nad Topľou, Prešov, Slovakia. As you say, though, the record has an error- and that is compounded by the fact that this same set of records is indexed under Soľ, Veľky Berezny, Slovakia on Ancestry.com. As well as the map issue you note above, there is also: https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Place:Sol%2C_Ve%C4%BEk%C3%BD_Berezn%C3%BD%2C_Podkarpatsk%C3%A1_Rus%2C_Czechoslovakia
which refers to the place now in Ukraine, but shows a map of the Sol' in the records. If you put soľ, veľky berezny, slovakia into Google, it shows a map of the one in Vranov nad Topľou, Prešov. I think this all stems from the mischaracterization of the place in the catalog and should be fixed.
0 -
As part of reporting the catalog error (or attempting to; the auto-reply was ...not encouraging), I discovered that the reason I couldn't find any connection between Szolyva and its supposed outlying settlement of Sókút is that the 1873 gazetteer has a typo: the other place named Sókút actually belonged to Szolya, which was in Ung county, but was Hungarianized to Sóslak ("salty-lodge", roughly) so I wasn't finding it in the 1913 gazetteer that I was using. It's now Sil', Ukraine, and it is somewhat near to Velykyi Bereznyi (what used to be Nagyberezna).
So the catalog error was based on mistaking the outlying settlement Sókút belonging to a place now called Sil' with a village formerly called Sókút and now called Soľ. They're in different countries, but both are associated with a next jurisdiction up starting with V, so I can see why the error wasn't noticed (and has been propagated all over), but neither the settlement nor its village in Ukraine had a church (of any denomination), so I cannot fathom why the error was made in the first place. A community with no churches cannot be the correct location for a church register!
0