Slovakia Gazetteers
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In other languages: SlovenčinaSlovakia Gazetteers
After you have discovered the name of the town from which your ancestor emigrated, you must still determine its location. Many localities have similar names that may be easily confused. An example would be the place names Kameň, Kameňany, Kamenec, Kamenica, Kameničany, Kameničná, Kamenín and Kamienka.
There is a place called Kamenica. In addition, there are places called Kamenica preceded by an adjective, such as Nižná Kamenica and places followed by a description such as Kamenica nad Cirochou. Slovak grammatical endings can change an actual place name so that the potential for confusion increases. The expression in Kamenica is v Kamenici. Often, many localities have same place names.
Many towns that are located on rivers bear the name of the river as part of the official place name. The term nad (sometimes written as n/) means above or on, thus Kamenica nad Cirochou means Kamenica on the Cirocha river.
All localities in Slovakia have names both in Slovak and Hungarian, with many places also bearing German names. In the area of Sub-Carpathian Russia, localities had names in Ukrainian. Place names are often misspelled in American sources. Difficult names were shortened and diacritic marks omitted.
A gazetteer, which is defined as a geographical dictionary, is an essential tool for identifying places. It lists all place names and gives sufficient information to uniquely identify a specific locality, such as variant names, political and church jurisdictions, religions, etc. Use the following gazetteers to locate the place your ancestor came from and to determine the location of the parish or synagogue where records were kept. Once you have determined the location of the church or synagogue, use the FamilySearch Catalog to get the film numbers of the available records. You can then order the appropriate films.
Kingdom of Hungary
(1913) A Magyar Szent Korona Országainak Helységnévtára
Volumes 1 and 2 cover the Kingdom of Hungary (dark green area #16). Volume 3 covers the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (maroon area #17) which now includes parts of modern Croatia and Slovenia.
"How to" Guide: Instruction, Activity, Answer Key
Advantages: Available online; provides religious jurisdictions as of 1910 and location of civil registration offices (volumes 1 and 2 only).
Disadvantages: Browsable images only.
(1877 Dvorzsák) Magyarország helységnévtára tekintettel a közigazgatási, népességi és hitfelekezeti viszonyokra
Magyarország helységnévtára tekintettel a közigazgatási, népességi és hitfelekezeti viszonyokra. (Gazetteer of Hungary with Administrative, Populational, and Ecclesiastical Circumstances). János Dvorzsák, Budapest: Havi Füzetek Kiadóhivatala, 1877. (FS Library INTL book 943.9 E5d vol.1-2)
Volume 2 is also available on-line here.
"How to" Guide: Instruction, Activity, Answer Key
Advantages: Available online; provides religious jurisdictions.
Disadvantages: Browsable images only.
Jordan Auslander has compiled a handy reference book from these two volumes:
Auslander, Jordan. Genealogical gazetteer of the kingdom of Hungary. Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu, 2005. (FS Library book 943.9 E5a).
Slovakia
Administratives Gemeindelexikon der Čechoslovakischen Republik
Administratives Gemeindelexikon der Čechoslovakischen Republik. (Administrative Gazetteer of the Czechoslovak Republik). Statistischen Staatsamte, Prague: Rudolf M. Rohrer 1927-28. (FS Library book 943.7 E5a vol.1-2; FS Library film 496719 vol.I and FS Library film 496720 item 1 vol.II; FS Library fiche 6000787).
This gazetteer gives information on all town and villages in Slovakia as it existed as part of Czechoslovakia after 1918. In addition, it includes places in Sub-Carpathian Russia (Podkarpatská Rus), now a part of the Ukraine, which belonged to Czechoslovakia between the first and second world wars. The gazetteer is arranged by political districts with one index for the entire republic.
Volume I includes all of Bohemia, Volume II includes Moravia, Austrian Silesia, Slovakia, Sub-Carpathian Russia and a main index at the end.
Main index (pages 257-321) lists all place names in alphabetical order, as well as most German and Hungarian versions. It is alphabetized according to the Czech alphabetical order: A B C Č D,Ď E F G H CH I J K L M N,Ň O P Q R,Ř S Š T,Ť U V W X Y Z Ž. (Note that Č, Š, and Ž are alphabetized separately from the unmarked versions, also that Ch comes after H; this means that Sch comes after Sh.)
Each place name in a main index is followed by a volume and page number. This refers you to the gazetteer entry in appropriate volume and page number in that particular volume. The names of localities are listed in Column 2. In many districts both the Slovak and Hungarian versions of a place name are listed, with the Slovak version first. Column 8 lists the Roman Catholic parish. The parishes for other religions may be noted in this column or mentioned in footnotes.
In some instances, especially in the case of smaller villages, obsolete names and various language variations of the place names are indexed separately. These additional indexes should be referred to only if the locality you are looking for is not found in the main index. These little indexes give the standard version of the place name which then can be looked up in the main index.
Slovak Name Index, Volume II (pages 329-331) This index lists the Slovak obsolete place names.
Hungarian Name Indexes Slovakia, Volume II (pages 332-342) Sub-Carpathian Russia, Volume II (pages 342-343) These indexes list the old Hungarian names.
German Name Index, Volume II (page 342) This index lists the German names for localities in Slovakia.
Sub-Carpathian Name Index, Volume II (page 342) This index lists the Czech names for localities in Sub-Carpathian Russsia.
Ruthenian Cyrillic Index, Volume II (pages 321-322) This index lists Ruthenian (Ukrainian) place names using the Cyrillic alphabet.
Názvy obcí na Slovensku za ostatných dvesto rokov
Majtán, Milan. Názvy obcí slovenskej republiky : vývin v rokoch 1773-1997. (Place names of the Slovak Republic over time, from 1773 through 1997). Bratislava: VEDA, vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie, 1998. (FS Library book 943.73 E2m 1998; FS Library film 1181569 item 1, older edition).
The index on pages 487-667 lists localities by all alternate versions in Slovak, Czech, Latin, Hungarian, German, Russian, Polish, and obsolete Slovak. Each entry in the index is followed by a number. This is a running number and not a page number. It refers you to the list of the standard modern Slovak place names arranged alphabetically as the text of the book. Use this gazetteer to determine the modern standard spelling for any locality in Slovakia. You can also use it to find the Hungarian version of a Slovak place name to facilitate the use of the gazetteer listed as first above.
Standard modern Slovak place name is followed by an abbreviation for the modern Slovak political district and, in parentheses, the historical county. The text of the entry gives other names by which the locality has been known over the last 200 years. Some entries indicate that a village was merged with another.
Slovak abbreviations for historical Hungarian counties:
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abov. Abovská (Abovsko-turnianska) / Abov-Turňa |
Abaúj-Torna |
Additional helpful gazetteers
Genealogy Slovakia Very helpful Slovakian gazetteer that includes surnames found in each village.
Gardiner, Duncan B. German towns in Slovakia & Upper Hungary: a genealogical gazetteer. Lakewood, Ohio: Family Historian, 1991 (FS Library book 943.73 E5g 1991).
Gazetteer of German towns in the former kingdom of Hungary, now in Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine. Includes section on doing genealogical research on Germans in Eastern Europe and on Czech and Slovak research.