A History of Central Eastern Europe

feet east of the main road in the region, Kazinczy Ferenc utca. The village occupies a single street with
small agricultural lots behind each house less than half a mile long.
The hamlet has remained unchanged over the centuries if one uses the number of dwellings and
residents to determine the degree of change. In 1873, the 270 residents lived in 40 houses; 1977 saw
284 residents, by 1882 there were 18 additional residents squeezed into the same 40 houses; by 1892
there was a 50% loss of the previous population “explosion” – 9 less people left just 280 residents,
but now they lived in 44 houses; twenty years saw little change – in 1913 there were 278 residents.
Had HOSSZÚLÁZ remained a separate town, its population at the start of 2009 was close to, or a little
over, 300 and it still had less than 50 dwellings.
FELSŐ‐REGMEC
ANNA TAJEM, our 2 nd –great-grandmother, was born here in the first
quarter of the 19 th century. She was Dad’s paternal great-grandmother.
She married JÁNOS UNTENER. Her daughter ANNA UNTENER married
JÁNOS SCHMID (Dad’s paternal grandfather) and their son JÓZSEF
immigrated to this country and married NANA (ANNA KUTARNYA) in
FOREST CITY, PENNSYLVANIA on 5 August 1905. Somewhat ironic is that
he would travel over 4,400 miles and marry a girl whose parents lived 90 miles away from him!
FELSŐ-REGMEC (also spelled REDMECZ or REGMECZ) is located
about 6 kilometers north of HOSSZÚLÁZ and is very similar. The
village is at least 800 years old as the church structure there was
built in the 1200s. The first written record is from 1277 and at
the time the village was very closely connected with the
neighboring village of MATHIAS HAZA, later MÁTYÁSHÁZA, which
it finally annexed in 1940. It’s earlier name was REDEMECH or
RED(E)MECH. When or how the FELSŐ was added is not clear.
FELSŐ means Upper and, sure enough, an ALSÓ-REGMEC
(Lower) is found a short distance south. By the 14th century it
was the property of the ORMOUS family with ORMOWS LŐRINC
as the listed owner in 1324. Between 1332 and 1335 the tenths
or tithes from the residents supported 4 clergymen. The Reformed Church in the village inhabits
a 13 th century Roman Catholic monastery for the Pauline order. It became a Reformed church in
the 17 th century. The Gothic
windows are indicative of its age.
The 1877 Dvorzsák Gazeteer lists
FELSÖ-REGMECZ as having 346
residents of which 51% were
református or Hungarian
Reformed (178, Tiszáninnen),
21% were római katholikus (71,
Nagy-Kázmér), 19% görög
katholikus (66, Mikóháza), <1%
were izraelita (29) or ágostai (2).
The actual number of congregants
and the ‘mother’ church, if
known, is in parenthesis. A
16