The Noblewoman and the Painter

My maternal grandmother was born in Brooklyn, New York but her parents were born and raised in Hungary: Juliana Roza Bozoky, born in 1877, and Pal Kreuts, born in 1881. Juliana came from a wealthy family with noble status. According to various nobility sources, the Bozoky family was part of the gens Hont-Pazmany. The Hont-Pazmany gens has it's origins in Swabia. There were two noblemen, brothers, one named Hont and the other Pazman. In the 900s they made their way to Hungary, eventually gaining favor and titles from Duke Geza and King Stephen for aiding in battle. Their descendants settled in the northern part of Hungary and southern Slovakia, building castles and monasteries. At some point, my Bozoky ancestors made their way to the southern part of Hungary and settled in Szeged. According to family legend, one or two Bozoky ancestors named either Istvan Antal or Istvan and Antal, were knighted by Empress Maria Theresa. Considering the time period of the 1740s-50s and the considerable wealth of the family, I have little doubt the story is true, however, like any good researcher knows, it needs to be verified. I went to the Hungarian National Archives and with the help of an archivist found out there are 11 Bozoky's who have been granted noble titles. I have no idea which one is mine especially since there were no Istvans or Antals listed. But they are willing to help if I can narrow the genealogy down a bit and they gave me the website to look up the information myself. In order to assert her authority and right to rule, Empress Maria Theresa came to the Hungarian nobles for support. She in turn rewarded those who sided with her. Now we turn to the Szeged Bozoky's. My great grandmother's parents were Andras Bozoky and Veron Berta. Andras owned a large estate with orchards and vinyards. He and Veron had at least 8 children: Etel, Anna, Juliana, Maria, Andras, Szilvester, Istvan and Vincze Lajos. Until recently I assumed the Bozoky family moved to Budapest when Juliana was still a child, and that Andras and Veron had lost Etel and Vincze. But on Friday, I went to visit my Bozoky cousins who live in Budapest. They are descended from Anna Bozoky, my great gradmother's older sister. Anna died at the age of 23 from food poisoning just a few short years after her marriage to Ferenc Simon and the birth of her daughter, Ilona. My Bozoky cousins showed me Anna's marriage record which was dated 1893 and the marriage took place in Szeged. This meant that the Bozoky family had not yet moved to Budapest and it provided a wonderful clue to their timeline. My cousins also showed me a record that Anna died in Szeged in 1896 and, as her mother was listed as point of contact (with a Szeged address), the Bozoky's moved to Budapest sometime after 1896, well into my great grandmother's adulthood. Anna's marriage record also gave her address which, considering the time period and her status, was also her parents' address as well. So now I know where they were living in Szeged. After moving to Budapest, the family lived at 61 Csengery street, off of Andrassy street which was THE street. It had the posh stores, the opera house, art academy etc. If you had wealth, you lived near it. Armed with this new information, I decided to take another look at my great grandparents marriage record, dated 1905, and for the first time realized that at the time of the marriage, Juliana's father was dead. How did I realize this? There is an abbreviation in Hungarian that widows can put in front of their name to signify their widowhood: ozv., and that abbreviation was in front of Veron's name. All of a sudden I was like, whoa! I couldn't believe I hadn't realized this before, but sometimes it takes several examinations to discover what a document like this has to offer. So this means Andras died in Budapest sometime between 1896 and 1905. One more thing that I discovered about the Bozoky family thanks to my Bozoky cousins, was that Vincze Lajos Bozoky, my great grandmother's brother, who I assumed had died since he didn't show up in any pictures, had actually lived into adulthood and even married. My cousins showed me a picture labeled Vincze Lajos Bozoky and his wife with an address for Szeged. They did not know who he was but knew he was family. Knowing that my great grandmother had a brother named Vincze Lajos, born in 1881, I have little doubt that this is the same person. Perhaps a reason why he does not appear is that he stayed in Szeged. This ties into another story. Bear with me, I know I am going on several tangents. Many years ago, my mother discovered from a now deceased Bozoky cousin that there was a Bozoky relative who lived in England and had papers relating to the nobility of the family. The Bozoky cousin gave my mother an envelope with an address for this English cousin. My mother wrote to him but never heard from him. I recently found the envelope and did my own research. I discovered that the name of this individual was Lajos Ferenc Bozoky, born in Hungary in 1913. Using ancestry.com's British phone book register, I was able to track him. I found out that the address my mother used, which was from 1964, was the "wrong" address. He had moved from there in the 1980s and then died in 1994. My mother wrote to him after 1994. Now I know why he didn't write back. So, going back to Vincze Lajos, I am now speculating since the name of this other Bozoky relative is Lajos, that the latter may be the former's son. I will definitely be looking into this!

Now onto the Kreuts side. My great grandfather, Pal was born in Budapest in 1881. His parents were Mihaly Kreuts, a hat maker, and Erszebet Szoke-Vegh. Mihaly was born around 1838 in Felso-schonborn which is now in Western Ukraine. At the time it belonged to Hungary. The curious thing about Felso-schonborn is that it was settled by Germans from the Bamberg area in the 1740s and remained almost exclusively German until WWII. In other words, Mihaly's lineage is undoubtedly German. At some point, Mihaly left his village and came to Budapest. There he met and married Erszebet, who was born in Budapest in 1847. They had multiple children, including Pal, Antal Mihaly, Karoly and Erszebet. Erszebet married a German, Augustus or Gustav Fabian and had three children. They immigrated to America, settling in New York City in the early 1900s. This is important for later. Karoly and Antal fought in WWI. Karoly was captured and sent to Siberia. He was later able to come home but had been gone for so long, his family had thought him dead and his wife remarried. He released her and later married someone else. I met with Antal's descendants on Saturday, his two granddaughters and two of his great grandchildren. To back track slightly, the previous evening, my Bozoky cousins showed me a picture of the "Krejcs" brothers, saying they were related to my grandmother and her brothers. I finally understood that Krejcs was another form of Kreuts. When I met with the Kreuts cousins, one of Antal's granddaughters showed me her father's school grade book and said that when she was going through it, she had noticed that her grandfather had spelled Kreuts differently: Kreuts, Kreits, Krejcs, and Kreics. I showed them the picture of the Krejcs brothers that the Bozoky cousins had showed me but they didn't recognize them. Although, I think one may be Antal. The Kreuts cousins also showed me a picture of a man who they said was the brother to Antal. It was not Karoly or Pal. They did not know his name, but now this adds to the mystery! 

So now to my great grandparents. I would like to share their story because I think it is both sweet and sad. They met in the late 1890s, how I have no idea because they were from two different classes. Juliana was from the upper class and from a long line of nobility, Pal was a painter and the son of a hatmaker. Juliana's parents refused to let them marry until Pal finished art school, although the hope was that Juliana would find someone more suitable, so they embarked on a 7 year long courtship. Noting that Juliana's father was dead by the time of their marriage in 1905, I wonder if as a result of his death, her mother acquiesced to the marriage, realizing her daughter was near 30 and more or less an old maid. So Pal and Juliana married and began their family. I discovered not too long ago that they had a total of 6 children, not four. The first two I knew of, and the last one was my grandmother. I knew there was a brother who died at 4 months old, but these two extra were a shock. After talking with my aunt and cousins, I found that these two also died as infants, one was a miscarriage and the other was born and lived for several months before dying. In 1914, on the eve of WWI, the family immigrated to America. Pal's sister was already living in NYC with her family so that was the logical place to go. They settled in Brooklyn and in August 1916 my grandmother was born.  Four months later on December 27, Pal was admitted to Manhattan State Hospital with lead poisoning. Manhattan State Hospital was an insane asylum. Lead poisoning doesn't just destroy the body, it destroys the mind as well. The hospital was on Ward's Island, isolated from the rest of the city on purpose. I found documents at the NY Public Library that provided an excellent view on what life was like, and it was heartbreaking. My grandmother and her brothers never would have seen their father once he went into hospital, children were not allowed on the premises for fear that the contact with the insane would be detrimental to their mental hygiene. After Pal went into hospital, Juliana moved her family to lower Manhattan, to the tenement slums because that was all she could afford. After 1920, she made the decision to return to Hungary. The plan was for Pal to join as well so that he could die on his native soil, but his illness was too much. Juliana returned to Hungary with her children but without Pal. He died in March 1922 and is buried in Queens. The Hungary to which Juliana returned was not the same one she left. It had been decimated by WWI and many were living in poverty. Juliana moved in with her mother and brother on Bela Bartok Street. My grandmother was enrolled in school and attended from 1923-1926. Sometime in 1925, Juliana realized she wasn't providing the best life for my grandmother and choosing between sending her to an orphanage or back to America, decided to send her back to America to live with Pal's sister, Erszebet. As such, my grandmother grew up in Brooklyn while her two older brothers also left Hungary, going first to England and then NYC and Canada. Juliana didn't see her children for 30 years. In the meantime she experienced war.  During WWII, her apartment was bombed and she lost everything but her prayer book. She experienced Soviet invasion and the harshness of the Soviet influenced Hungarian dictatorship. It was not pleasant. There was a lot of suffering and fear. In 1956 my grandmother and her brothers were able to get Juliana to America. It took a lot of political negotiation including a letter to First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, but they got her out of Hungary. In 1963, one of her sons died and she died just 7 months later in spring of 1964. In her prayer book she had written "My God, my God, the whole world has abandoned me."

My great grandparents, Juliana Roza Bozoky and Pal Kreuts on their wedding day in 1905.

Thanks to my great grandparents marriage record, my grandmother's school grade book and my great great grandfather'a death certificate, I was able to find four addresses and visit them: where my great grandfather lived before marriage, where my great grandmother lived before marriage, where my great great grandparents lived and where my grandmother lived. I am hoping to work with the various archives to uncover more information, we shall see what we find! 

Cheers!

Elizabeth

61 Csengery street, Budapest, Hungary. This was Juliana's address before marriage. The current building dates to 1910 and is a little dilapidated but you can tell it and the street it was on were beautiful and posh.

What was 28 Also erdosor street, Budapest, Hungary. This was Pal's address before marriage.

What was 9 Munkas street, Budapest, Hungary. This is where Pal's parents, Mihaly and Erszebet, lived at the time of Mihaly's death in 1896. It is right around the corner from Also erdosor street.

St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, just down the street from where the Kreuts family lived.

What was 45 Bela Bartok where my grandmother lived after the family returned to Hungary. I remember seeing it in 1998, it was rather dilapidated and missing the upper two stories because it had been bombed during WWII. But it had a courtyard which I remember thinking was nice.