A History of Central Eastern Europe

HOSSZÚ-LÁZ
Our grandfather JÓZSEF
SCHMID was born to ANNA
UNTENER and JÁNOS
SCHMID in this hamlet in
1883. The SCHMID family
had lived in HOSSZÚLÁZ for
at 3 generations when our
grandfather was born:
JÁNOS’ father BÁLINT and
BÁLINT’S father
KRISZTIÁN lived here.
Incidentally, Dad was
named after his greatgrandfather
as BÁLINT is
the Hungarian of
VALENTINE.
HOSSZÚLÁZ is frequently found in records spelled with a hyphen – HOSSZÚ-LÁZ . This tiny hamlet
is located in the very northern part of present-day Hungary. The name literall means “long heat” but
the reasons for choosing this name has not been found. My suspicion is that it may indicate a hot
spring being nearby as this area is known for them, but proof of one is lacking.
The Germanization process started under EMPRESS MARIE THERESA that was mentioned earlier was
very pronounced in HOSSZÚLÁZ. A fledging coal-mining industry arrived in the mid- to late 1700s
and this required the importation of the skilled, German miners. The result is that any census of
HOSSZÚLÁZ reads as if it was a census of Berlin, Hanover or Munich – it was almost completely
German. This explains the multiple generations of our Hungarian ancestors who have very German
sounding surnames like SCHMID and KLEIN. Village life at the time usually dictated that one
socialized within the confines of their ethnic and cultural group; not peculiar to any one century, this
practice remains evident today in our country, to wit: TRENTON’S Saint Stephen’s Day Hungarian-
American festival and Chambersburg’s Feast of Lights are only two of the many ethnic-based
celebrations around.
There seems to have been a higher number of German’s that identified with Roman Catholicism
than was found in the Hungarian population at large from the 1700s on. An Ecclesiastical Census
was taken in 1877 that not only demonstrates this point but is also useful when trying to corroborate
my statement that HOSSZÚLÁZ was very German. The Dvorzsák Gazeteer provides us with a census
that not only gives us a head- count, but also “pew-count” – and even better, it provides the location
of the next higher in the church hierarchy (that’s the town name appearing in parenthesis) …and can
lead to the repository of church records. For the 287 residents of HOSSZÚLÁZ, the breakdown was:
172 római katholikus (60% Roman Catholic, Sátoraljaújhely), 53 görög katholikus (18% Greek Catholic,
Buda-Bányácska), 1 ágostai (<1% Evangelical-Lutheran-Calvinist, no ‘overseeing’ church given), 50
református (17% Hungarian Reformed Church, Sátoraljaújhely), and 11 izraelita (4% Jewish,
Sátoraljaújhely).
In the majority of case involving small, rural villages there would be a single priest, minister or rabbi
ministering to more than one village. A church would often be built in each village, but HOSSZÚLÁZ
residents weren’t so fortunate – they had to travel to nearby communities to worship (or, at least
they had a somewhat more valid reason to not attend services!). The nearest Roman Catholic
Church to the hamlet was Templomnak Jézus Szíve (Church of Jesus' Heart) in SZÉPHALOM which
14