As I have mentioned in my earlier passage (see My Father Connection Dream) my father was always curious about his family members here in the United States that had emmigrated from Hungary before 1907. His father had talked about them many times to him as a boy and his mother maintained the connection up until she passed away in 1990 (see Valakovics,Julianna). He knew all about his familiy in Hungary living in Gyor-Ladamere, Feher-Megye, Hungary {White County} and those who lived in Budapest, but wasn't quite sure about all his cousins here in America. Me on the other hand really wasn't that interested up until I hit middle age.

Quite ironic really, considering while I had the opportunity to ask all those questions from my grandmother and aunts and uncles when they were alive, never manged to come up with the subject. When my husband and I were stationed at Hill AFB in Utah, I decided to give it a whirl. I was in the best possible location to get all the facts to all the stories that I heard from my father and his cousins all those years ago. I picked up the phone and started calling my fathers cousins and their children to see if they were told the same stories.

Well, to my amazement they were told the exact same stories growing up in Garfield,New Jersey. Everyone in the family always speculated that we came from Royalty, but I highly doubted it, considering they were just poor emmigrant workers when they came to this country before 1907. But, according to what I have been told by my fathers eldest living cousin who is 94 years old, that our family originated from a very famous place in Hungary; Kocs. Kocs, which means coach was where the first horse drawn coaches were developed by the Hungarians/Magyars of Europe during the 14th and 15th century.

Well, this got me thinking that maybe the stories were accurate after all, not just idle gossip by some old people sitting around playing canasta. So, while I was going through my little genealogy course of self teach and rootsweb on-line, I made a major discovery; I had a cousin in Hungary the same age as my father that had already done this history on that end of the continent.

Quickly wrote him a letter in English, which I found out later to be translated for him by his daughter who spoke pretty good English that I was his cousins daughter in America and that I was interested in what he knew and the documentation that he had held. My letter was answered in a few short weeks with a number of dates and names that I had never heard of. I was astonished how far he had gone with his intensive research, to abt 1812.

He also mentioned that he was haveing problems going further back, but I am not quite sure as to why. He knew that his father and my grandfather were born in Vertes-Kathely and that he had my greatgrandfathers baptism/birth record copy from the archives of Hungary. It said Kocs,Hungary. On my great grandfathers baptism/birth record it also stated his parents name Sipos,Josi and Kovacs,Szusanna, well that right away signalled that there was another Josef running around there that would have been Josef Sipos,Sr; because they would have called him Joscka or Josef if he was the elder.

So we know for sure that there was a Josef Sipos,Sr in Kocs during 1812. Now,I had to pry into my fathers cousins memory to find out the family secrets that they were talking about when I wasn't listening. According to her Elizabeth Karner-Walko; who is the eldest living relative of my father here in the states, she said that back in our heritage were the first coach makers for the King of Hungary, now this would have been before the Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary,especially if the first coaches were made in the 14th and 15th century.

So why couldn't my cousin in Hungary find out anything about this line any further back than 1812? The fifty million dollar question. Well, the story went like this. There was a man named Josef Sipos who married Szusanna Kovacs in Kocs,Feher-Megye,Hungary and they had a son Sandor Sipos. Szusanna died possibly in childbirth and Josi took another wife. With this wife he had another son Istvan Sipos. When Josis second wife died for some unknown reason, Josi Sipos took another wife.

By this time Sandor Sipos, the eldest son was possibly getting tired of haveing all these different mothers telling him what to do and him haveing to do all the intensive labor, he decided to leave home a young man with nothing in his pockets. While this was not the thing to do to your parents back then, his younger brother Istvan decided to pack his bags and go with his older loving brother and start a new life. I have been told that they moved along the Duna(Danube) towards Vertes-Kesthely and both led good lives with their families. Sandor Sipos married Ersebet Baronya and had many children Julianna,Sandor,Ersebet,Margit(all which came to the USA before 1907) my grandfather Ferenc and his younger brother Janos stayed in Hungary to take care of eachother.

Each of the lines that came to the USA have been documented and I am now in the process of getting all the proper documentation necessary to continue on with my research efforts here; getting to know cousins that I didn't even know that I had. For the relatives that I have in Hungary, we maintain close contact and will be vigilant in finding documentation necessary to continue the line backwards .According to the history of Sandor and Istvan, they maintained a very close bond into their adult life and their families maintained a relationship even though they were in a faraway place. Sandor and Istvan may have left home and may have been dissenherited, but their love for eachother and their heritage maintained a legacy for all to remember.

To all that have gone before me....

Ginger


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