Researching the Pósa genealogy has been a challenge. There was very little information to begin with, but the key pieces turned out to be the old Social Security application that listed the village Lena Pósa was born in and her parents’ names, and the ship manifest that Tammy found that confirmed Lena had a sister named Margit and confirmed her father (erroneously listed as her husband) was Lajos. Then it became a matter of digging up information about the history of the area (which was made more difficult by the lack of information in English) to find out where the records were.
As far as I can tell, it was about four years ago that familysearch digitized the microfilm parish records for that area and put them online. Unfortunately, only the baptisms are indexed, so it takes awhile to page through the records for marriages and deaths, after figuring out where they even were (it looks like Reformed church registers are not in the Reformed group online). So far, I have spent most of the time looking at Radnót. The records end at 1897, so I can only look back from there online.
As it turns out, we had thought that the Social Security application was not entirely accurate about Lena’s parent’s names. It said Louis Posa and Marcia Posa. I had thought that Marcia Posa was her married name, but it really is her maiden name, although her name is really Maria. There is no name of Marcia anywhere in the parish records, although in some of the old writing sometimes an “r” looks like a “c”, so maybe that’s where that confusion came from.
And as it also turns out, Lena is a diminutive, or nickname. Her name is really Leontina.
Lajos Pósa and Mária Pósa
Links are provided to pedigree charts and parish register pages. Lajos and Mária and their children were all born in Radnót.
Lajos Pósa was born 3 Jan 1858, baptised 4 Jan 1858, married Mária 31 Mar 1880, and died 4 Jun 1912.
Mária Pósa was born 17 Feb 1864, see Lajos for marriage.
Their Children
Lajos Pósa and Mária Pósa had six children. Links are provided to parish register pages.
1. Margit, born 9 Sep 1882, baptised 11 Sep 1882, residence Radnót 141, godparents Péter Pósa and Zsuzsánna Pósa. This would be Lena’s older sister who also came to America.
2. Elek, born 4 Apr 1885, baptised 4 Apr 1885, residence Radnót 138, godparents Péter Pósa and Zsuzsánna Pósa, died 27 Oct 1943. The death date is written on the birth register entry.
3. Leontina, born 22 Jun 1887, baptised 23 Jun 1887, residence Radnót 138, godparents Péter Pósa and Zsuzsánna Pósa. Note that her full name is Leontina.
4. Bertalan, born 20 Sep 1889, baptised 21 Sep 1889, residence Radnót 138, godparents Péter Pósa and Zsuzsánna Pósa, died 18 Apr 1893, cause diptheria, buried 20 Apr 1893. The death date of 21 Apr 1893 was written on the birth entry, but that was probably the day it was written. The birth entry is in the name Elemér, and on the death entry there is a note that says something like the birth name was written Elemér although Bertalan was intended.
As a side note, starting in late 1891, the priest’s name is Lajos Pósa. There is also a somewhat-famous Lajos Pósa who wrote children’s poetry.
5. Rozália, born 30 Aug 1892, baptised 31 Aug 1892, residence Radnót 138, godparents Péter Pósa and Zsuzsánna Pósa, died 21 Dec 1892, cause diptheria, buried 22 Dec 1892.
6. Rozália, born 29 Nov 1893, baptised 30 Nov 1893, residence Radnót 138, godparents István Sebök and Borbála Pósa who live in Zsip (now Zip, Slovakia). Back in those days, it was common practice to re-use the name of a child who died young, not just in Hungary or Slovakia, even here in the United States.
The children’s names are actually very uncommon. In the hundreds of years of entries I looked at in the parish registers, I never saw another Leontina, no Lena or Lina, and maybe one other Margit and Elek and Bertalan. And the parents’ names of Lajos and Mária are two of the most common in this area. I wonder why they gave their children uncommon names, when they had very common names themselves.
Other Information
I translated the headings of a birth/baptism page and a marriage page. If you are interested to see what the columns represent (some of them I’m sure you can figure out on your own) and see some of my notes regarding the registers, see these PDF files:
Here are some maps of Hungary you may find useful:
- Map of the counties around 1880
- Map showing the village of Radnót as Nemesradnót
- Same map as directly above but with red rectangle around Nemesradnót
And here are logos for the town of Radnót:
I don’t know what the symbols mean though.