Genealogy: ALL the Hungarian words…

For a couple of months I had pretty harsh issues with my vision.  It is not “all the way” corrected but the blurriness is manageable. I was happy to find, when I started digging around in the emails and notes that I missed over the past several weeks, that a wonderful member of my family gifted me with the images of my great grandfather’s army passbooks from Hungary that I have searched for for so long.

Before I get started on the passbook, because I am going to use this blog to reach out to Hungarian genealogy pages, I want to summarize my Great Grandfather (best I can) prior to asking the questions I hope to find answers for.

William Taraczkozy

b: 04/11/1872 – Bereckszacse, Budapest Capital District, Hungary

d: 12/16/1941 – Skelton, Raleigh County, West Virginia, USA (WV Cert of Death Taraczkozy, William Dist 4161 Serial 537 #17128)

Married to: Elizabeth (Erzsebet) Marosi

(married while in Hungary, I would love to find their date of marriage or any other records associated with their union as well as where they were married, including the name of the church)

Career Trade: Shoemaker

Departed port of Bremen, Germany on 08/18/1904 and arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on 08/31/1904.  He applied for citizenship in Raleigh County, West Virginia 1n October 1911 (Petition of Naturalization WV Naturalization Rec 1814-1991 No 109, Page 57).  He noted that he came through New York on August 15, 1903.  That led to years of searching for a manifest of any sort from Ellis Island that held his name upon it.  A chance misspelling of his name in Ancestry brought up a hit that led to my discovery that he actually came through Baltimore on August 31, 1904.

My questions (today) about William are regarding his military passbook.  I will post questions beneath each scan.  Believing: “Oh, all I need is Google Translate to figure out some key words.” was ridiculous in hindsight.  Also, thinking this was written solely in Hungarian was also problematic. With a quick internet search of the time frame noted on these documents (1899-1906), and using the location of Beregszasz, I believe he belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Army.  This thought was further bolstered by the German wording in the document.

Questions/thoughts on this scan:

1. Can you read the handwriting?  I cannot.  I can make out the numbers, but that is about it.  I would love to know what the handwriting says.  Is Hungarian script always written with that leaning slant?  Or is the person left handed (it reminds me of left handed English writing).
2. For the dates 12/31/1899 to 12/31/1906, I am assuming that is the time frame of his enlistment in the army.  But that would make him 27+ and carrying through until he was 34+.  Not sure what would be considered “old” by military standards of those days?
3. Szam is “number” in Hungarian.  If that is the case, I think the 243 is an identification of some sort?  Is there a number or the letter “L” before the 243?

1. The only thing I can truly make out on these pages is: Army Passbook, Budapest and April 18, 1901 (he would have just turned 29).  I would love to find someone who could translate the rest of the page or put those facts into context.

In addition to translating the pages above, I would love to find some guidance on researching (as an English-only speaking individual) Hungarian records for military service, marriage, births, etc.

Any help, suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Michelle