Karatsony von Hodos

The name of this ancient noble family morphed many times during the centuries. The family was known as Karaczun, Karaczon, Karachon, Karachun, Karacsony, Karatsony, Karatsonyi, or Karacsonyi. The word Karacsony means "Christmas" in Hungarian, and so is a relatively common name. However, the Karacsony family of Hodos was one of the oldest in Bratislava County.

Hodos, now Vydrany, is a village in the Csallokoz in Bratislava County, and falls within the district of Dunajska Streda (Dunaszerdahely). It appears that in the earliest times it was property of the Castle of Bratislava - but as so often happened with these villages, the warriors who settled there changed into the hereditary landowing nobility. The Vermes and the Hodossy families are thought of as having descended from these original landowners, and so is the Karacsony family.

The Karacsony of Hodos had a fruitful history in the middle ages, as Ivan Nagy's Magyarorszag Csaladai testifies; plenty of names have been recorded in legal land disputes based around Hodos. Nagy Ivan records the archival mentions in 1295 of Nicolaus and Karachon, the sons of Bulchu. From then on, legal disputes around land ownership abound, involving such interesting and important characters as Nicholaus Esterhazy or the 15th century Hungarian Palatine Michael Orszagh of Guth.

Arms of the House of Orszagh, of the Genus Guth

The progression of this family from relative wealth and power to decline and loss of land ownership is a typical story of the ancient middle nobility of Hungary, which attempted to navigate the double dangers of inadequate inheritance laws and the expansive tendencies of the great magnates hungry for land.

The Karacsony family moved to Rethe (now Reca), a village near Szencz (now Senec) in Pozsony County, in the 17th century. However the family never forgot its place of origin and has kept 'de Hodos', 'von Hodos', but most frequently 'hodosi' as a predicate well into the 20th century.

Of more recent members of the family, Karoly Karatsonyi de Hodos was an infantry officer, who in 1859 received from Emperor Franz Josef a letter confirming his pensioned status, ending his career as Major in the 34th Austro-Hungarian infantry regiment the "Prince Regent of Prussia". In the 1920s and 1930s, hodosi Karacsony Sandor was Royal Chief Forestry Advisor of Hungary.

A certain element of celebrity has recently touched the family name, after Lena Meyer-Landruth won the Eurovision song contest for Germany in 2010. Her grandmother was Hanna Karatsony von Hodos, whose husband Andreas Meyer-Landruth was a distinguished Cold War diplomat. Though the gossip columns abound with mentiones of Lena Meyer-Landruth's Hungarian heritage, it may come as a surprise to some that this family is from a village in Slovakia.

As with many ancient Hungarian families, the Karacsony of Hodos never seemed to have received a patent of arms, and therefore they do not have an 'official' coat of arms. However, as all nobles, they used seals engraved with a coat of arms, almost certainly self-designed. The Karacsony seals contain typical noble attributes, such as arms holding swords, celestical bodies, or hussars.

Hungarian National Dress

It is exceedingly rare these days to come across an original, high quality exemplar of a nobleman's dress from 19th century Hungary. However, one has come up at an estate sale in the U.S.: here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230735428929&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT


The jacket is of exquisite quality, in what appears like embroidered and crushed silk. Usually, national dress in the 19th century was invariably black and sober (unlike the extravagant multi-colour creations of the 18th century). The one distinguishing feature was the quality of the material - and this example is one of the finest.

Vizkelethy of Joka

The Vizkelethy de Ilka (Joka in more modern parlance) was a famous, now long-extinct family. Its origins lie in the village of Jelka, and they descend from the original medieval families which owned Jelka. However, in the middle ages the family moved to Vizkelet, a small village near Galanta, and so since then they have been known as the Vizkelethy of Jelka.

Already in the 16th century the family received no less than two confirmations of nobility. But this was only the start of their successes. The three Vizkelethy brothers in the 16th century, George, James, and Thomas, became very powerful individuals. George was the private secretary of the Prince of Transylvania, Stephen Dobo, the famous warlord. His brother James Vizkelethy became the vice-palatine of the Kingdom of Hungary in the late 16th century. The last brother Thomas (1544, died 1611 in Bratislava), was in important officer and later the representative of the Hungarian government. He also became Lord Chief Justice and vice-palatine of Hungary. His greatest achievement was that fact that in 1608 Rudolf II raised Thomas Vizkelethy and his family to the baronate. This made his family one of only a handful of hereditary Barons in Hungary in the 16th and early 17th centuries; the practice of raising Hungarian nobles to the baronate and counthood became relatively common only much later.

Thomas's son, Michael (1579, died 1648), was also vice-palatine of Hungary. With him died out the baronial line of the Vizkelethys.

Sources:
Kerekes, P.: Lexikon Erbov Slachty na Slovensku IV, Nitrianska Stolica, 2010
Siebmacher: Adels von Ungarn etc.

 

The Nobility and Landowners of Kosuty

Kosuty, or Nemes Kosut in Hungarian, is another well-known village in the Matyusfold region. It is located 5km from Galanta, and was famous for the number of distinguished families inhabiting elegant classical manor houses in the village. Below is a list of the nobles and landowners of Kosuty throughout the 19th century.

Abrahamffy


Fekete (Galanthai)

Jezerniczky

Godolle

Bottlik

Czemez

Szabados

Kiss

Szajkovits

Thuroczy

Takats (Jokai)

Telekes

Kardos

Kurtossy

Petrovics

Burian (of Rajecz - Count Istvan Burian descends from this family)

Panghy

Csizmazia

Kozma

Pitross

Vashegyi

A Noble Ending

I have noticed that there is, particularly in the US but generally in the West as a whole, a deep confusion with relation to Hungarian surnames and whether one can assume "nobility" of the bearer of that surname. I have also gotten several messages about this.

I refer to the "nobiliary" particle of Y at the end of a surname. It appears that the popular understanding of this is that both Y and I at the end of a name are territorial equivalents such as "von" in German and "de" in French; but that I denotes a non-noble from a certain place, while Y denotes a noble from a certain place.

This is, I must say, on the whole complete rubbish. There is no such rule, and both endings of Y and I are used by both common and noble families - the greatest families in Hungary had Is in their surname - Teleki de Szek, Rakoczi, Szechenyi, Ujlaki. And the Y ending is used by millions of descendats of commoners today. To cite a queer instance: the illustrious Palffy family, who were Counts of Bratislava, were called "Palffy" even before they became noble.

I seriously believe that this misconception is unacceptable, because the alternative interpretation is so obvious: that a Y or I ending is identical to the "-er" endingt in German - i.e. Hamburger, Frankfurter, and other savoury delicacies. It means from the place, and not of the place in its aristocratic interpretation.

Another misconception is that Hungarian nobles all had a Y or I ending in their name, again because the belief is that it denotes nobility. This idea comes from the old medieval land tenure, when families tended to take the place name and made it into their surname. But, as we see from the families in this blog, this is not the case. The Prikkel, Szullo, Csiba, Csorba families are older than most families of Hungarian magnates, their histories stretching back at times to the 12th century, who on the whole managed to keep their 800year old estates until the 20th century - and yet they have no Y or Is at the end of their names. Even with magnates - Count Burian, Count Bethlen, Count Thurzo, Count Tisza, Count Fekete, Count Josika, Count Forgach, Prince Kollonics, Prince Grassalkovich - these are well-known and illustrious names, and the list could go on.

What these families do have, though, is usually a territorial designation after their surnames in Latin - so for instance Forgach de Ghymes et Gacs. In Hungarian, this would be ghymesi es gacsi Forgach (note the lower case spelling for the place names). This is the real noble particle, which only nobles could ever have. Mind you, many nobles did not officially have a noble territorial designation, which of course did not make them any less noble - such as the Ravasz family.

The Royal-Hungarian Lifeguards

A member of the Royal Hungarian Lifeguards, wearing the magnificent uniform with leopard skin

The Royal-Hungarian Lifeguards (koniglich-ungarische Leibgarde) was the most elite military corps in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was founded in 1760 by Empress Maria Theresa, who, enamoured of the Hungarian nobility, decided that a select corps of Hungarian aristocrats should provide her with a guard of honour.

Membership of the Lifeguards was restricted to 120 Hungarian officers of high military distinction and blood. The role was purely honorific and representative, and members of the guards had the privilege of accompanying the Empress (later the Emperor) on festive occasions; actual protection of the monarch was not possible for many members, owing to their great age. More is to be found on the Austrian Wikipedia article: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.u._Leibgarde

In 1847, in the last list of the member of the Lifeguards to be compiled before they were disbanded in 185o due to the Revolution (but re-instituted in a slightly change form in 1867), we find in this elite corps five members, two of whom were from Kis-Joka, and three from Rethe and Senec. These are:

His Excellency the Lord Albert Udwarnoky von Kis-Joka, Major and Premier Wachtmeister of the Lifeguards and Royal Colonel

The Lord Geysa (Géza) Udwarnoky von Kis-Joka, Guard of the Lifeguards

The Lord Aloys von Urbanovics (of Réthe), Captain (Rittmeister) of the Lifeguards

The Lord Anton von Bagi, Auditor of the Lifeguards and Captain of the Royal Cavalry

The Lord Ferdinand von Klempa, Guard of the Lifeguards

In the 1844 list of Lifeguards, but not the 1847 one, we find listed Alex von Asztalos, from the Bratislava county family branches of which lived in Jelka. Also, in the 1870 Austro-Hungarian Schematismus, one Alexius von Agoston de Kis-Joka is included as a member of the Royal Hungarian Lifeguards. All in all, this is a very impressive roster for so many individuals from one village to be members of this corps.

Another interesting member of the Hungarian Lifeguards in the list is one "Lord Georg von Klapka", who joined the corps in 1842. It is none other than General Gyorgy Klapka, the most distinguished Revolutionary Hungarian general during the 1849 uprising. The Lifeguards were officially disbanded in 1850, but the reality was that by then it had not a single member: in 1849, all memberd of the Lifeguards, inspired by the revolutionary events, deserted their posts in the Imperial court to join the Hungarian rebels.

Source: Hof- und-Staats Handbuch des Oesterreichischen Kaiserthumes (1 Theil, 1847) page 127.

Also the corresponding Schematismi from 1840 and 1870.

Dóka von Réthe and Bustelek

The Doka coat of arms, based on a 17th century precedent. The 1714 re-grant features a coat of arms with a mounted hussar.

The Dóka family was not, as far as is known, an ancient family of Bratislava county. However, since their appearance as nobles in the 17th century, and especially since a further acknowledgment of nobility in 1714 by Emperor Charles, the Dókas have been important landowners in the county until the mid-20th century. In the 19th century, they were feudal lords of Bustelek, a village now part of Janiky in the upper Csallokoz (Rye Island), only about 15 kilometres from Bratislava. They were also, alongside the Prikkel family, the greatest landowners around Senec and Reca. Ladislaus Doka became the viscount of Poszony County in 1837. The family manor house in Reca, still extant, is now a school.

A branch of this family owned the manor house and village of Almosd in Bihar County. The manor house was made part of Hungarian national myth by being the living place of Ferenc Kolcsey, a famous poet and composer of the national anthem of the 19th century revolutionary period.