Carpathian Reflections
About
Carpathian Reflections is a website to share information about a collection of films on the Greek Catholic records of the Munkacs diocese with the Genealogy community. The films are held by the Mormons in their family search archive. Unfortunately, the catalogue listing is written in Cyrillic and does not include location details. As a consequence it is difficult for English speakers to make effective use of this data. This project aims to clarify the contents of this film collection.
The Greek Catholic Munkacs diocese encompassed the Maramaros, Bereg, Ung, Zemplen, Szatmar & Szabolcs counties of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. The area straddled the Carpathian mountains, an area known as Transcarpathia; home to a vibrant community of Jewish, Slavic, Hungarian, Austrian & German residents. The Greek Catholic Church was suppressed during the communist era, but has now re-emerged. It is now known as the Eparchy of Mukachevo.
The area suffered great upheavals during the first and second world wars. Today the areas covered by the former Munkacs diocese are split between the Zakarpattia region of the Ukraine, Eastern Slovakia, North Eastern Hungary and Northern Romania.
Transcarpathia
IMPORTANT CHANGE 25Mar2024
Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting new site members as of 25Mar2024. Requests for membership of the site will not receive a response. This is because the site was subjected to sabotage attempts by foreign agents last year and we were forced to close the site.
MEMBERSHIP IS REQUIRED TO VIEW TRANSCRIBED DATA
Previous Site Members who completed the membership transcription task prior to May 2023, retain membership rights and should be able to log-in to view the transcribed data in the members-only portal. If you have problems logging in, please contact me via the Contact page.
Public access pages are available for viewing for all visitors. Please scroll down to view the index.
My sincere apologies for this change. The previous arrangement worked very well for many years. It allowed family researchers access to transcribed data for the region of Transcarpathia, for very little cost, apart from a little time to transcribe data. I am very grateful to all of our members who contributed their time and transcription efforts.
The below membership task instructions are no longer valid.
MEMBERSHIP IS REQUIRED TO VIEW TRANSCRIBED DATA
From February 2017, access to transcribed data will be restricted to members of Carpathian Reflections.
Free Membership will be granted on completion of a small transcription task.
Requirements for 12 month membership
Cost = $0
Default Membership task project is:
Task:
Transcribe 60 lines of data from the Grundbuchblatter records from Infantry Regiment 5. We do not require diacritics (accented letters) to be transcribed for this project.
Language of records: German
Time to complete: ~2 to 2.5 hours
Time limit for completion: 28 days
A database and instructions will be provided to you. It is not necessary to have a knowledge of German to complete this task. If you would prefer to transcribe Hungarian records [diacritics required] or records in old Russian Cyrillic script, please send me an email via the Contacts page.
To Apply for Membership of Carpathian Reflections:
1) Click Login/Sign Up
2) Enter your email address and chosen password into the page
A link to a Google Drive database and the source data will be emailed to you. There is a time limit of 28 days to complete the membership application task.
To view the spreadsheet data on this website you may need an account with Google Drive.
Browser Compatability: This website works best with Internet Explorer version 9 (or above, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. If you have difficulty viewing this site, another option is to enter the URL into Google Chrome. (Google Chrome can be downloaded for free.) Microsoft does not support IE9 on Windows XP. If you're using Windows XP, we suggest you use another browser.
The Collection
Records on this site include the following:
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Links to Birth, death and marriage records (only some years and some towns -see database)
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Religious census (demographic) documents
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Marriage records for couples of different faiths
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Correspondence regarding legality of children born out of wedlock [Names transcribed]
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Correspondence about marriages between closely related kin [Names transcribed]
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Correspondence to register children born overseas or omitted from the registers [Names transcribed]
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Military Conscript lists (1854) (Transcribed)
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Uzhorod Voting Registers (1937)[Transcribed]
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Deportations of Hungarians from Slovakia 1946 (Transcribed)
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Military Personnel records (Grundbuchblattter) for Infantry Regiment 5 that was garrisoned in Szatmarnemeti. [Transcribed]
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Infantry Regiment 65 death Records [transcribed]
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Birth death and Marriage records for Medence [Transcription in process]
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Emigration documents
INDEX
Access to transcriptions is only accessible to members.
Membership is free after completion of a transcription task for one of our projects.
PUBLIC ACCESS (No membership required)
Lists all films in the Family Search collection for Transcarpathia that have been reviewed by Carpathian Reflections.
Contents of each film have been clarified. Surviving parish records have been indexed. This is where you can find out the number of the Family Search film for surviving parish records.
Updated 05Jan2019
Links to various internet sources to help you read those birth death and marriage records. This is where you will also find e-publications prepared by Carpathian Reflections.
This is a travellers' handbook for the Transcarpathian region that I bought and had digitized.
Internet links.
Ongoing projects to which members of the public can contribute. Includes projects to document occupations and illnesses found in records of Transcarpathia, and Infantry Regiment 38 records.
There is a public project for IR5 military record transcriptions. This is an example of the data used for the membership task.
Miscellaneous death notices in the Australian newspapers that I happen to come across.
Links to the MAPIRE portal. This website overlay old historical maps on modern map of the region. Useful for determining the current name and country of your ancestral village.
A collection of my books relevant to Austro-Hungarian research.
Note that I do not answer family history questions. There are lots of excellent forums and Facebook groups for this purpose.
Note that I do not answer family history questions. There are lots of excellent forums and Facebook groups for this purpose.
Updated 12Jan19
Home page for the transcription projects for the Austro-Hungarian military personnel.
A small collection of transcribed IR38 records is available for public viewing.
A collection of resources to assist those trying to locate family who migrated to Australia, particularly after World War II.
Covers:
New South Wales
South Australia
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
MEMBERS ONLY [Contains Transcribed Material)
Transcriptions of the Uzhorod Voting Registers 1937/1938. This databases provides a census substitute of the town just prior to World War II.
Project COMPLETE. Over 15000 lines of data
Access to transcriptions is only accessible to members.
Membership is free after completion of a transcription task for one of our projects.
Contains many databases of transcribed records from different sources including:
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Emigration records
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Death records
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Military conscript data from 1854 (Ugocsa County)
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Correspondence regarding legality of children born out of wedlock
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Correspondence regarding marriages between people of different religions.
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Correspondence regarding marriages between closely related people. [This correspondence often contain family tree sketches.]
Updated 09Jan2020: Project Ongoing
Most recent films added: Film 1425868, 2187276
Following the end of World War II, due to border changes, there was a population exchange between Slovakia and Hungary. This database documents the Hungarians deported out of Eastern Slovakia in 1946
Project COMPLETE
Project to transcribe the 'Grundbuchblatter' military personnel forms for Infantry Regiment 5 that was garrisoned at Szatmarnemeti.. A significant proportion of military recruits came from Transcarpathia. Other recruits in this regiments originated in Transylvania and Hungary.
This is the Default transcription task for membership of Carpathian Reflections.
Project Ongoing. Updated 09 Jan 2020
Transcription status: Over 20000 lines of data transcribed and growing
1860-1875 Death Records
Very few men died as heroes. Of the 1452 transcribed death records, only 19 men died died in battle. Typhus, Cholera, Tuberculosis and infections killed more soldiers than the the sword.
Project COMPLETE
Transcriptions: 1452 lines of data entry
1860-1875 Personnel Data
Project Ongoing
Transcriptions: 585 lines of data entry
Updated 12Jul2019
Ongoing transcription projects
Members are welcome to contribute to these transcription projects.
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IR5
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IR65
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Also Karaszlo parish record transcriptions
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Medence parish record transcriptions
Updated 16 Apr 2023
Includes some birth, death and marriage documents for:
Tiszakirva (1838-1854): Transcribed
Medence [1814-1914]
Also Karaszlo [1899-1903], 1826, 1895-96 (transcribed)
Medencze mar
riages 1877-1911 Transcribed
Lalovo (1844-1860)
Donated records for Munkacs (Reformed)-Miscellaneous records