Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
Dear Stephen,
Your query intrigued me because of the very unusual name. I've done some research on it and am sharing here what I have found.
I do not read Hungarian either, but I have a good dictionary. That plus the Webforditas translation site (as inadequate as it is) at least gives some indication of what the text is about. For an accurate and complete translation of any of the following, you need to find a Hungarian. Did your friend Laci not translate his finding for you? Maybe you could get back to him.
First of all, Aknaszlatinai means "from Aknaszlatina," a village in old Maramaros megye, now Szolotvino, Ukraine. And, in fact, the entry Laci found says that Ede was born in Aknaszlatina in 1874. It further says that he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering and became a teacher, first in Budapest and then in Arad (now in Romania). He then apparently taught at the Anyos Jedlik industrial vocational school in Györ and became its director 1828-1937, at which time he retired. In 1938 he was awarded a "Signum Laudis" honor. He died in Györ in 1946.
Aknaszlatina is the location of an important salt mine and nearly everyone in the village was employed in some capacity in the mines.
The family name Aknaszlatinai does not appear in any of the nobility literature, so I dismissed any idea that he was a baron. Such family stories are quite common. However, the line "György [1903-ig Gschwandtner] Ede, aknaszlatinai" turned out to be very helpful. The line translates as "Ede György [Edward George], known until 1903 as Gschwandtner, was from Aknaszlatina."
Another look at the nobility literature indeed finds both the names Gschwandtner (aknaszlatina) and György (aknaszlatina). Both entries are from Kempelen Béla, Magyar nemes családok (Hungarian noble families), published in 1911.
The webforditas translation of the first entry is as follows:
Gschwandtner (aknaszlatinai) with an above title of nobility the nobility the 1903 dec. 28. G. Albert was főbányatanácsos [chief mining counselor] and his sons, Béla társbányafőnök [co-head of mining] Resiczán [probably Resiczabanya, Krassó-Szörény megye, now in Romania], Gusztáv metallurgical engineer Alsó-Fernezelye [Szatmar megye, district of Nagybanya, now in Romania], Lajos river engineer on Eszék [probably Kemenczeszék, near Resiczabanya], József engineer in Máramarossziget [this large town, just across the river from Aknaszlatina, now Sighetu Marmartiei in Romania], Ede ok. [?] mechanical engineer and Jenő a tobacco inland revenue trainee, Budapest residents received it. György is the surname of G. Albert sons already.
In other words, Albert Gschwandtner and his sons were granted nobility on December 28, 1903. It looks like they changed their name to György at the same time.
This is followed by a description of the coat of arms. It is very complex and beyond my ability to translate adequately without a graphic to help.
from golden beams emerging from green land in a green field imposed before the shaft driveway boarded over the tárnokba 2 driving silvers between a track black miner in dress aczél lifted up a miner hammer in his right, keeps miner's light in his lowered left; sisakdisz: miner dress ones leaning on his elbows arm between 6 golden apples 5 levelü silver keeps a laden branch with a rose; blankets: zöld-arany, vörös-ezüst. – Vö. még György (aknaszlatinai).
Suggested translations of some of the words include:
Tárnokba – mine entrance
Aczél – steel
Levelü – leaves
Sisakdisz means the part above the helmet, i.e., the crest. It often repeats items that are contained in the main shield.
Blankets – we would call these mantles, i.e., the flowing material on each side of the shield. In this case they are green and gold on one side, red and silver on the other.
Vö. még György (aknaszlatinai). This means compare this entry with the one for György (aknaszlatinai).
The György entry repeats that the family was ennobled on December 28, 1903, and that Geschwandter was its earlier name. It also gives a very brief family tree of Gusztav (Ede’s brother), chief royal engineer in Aknaszlatina. He married Stefania Bittsanszki from Nagybanya. Two children are listed: Elma, born 1897 in Selmeczbanya (Hont megye, now in Slovakia), and Ede, born 1900 in Nagybanya (Szatmar megye, now Romania).
At some unknown time, György Ede changed his family name to Aknaszlatinai. This is known as adopting a bi-name, which sometimes becomes the chief family name. In other words, the Gschwandtner family changed their name to György, which was a very common family name. Then Ede became Aknaszlatinai György Ede, i.e., the György Ede who came from Aknaszlatina, and eventually the György appears to have been dropped altogether.
It would be great if you could find someone (Laci perhaps?) to confirm my analysis, and also to provide a better translation of the coat of arms—or even better, a drawing of it.
This is a very interesting family. It looks like Ede is the only one who changed his name to Aknaszlatinai. Two of his brothers (Albert, born 1862, and Gusztav, born 1864) taught at Selmeczbanya, and you can find their bios and their photos(!) at http://vmek.niif.hu/01800/01841/01841.pdf. I didn’t try translating all of it, but one of the bios mentions that their father was the head of the salt mine in Aknaszlatina. Even though he was a German, the Hungarians accepted him because of his talent and honesty.
The website you found for the Anyos Jedlik school appears to have a great deal of historical information in it, some coming from school yearbooks. I’ll bet they have a photo of Ede in their archives. I would try writing to them about it. If you don’t get a response, maybe someone could be persuaded to contact them in Hungarian.
Good luck to you,
Janet (also turning 70 this year)
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/hungary/messages/18154.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|