Did you know that it
is a fairly common practice among the Mormon faith to send out their young men
and women at the age of 18 and 19 respectively, to serve a full time mission? Yep.
And did you know that those missionaries are sent all over the
world? In fact, in my own family we have
a French speaker, a Tagalog (a Filipino dialect) speaker, a Japanese speaker
and three Spanish speakers!!
So what does this have to do
with “Translating Letters From Hungary” you ask??
About a year ago, my cousin contacted me to do some genealogy work for her father’s
Hungarian line. At that time, she knew
only that her father’s parents were Joe and Lillie (Eldridge) Nimety of Lee
County, Virginia. She had been told that
Joe had had a family before marring Lillie and that there were other
children. She hoped to connect with
these children and introduce her father to his
half siblings.
We started in the censuses and
were fortunate to find Joe and Lillie listed in 1930 living in Lee County,
VA. On that census, Joe is listed as
having arrived in America in 1903 and was naturalized. From there, we went to Ancestry.com to the
database entitled “US Naturalization Records – Original Documents, 1795-1972”
to see if we could find his naturalization papers. Sure enough, Joe had first filed a
Declaration of Intention on 18 Dec 1920 and listed his first wife’s name! What a find!
On this Declaration of Intention,
we found other important information.
Joe listed his birthdate as 21 Sept 1886 and his birthplace as Kormend,
Hungary. He also stated that his wife,
Mary Super, was born in Kormend, Hungary.
The next set of paperwork we
located was the Petition for
Naturalization dated 1 Nov 1927.
This time Joe listed his wife as Lillie Eldridge. Uh oh…what happened to Mary! Well, according to family tradition, Mary
and Joe had divorced and Mary had gone back with the children to Hungary. Using this paperwork and the marriage record
I found for Joe and Lillie, the divorce seems to have occurred sometime between
the year 1920 when the Declaration of
Intention was filed and 1923 when Joe married Lillie Eldridge. But how could I find the children born to
that first union? I searched the 1920
census high and low and found nothing. I
searched birth records in Lee County, I searched death records in Lee County, I
searched everywhere I could think of!!
And just as I was about to give in, my cousin called. She had in her possession 2 letters written
to Joe in the years 1946 and 1947.
Perhaps these letters held some much needed information, but they were
written in Hungarian and who could we find to translate them here in the small
town of Piqua, Ohio?
Off to Facebook (a wonderful
social networking site that has been a wiz at finding treasure troves of
genealogy information and connecting with long, lost cousins)! I
posted, “Attention all my Mormon returned missionaries!! Does anyone speak Hungarian?” Sure enough, in just a couple of days I had a
response! A friend-of- a- friend served
his mission in Hungary and would be happy to translate them for us…for
free! I emailed the scanned letters and
in no time, we had our translations. Following
are the letters. I will let you judge
for yourself if it was a real “find” or not!
So remember, even though you many not live in a big city, you can always find a translator among your friendly,
neighborhood Mormon returned missionaries!!
Letter
1
8
Mar 1946
My
dear father,
I
give thanks to God that I am well now.
From the bottom of my heart I wish good health and lots of luck to you
and to my stepmother and siblings.
I
am happy to tell you that we have endured this difficult war with the exception
of poor Liysa. God rest her ashes. She
was killed in a bombing.
Please
don’t be upset that I haven’t written much but the winds of fate have again
separated us from each other and I didn’t know your address.
I
found my little sisters. Thank God they
are also well. They have both
married. Vilma has a small family; one
boy, one girl. Iren has a little
girl. My little girl is five years
old. You have four beautiful
granddaughters here in Hungary who all send kisses to their grandfather, who
they may not see in this life.
Dad,
I don’t want to beg because I understand your situation as well. I know that it is difficult to provide food
for a family even in America. But I am
finally able to search for work if there were any. I am a [something similar to a central
heating and or plumbing] contractor’s assistant. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get
along here in Hungary. I don’t say this
to complain. To this point in my life I
have not starved, even now with no work.
I ask just one thing of you; that you find my birth certificate and send
it to me. I believe you can find it in
Mount Morris, Michigan as that’s where I was born. I hope that will enable me to travel to
America for work. I would not be a
burden on you for a single minute. I am
able to find my own place and work.
Thank God I am healthy and I wish the same for you, dear father.
Again,
I ask just this one thing. Find my file
and send it to me. And, if you are in
excellent material standing, help me to collect the money to come there, God
willing, I’ll make it to America and give back what you’ve given me. If you cannot do without, even a few dollars
would help. The dollar is very valuable
here.
Dear
father, I must end my letter. Lots of
kisses to my whole family. To you, to
mom, to my siblings.
Kisses,
Jozsef Joska, Monci, my wife and Ersik, my little girl
Letter 2
25 Jun 1947
(Iren speaking)
Dear Dad, I hope this letter finds you
in the best of health and strength. I
write these few lines with tear-filled eyes.
I, rather we, live in a world without mother and without father. These rows don’t allow me to express the joy
and happiness I feel at exchanging words with my dear dad, if only in letters.
Of course, I would be happier if we
could see each other and speak with one another. But I am so happy to be able to write to
you. After all, not even this was
possible until now. Dad, I would have
written much sooner but, unfortunately, I did not know your address. My elder
brother, Jozsi, finally sent it to me in mid-June.
I am your youngest daughter, Iren. I have been married since 1940 and now have
two children. We have a 3.5 year old
daughter and a 3.5 month old son. Our
daughter is named Irenka and our son is Imre.
We thank God they are healthy. We
had one son die who would now be 2 years old.
Dad, how is your health? Write more about your life. Are you alone or do you have someone? I hope things are better for you there than
they are for us here. Besides our health
we don’t have much to be happy about.
My husband, Jani, is a machinist with a
few jobs going. It is very difficult to
be happy in our current situation. He is
overcome with bills that need to be paid.
We hope the situation will someday be better.
(Janos, husband of Iren, now speaking)
Dear Dad,
First off, I need to ask your
forgiveness for calling you Dad so confidently despite our not being familiar
with one another. Getting to know each
other gives me endless joy, even if it is only through letters. We could do it better in person but that
seems nearly impossible. I’m happy to
have this much. I write these few lines
in silent faith and with eager hopes that my father-in-law is in America and
when this is over we will live in milk and butter. But it feels good to be able to write these
few sincere lines.
I have undertaken the role of a spouse
in your lovely daughter’s life. I
express my complete satisfaction with her as a good wife and mother. Charitable children come from charitable
families and so I ask you to accept my sincere appreciation and respect.
We are going to prepare a family
portrait and will send it in the next letter so that you can see your
grandchildren as well. I would also ask,
if it is within your power, please obtain and send my wife’s birth certificate. This isn’t urgent and please don’t postpone
your next letter for it. In case you
need the information, Iren was born 24 Mar, 1920 in Virginia. For now we bid farewell and send out kisses
with love. We await your reply.
Iren and Jani
Irenka sends kisses to her grandfather
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