Help with Hess Ancestry Records in Pressnitz
I am trying to get any information I can on my grandfather, Ernst Hess, and his family. Ernst Hess was born April 1, 1920 in Pressnitz. His father was Franz Hess, born September 1986 in Pressnitz and his mother was Marie Steinhauer, born November 28, 1892 in Kadan. I am trying to see if Franz and Marie had any additional children. I am also curious if you have a marriage record which would include the names of Franz and Marie's parents. Franz and Marie were Catholic so I would assume that their parents were also Catholic. For the last few months, I have been stuck in my own research of my family tree so I am reaching out to local churches for any help I can get but these are the responses I have gotten:
“Greetings and thank you for your mail. Unfortunately, I can't help you, as the state confiscated all registries from the churches until 1950 and therefore you have to turn directly to the registry office of either the town of Chomutov or the registry office in Kadan. Or also to the archive. We have dates from 1950 onwards.”
“Thank you for your answer. At us in Czech Republic is that problem, that 1950 are the books with church records (baptism, married) put under the state control - also bishopric or parishes have not this old books. The books for Pressnitz (now Přísečnice) should be deponated at the municipality of Vejprty, so write on mesto@vejprty.cz
I hope, that you will be successful.”
I have done my research and looked through hundreds of pages in both https://www.online-ofb.de/famlist.php?ofb=christophhammer&b=H&lang=de&modus= and http://vademecum.soalitomerice.cz/vademecum/index4Clear.jsp but I have not been able to locate my grandfather and great grandparents. I have found records on Steinhauer’s but no Marie/Maria. I have not reached out to mesto@vejprty.cz yet but I plan to in the next couple of days. Does anyone else have any idea where else I might be able to go to find information on the Hess/Steinhauer family? I am attaching a couple of documents that have led me to the Pressnitz/Kadan area. Thank you for your help!
Stacey
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Baptism of the mother of the bride: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-9CSR-F?i=145&cc=1858355&cat=166170 (Nyiracsád Reformed baptisms, film 004707783 image 146 of 237)
21. Born 17, baptised 19 March 1893
Matild, female, illegitimate
Parents: Zsuzsánna Fabri, Lutheran chambermaid-servant, born in Svédlerbánya, Szepes county
Temporary residence Szent-György-Ábrány number 14
Godparents: István Tót farmer and wife Katalin Kocsel
Officiant: József Saáraÿ pastor
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Julia you are amazing!! I don't know what I am doing wrong in my research!! I don't know if I just need to broaden my search or what! How did you know to look in Nyiracsad with Nyirabrany as the birth city? I am wondering if that has been my problem this whole time and I am just researching in the wrong areas and the wrong records. Anyway, Thank you so much for locating this record!!
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The short answer to "how did I know" is I checked a gazetteer.
Of course, the full answer is a bit more complicated than that. I started with the 1913 gazetteer, which is downloadable as a PDF from the Central Statistics Office's library (http://konyvtar.ksh.hu/index.php?s=kb_statisztika#kb_statisztika_helysegnevtarak). It says that Nyirábrány had two Catholic churches (one Roman, one Greek), the Reformed church was in Nyiracsád, and the civil registry office (abbreviated ak. for anyakönyv[i hivatal]) was local (helyben). (That last is only relevant after 1 Oct 1895, when civil registration started in Hungary.)
I noticed that the name of the place is preceded by an asterisk, which means that the name was determined and registered per a decree passed in 1898 (what I call the Great Place-Name Disambiguation Project). In practical terms, what this means is that the placename probably changed a bit -- and indeed, Dvorzsák's gazetteer (1877) has two Ábránys in Szabolcs county, Szent-György-Ábrány and Buda-Ábrány. Checking the Third Military Survey map on Mapire for "Nyirabrany" yields a map pin right between the two (along with the information that they were also sometimes differentiated as Nagy- "big, greater" and Kis- "small, lesser"). Some poking through the other official gazetteers on the Central Statistics Office's site would undoubtedly yield a date for exactly when the two were combined into Nyírábrány, but I didn't bother with that.
I noticed that Dvorzsák sends Protestants from S-G-A southeast to Érmihályfalva rather than mostly north to Acsád. This may be an error, but I didn't investigate since I found the relevant record in Acsád.
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Julia. I do not know how I missed your comment but the links you provided above are awesome!! I have enjoyed looking through them. I have a question for you. Do you have any idea where I might be able to find information on my great-great grandfather Franz Hess and his wife Marie Steinhauer? I have looked throughout the files that I listed in my original email and I have not been successful in locating the records. My goal is to try and get Franz and Marie's parents names so I can see if I can link my dad's DNA matches to confirm that Ernst Hess was indeed my dads biological father. Do you know if there is a gazetteer for the Kadan and Pressnitz area that may help me in my search. If not do you know who might be helpful or know where I might get some additional resources? Again thank you so much for your help!!
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