The naturalization papers for grandfather
Joseph Bartha indicate that he was born in Nagy Varad, Hungary, on December 27, 1880. However, his village (Ér-Mihályfalva is now known as Valea lui Mihai, is located in Bihor, Romania because of the breakup of the Austria-Hungary empire around 1918. The Romanian Archives create a challenge to American researchers so I located a Romanian professional to search the Archives in Oradea. We were only partially successful. (The death records for Joseph's parents were not found.) However, we do have three important records.
1. The death record in the
Halottak book for Jozef Barta, the Reformed Clergyman, (our second great grandfather) shows his death on August 27, 1864 from sclerosis (not to be confused with cirrhosis). The translated notes state that he was married for 41 years. We also learned that he was born in Rimaszombat,Hungary, which is now Rimavska, Sobota, Slovakia.
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| Death Record of Jozef Barta 1864 |
2. The marriage record for Joseph's parents, Miklos Barta and Emelia Hampel in 1872 indicates that they were married in the Roman Catholic church and that the marriage was also registered in the Reformed Church (Calvin). (Note: The name Miklos translates to Nicholas. Joseph's first child born in New York was named Nikolaus Josef Bartha (1907-1912.)
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| 1872 Bartha Marriage Record |
3. The last record is from the
Keresztelesi book. This record shows the birth and baptism of Joseph Bartha. This records shows the "h" in Bartha. I thought that might have been added when he immigrated, but not so.
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| Joseph Bartha was baptized on January 4, 1881 |
Quite a few Hampel records were located but none of them could be related to Emelia. The most I learned about great grandmother Emelia Hampel is that she was 20 years old when she married Miklos Barta in 1872 and that she was born in Sacuieni, Hungary. The name of this town means
bridge of Szekely in Hungarian. The Hampel name is German and I have learned that German settlers came to Hungary for free land in the 17th and 18th centuries to keep Turks from invading. How sad that this history has been lost to us.
