Class Descriptions Austro-Hungarian Track
Classes available online and/or pre-recorded (in-person classes are listed further down)
The Gen-Team Gazetteer: A Shortcut to Church Records (in Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia)
Looking for church records of a town in Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, or Slovenia? Learn how to navigate the GenTeam Gazetteer, a tool to tell you the pertinent parish(es) and where the records you seek are located, and how to decipher gazetteer entries, including how to get from the gazetteer to the church records on various archival websites.
Locating Czechia Church Records
Most church records from Czechia are online, but the records are spread among various websites. Gain an overview of how to navigate the various archival websites of Czechia and learn how to locate church records of each region.
Galicia, Austrian Empire to Poland to Ukraine: Using resources to identify families and places
Records in the U.S. often reference multiple places of birth and residence, such as Galicia/Galitzien, Polish, Austrian, and even Ukraine. Those records hold the key to identifying the family’s location in Europe.
When you try to find the records, though, you can’t figure out their surname. People you think were part of the same family don’t appear to have the same surname, and sometimes they appear to use multiple names.
Why did this occur, and how do you identify what their name “really“ was? We will look at several families from different towns and discuss the laws that determined their names and how to ensure that the correct families are being traced.
Understanding parish and civil registers, censuses, and name lists' entries: A practical presentation
In this presentation, I will use several different online databases to demonstrate, with specific examples, how to find, read, interpret, and store information available in online published archival sources.
In addition to church and civil registers, we will also study prisoner-of-war cartons, early 19th century census records or official books of the Hungarian Royal Chancellery. Because as part of our research, we will browse archival databases, their use will also be briefly explained. And the presentation will also show why it is so important to add local history to genealogical research, as one supports the other.
Decoding Hungarian personal and place names: An introductory presentation
An introductory presentation on Hungarian surnames, naming practices and Magyarizations in the past centuries, 'supported' by archival sources available online. I will also show how many different languages and abbreviations are used in the various Hungarian archival sources, and how they can be 'deciphered'. And since the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy have changed considerably in the last 100 years plus, the presentation will also highlight Hungarian place names. I will show how online bibliographies and websites can help to identify a place name seen in an archival record.
"Die Donauschwaben" (The Danube Swabians): A brief introduction to the German minority in Hungary
After 150 years of Ottoman invasion, German settlers repopulated the middle course of the Danube River. This presentation briefly describes the history of the, its long-term development and impact as well as its sad afterlife in the 20th century. It will also highlight some of the traditions that the Donauschwaben brought with them to their new homeland, as well as their way of life.
Since they have become an integral part of Hungarian life over the centuries, there is a good chance that the topic of this presentation will be relevant to anyone who wishes to research their ancestors in Hungary.
Topotheques in Hungary
In my presentation I will give some insights of the following topics: what is a topotheque, why and how the international project started; who are we: the 14 topotheques in Hungary (brief introduction); what information might researchers find on the topotheque sites on family history; how can a topotheque (and its admin) help the family history researchers and vice versa; legal, data protection and IT challenges; get connected: public events, social media presence; looking in the future of the topotheque community.
Classes available only to conference attendees in Salt Lake City
Census Records for Czechia
Want to learn more about your Czech ancestors? Come and discover them through census records. Many of these records are digitized and available to view free of charge online. Census records can offer a wide variety of details to enhance your research, providing a richer understanding of your ancestors’ lives. Learn when these records were created, what content they contain, and how to access them.
Austro-Hungarian Military Research
Learn the skills how to follow a soldier or officer in the Austro-Hungarian military through his career and discover the paper trail the military member left behind.
Research in Galicia
Introduction to Polish research in the former Austrian Empire province of Galicia. Learn about chain emigration and how to use those emigration patterns to help find the family.
A Primer on Austro-Hungarian Geography
This class explores the basic geography of the Austro-Hungarian empire and its boundary changes throughout its existence.
Hungarian Gazetteers
This class introduces the three primary gazetteers for the Kingdom of Hungary that will help you identify your ancestral village and then locate the relevant records for that place. The class will include practicing with the gazetteers and learning language nuances that affect place names.
Hungarian Church Registers & Civil Registration
This class focuses on understanding Hungarian church registers and civil registration records of births, marriages, and deaths. We discuss who created these records, what information is found in them, where they are held today, and the different ways you can access them.