Local family database Hercegfalva und Elöszallás

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Hercegfalva (germ.: Herzogendorf, sometimes also spelled Herczegfalva), was founded in May 1811 on the grounds of a group of dairy farms belonging to the Cistercian Abbey of Zirc and is located in the Comitate (administrative region) of Fejer in Central Hungary, about 80% distance on a line leading east from lake Balaton towards the Danube river.  The location corresponds to the area of the Mediaeval region Usjzállás.

Hercegfalva has been renamed Mesöfalva in 1951 and now has around 4.000 inhabitants.

After the liberation from the Turkish supremacy, the previously uninhabited area was being resettled by means of land lease in the years around 1700.  The area belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of Zirc.  The first settlers came from Sóly (now a part of Hajmáskér), another property of the Order of the Cistercians.

The parish books of Hercegfalva actually start before the establishment of Hercegfalva, when a church was being built on the Mediaeval area of Ujmajor in 1788, which the 300 inhabitants had requested from the abbey.  The data predating 1788 were probably kept in the parish books of Elöszállás, a place that lies a little to the south and where the parish books already have baptism entries as early as 1727.  Whenever the genealogical database mentions Hercegfalva earlier than 1811, this refers to the dairy farms.

It was an initiative of Archduke Joseph (Erzherzog Josef) that led to the establishment of the township.  The settlers (120 Families) were coming from 29 villages in the Comitates of Vezprém and Fejer.  The originating villages in the Comitate of Veszprém were: Nána, Tés. Jásd, Porvár, Acsteszér, Kardosrét. Esztergál, Aka, Olaszfalu, Oszlop, Ajkarendek, Polány, Szücs, Koppány, Kovácsi, Lajoskomárom, Palota and Borzavár.

Additional settlers originated in the following townships in the Comitate of Fejer: Mór, Bodajk, Perkáta, Üjbarok, Isztimér, Magyaralmás, Gyúró, Acsa, Pátka as well as in the royal free city of Székesfehérvár (germ.: Stuhlweißenburg).

The map below indicates further nearby villages that were part of the town of Hercegfalva and its parish:

The parish books of Hercegfalva have been evaluated for the dates from 1788 until 1895, as well as the public registry of the district of Hercegfalva from 1895 to 1913.  These volumes additionally comprise the municipalities of Ellöszállás and Nagyvenim.

The parish books and public registries have been microfilmed (by the Mormons) in less than perfect quality.  

The following townships are part of the parish of Hercegfalva and the municipality of Hercegfalva:

The evaluation of the public death registry of Hercegfalva from 1914 to 1960 and the parish books of Elöszállás from 1727 to 1895 still have to be evaluated.

In the early 20th century many families from Hercegfalva emigrated to the USA and Canada (more than 500 individuals).  The emigration date as well as the ship they travelled on are indicated as additional information, based on the information recorded in Ellis Island, USA.  Some individuals have been emigrating into the USA on more than one occasion.  The missing emigration dates after 1913 will be added at a later time.

In 1946, the inhabitants of Hercegfalva with German origin (about 1.300 persons) were forced to leave Hungary in two refugee trains and were brought to settle in the German regions of Böblingen and Heidenheim.  Further information on these individuals will be added at a later time.

Many of the names changed spelling over time, as they were mainly written down the way they were pronounced.

If a date is mentioned as “before” (“vor”), this means that the date was calculated on the basis of a marriage or birth record and the corresponding place might not be the actual place of birth, but the assumed place of birth, or the last known address.  If a date is mentioned as “about” (“um”), the date was calculated on the basis of the documented age of the individual.  The data were not always recorded correctly, and there have been attempts to cheat with regard to the age of a bride, etc.

During the evaluation it has been attempted to show first names in their Latin, Hungarian and German spelling.  For emigrants, the English version has also been included.

The last names have changed over time.  Usually the first known spelling has been retained for the records.  If the names were magyarised, those versions are mentioned as well.    Names that existed in German and Hungarian are mentioned in both spellings, the first one mentioned being the version documented first.  Often the spelling of names changes from birth to birth.  In these cases it has been attempted to show the predominant spelling of the time.  If the death has been recorded, the name is usually mentioned in the version used in the death record.

For the first names Anna, Maria and Madgalena, many permutations and exchanges have happened in the first period of written records.

In the late years of the parish books, a house number has been recorded as well.  In some cases, these can be used to reconstitute families.  Sometimes, however, each birth within a family has been recorded with a different house number.  Hercegfalva does not have any street names, but only house numbers ranging from 1 to about 480; until 1900 in case of the outlying hamlets.

Should you come across any obvious mistakes, or have any more information on the subject covered, especially for the period after 1913, I would appreciate receiving this information.  More than 45.000 individuals have been included in the database until now and have been assigned to a particular family, wherever possible.  With this huge a number of data (probably in the region of 100.000) wrong interpretations or reading errors are impossible to exclude, especially with originals that are difficult to read.  I would be happy to receive any assistance or information to rectify any errors you might detect.

You can find further information about the history of Hercegvalva at www.genealogy-epple.de and http://herczegfalva.fw.hu.