During my research with the parish records of Debrod, I found the birth record for Miklos (mee-closhe) Szakacs (so-couch), the eldest child of Juliana Szeman and Andras (andr-ash) Szakacs. He was born about 6 months before his parents’ marriage. There is a note which says that the child was made legitimate when the parents married. What was THAT all about? It did say that he was born illegitimately; even if you don’t read Latin or Hungarian, it’s obvious.
What on earth took them so long to decide to marry? Well, I may have gotten the answer. On either the birth record of the marriage record, perhaps both, and on his immigration paper, Andras states that he was a mason or a bricklayer. Well, I thought that he may have laid streets.
WRONG!!! He was a builder! We were with cousins near my age (in our 60’s) who were telling us how our great grandmother was always waiting for her family to return to her. (Actually, the two boys were dead by then and Grandma and her sister died in the early 50’s; there was no child to return to her.) I felt so sorry for her. I learned that she was 4’11’, the same height as Grandma, and very tiny, She lived to 93 and died in the early 60’s. She was heartbroken about her family. Maybe I closed her circle for her.
Then one of my cousins said that she was accustomed to Andras being away because he was always away. Now that piqued my curiosity! I asked why he was always away. Well, he built houses–by laying the bricks which were later stuccoed. There wasn’t enough work in Debrod; so, he went where he was needed and was away for months at a time.
Putting things together, I conjecture that old Andras impregnated cute little Julianna, the eldest of the Szeman kids, and went away for a job not knowing of the child she was bearing. When he returned, they did what they needed to do, they published the 3 marriage banns, and got married thereby making Miklos legitimate.
My opinion of my great grandfather soared when I put that one together. Prior to learning this story, I thought of him as a cad. Now I believe him to have been a do-right kind of guy.
cybersyster 