Daniel Sedory

Ancestors

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Some History of Slovakia

The SEDORY / Szegyory families need to understand that what is now known as Slovakia had actually been ruled by the Hungarians for hundreds of years (beginning in 1000 AD) as part of the Kingdom of Hungary. After wars with the Ottomans in the 16th and 17th centuries; mostly in the western part of the kingdom, the Habsburgs of Austria began to dominate their kingdom. The War for Independence (1703–1711) and later even the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 finally resulted in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 which created the "dual monarchy" of Austria-Hungary (often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire). This lasted from 1867 to 1918; the end of the "Great War" (World War 1), when that empire was split into many countries, including Czechoslovakia (1918-1939). Note that the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary remained Latin until 1836, when Hungarian was introduced. And due to the influence of the Austrian Habsburgs, some of the German language was also in circulation. Of course, Slovak families had always used their own language at home, and it evolved along with Czech and other languages throughout the region in spite of its foreign rulers.

Biography

My ancestry includes the line of SEDORY's who came from a small village called Orkucany (also called Orkuta in Magyar=Hungarian) when it was still under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a mile or so southeast of the small town of Sabinov, on the Torysa River in northeastern Slovakia, and Sabinov is about 10 miles northwest of the city of Prešov (or in Hungarian: "Eperjes"; which you'll see below as the place where two books containing a few short genealogical trees, including my Great Grandfather's family, were published). This area was in the former S'aris County (Hungarian: Saros Megye). That village was demolished during Soviet control, quite some time after the end of World War II, so the modern-day suburb called Orkucany is much different than how it appeared centuries ago.

In 1907 and 1908, a friend of the family (or distant relative) by the name György Gusztáv Szentgyörgyi had two books published which contain a small genealogical tree of what became my Sedory family in the United States (see "References" below), and in which he claimed all Szegyory's were direct descendants of a certain Tamás in the 13th century! But, as best I can make out, he had no evidence for this other than some oral history given to him as a boy from his grandmother. Both of these books were professionally scanned by Google (one having been found at a Harvard University library), and turned into readable PDF files with surprisingly few errors. They are, of course, written by someone who grew up in 19th century Slovakia writing in the Hungarian language of that era; with even a bit of German poetry and song.

For more about the origin of our name, see Chapter 1, Footnote 3 of my online edition of my father's autobiography. This autobiography contains a great deal of information about my Sedory family, and in later chapters even things about my younger self.

Sources

• First-hand information entered by Daniel Sedory at registration, his Birth Certificate and other family records.

References

Pál mester Bazini és Szentgyörgyi gróf vagyis Anonymus, III.: Béla király állítólagos névtelen jegyzöje (1907), page 21 (page 28 of 37 in PDF reader).

A Hunt-Pázmán-, illetve Wettin-nemzetség története : kapcsolatban Pál mester, vagyis Anonymus (1908). This book includes a new edition of the book above which shows 5 children (rather than only 3 as before) being fathered by György Szegyory (George Sedory), so there must have been some communication from Streator, Illinois back to Orkucany, Slovakia informing the author of this news. The "tree" is located on page 137 of 150 in this online PDF reader; you can go directly to the image by changing the page number "1" (just to the left of the "150" near lower right corner of display) to "137".