Slovak death record help
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The printed headings are in Hungarian, but they're replaced and filled out in chicken scratc... ahem, sorry, I mean Latin. The only Slovak is some of the names (of places and people), and even they all use Hungarian spellings.
Given the, uh, quality of the penmanship, my readings of the surnames can at best be characterized as tentative.
Number 110. (1855 Dec.) 26th.
Deceased: Anna Frendál, wife of Andreas Donics, commoner
Place of origin and residence: Sztára 26
female, age 45
Cause, last rites: died suddenly
Burial: Sztára, 28th3 -
Thank you!
I'm new to Slovakian genealogy, so learning about Hungarian vs Slovak…I've seen other previously indexed records cite Anna Frendak or Frenyak… any idea which spelling is most likely to be accurate? (list of sources, in case your interested: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/L8N8-BNY)
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All of the sources on Anna's profile look like Frendák to me. (Including the unindexed death record that I initially guessed as "Frendal": on second look, there's a loopy bit that's not explained if it's an L at the end.)
I'm somewhat amazed that my stab-in-the-dark guess of Donics looks like it matches the other records.
In general, you can expect Roman Catholic records to be in Latin, except for a brief period in the 1840s when they may switch to either Hungarian or Slovak. After going back to Latin by the early 1850s, most Catholic registers switch to Hungarian (again) starting in the late 1870s. However, there are exceptions to all of these patterns.
It is true of all languages of recordkeeping that the given names were translated into that language, while the surnames were generally not. (Or not for recordkeeping purposes, anyway.) This gives a relatively easy way to tell what language a register is using: look for a John and see how it's written. Joannes and Johannes are most likely Latin (although they're used in German, too), János is Hungarian, Ján is Slovak. (Or abbreviated Hungarian. Yeah, I know. I did say relatively easy.)
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Thank you for checking and the explanation.
I've had some experience tracking down another Austria-Hungarian side of the family from Galicia (now present day Ukraine). So I'm somewhat familiar with seeing/reading latin. But the slovak names and hungarian spellings are new for me! And the penmanship, as you hinted at, leaves a lot to be desired!
Thanks again, very helpful!
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