School days

This postcard photo, supposedly of the school that Ilona attended as a little girl, is probably pre-1918. The children appear to be holding flags representing the Triune Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia (1867 - 1918), without the crest in the center, as depicted on this webpage.

Now if I could just find someone to help me translate the back of the postcard!
I see Ilona's childhood nickname, "Lencika" (meaning "red-head"), but cannot read much else.

I had heard the story that Ilona was a good student and her parents were considering continuing her education. Her older sister, however, objected, since the family couldn't allow all of the children to continue their educations. Supposedly, Stjepan & Magdalena decided not to allow their daughter Ilona to continue.

I wonder, if she had gone on to further education, would she have remained living in their village? Would she ever have married her husband and moved to America? Her life (and ours) might have been quite different.

I wonder what they learned in the not-so-little school building pictured above. Patriotism, it appears, was one subject at least. But was it Hungarian patriotism or Croatian? The children look so serious in the picture. I hope they had some fun at school, too.

Just across the river

As mentioned in the sidebar, Ilona was from the little town of Legrad. She met and married her husband, Ferencz, who was from the little town of Donja Dubrava, just across the river. (I'd love to know how they first met. A village festival, shopping at the market, meetings at the Catholic church, passing on the road?)











Here are the coats of arms of Donja Dubrava and Legrad, respectively. Take a look at this clickable satellite map of the area.

According to one person commenting on the Međimurje region:

"The beauty of the nature, the zealous, unobtrusive, honest and hospitable people have contributed to [the fact] that Međimurje has been called Hortus Croatiae, the flower garden of Croatia."

Take a look at this good general overview of the Međimurje area. The area has quite an interesting history. You can see from the map that the little towns are not only across the river but are now in different counties of Croatia. (Donja Dubrava is now in Međimurje county; Legrad is now in Koprivnica-Križevci county.) Also notice the Croatian/Hungarian border just east of Legrad. (Magyarország = Hungary; Hrvatska = Croatia)

The area is truly a "borderland". It has been the border many times, but has also had its turn as a more central region, depending on the country or empire in charge at the time. One story says (and you can see some remnants of possible truth to it on the Google satellite map) that the little town of Legrad was once physically moved from Hungary to Croatia. Not actually by being lifted up and carried, but because the flow of the river itself (which defined the border) shifted and put Legrad on the other side. It looks like the rivers of Međimurje have always been actively moving around.

So, the question remains, was our family Croatian or were they Hungarian? Ilona's children (all but one born in the U.S.) have always defined themselves as "Hungarian". They spoke Hungarian amongst themselves, went to the Hungarian Catholic Church, etc., etc. But I do remember talk of their parents speaking another language (I assumed Croatian, now I'm thinking Kajkavian).

Ilona's daughter Wilma wrote in a 2004 letter to me (regarding "the Hungarian & Croatian influence"):

"We only vaguely heard them speaking in another language [besides Hungarian]. They went to Hungarian churches, picnics, music, cooking, etc. It was only when [one of Ilona's grandsons] went to Croatia and Hungary [in the 1990's] that we became aware of our Croatian heritage."

I guess a border town is always going to have a little bit of the flavor of all neighboring nations, that is certain. But is appears that the area where our family lived was undoubtedly Croatian.

Take a look back a century and a half ago. The 1860's saw the gradual removal of direct Austrian rule in Hungary, which ruled Croatia-Slavonia.

This is the flag of the Triune Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, 1867 – 1918. The promise to incorporate these areas into a true triune kingdom under Hungarian rule never fully came to pass - Dalmatia was never included. Notice the Hungarian St. Stephen's crown atop the crest.

As recently as 1868, the Nagodba was instituted in Croatia (if you know anything about recent Croatian history you know about the Nagodba). November 18, 1868, to be exact. This bit of Hungarian political aggression enforced Hungarian rule over the Međimurje province (including Legrad) in spite of the area's strong Croatian character. The Magyar language was forced upon the Croatian-speaking people of Međimurje. (See Stephen Gazi's book A History of Croatia for a good explanation of the background and history of this period and much more.)


This prayer book entitled Jezus Ljubav Moja (Christ, My Love) was published by Međimurje priests in 1912 as an act of protest against the attempts at Hungarization of the area. The book, located at the Muzej Međimurja Čakovec, contains songs and catechism and was written in the Međimurje Kajkavian dialect.

1868 is truly recent when you put the whole timeline of Croatia in front of you. Way back in the 7th century, Croats settled the area that is now considered Croatia. Croatia actually became its own kingdom in the 10th century, and was at its strongest in the 11th century until it was conquered by Hungary in 1091.

So, the area was ruled by Hungary for many centuries, yet the people retained their language and their customs. See the Muzej Međimurja Čakovec (Čakovec Museum of Međimurje) website for artifacts and more information about the culture of the area.

I guess the question remains, but I think we would do best to claim both of these rich neighboring cultures as part of our heritage.

Magdalena & Stjepan Bence would probably have agreed. They chose to have their portrait taken over in the Hungarian town of Nagykanizsa, and my guess is that they felt right at home there.

In the old country

Ilona Bence was born to Stjepan & Magdalena Bence and raised in Legrad, which is now in the Međimurje district of northwestern Croatia. Here are Stjepan & Magdalena in a portrait, probably taken in the early twentieth-century. (Anyone out there able to help me with a more specific guess, based on clothing styles, etc.?)

Stjepan was born in 1857 and Magdalena (born Magdalena Bedenices) in 1860. He was a farmer, or foldmuves, as daughter Ilona's 1905 Hungarian civil marriage registry indicates. Ilona shared with her children many years later in America that she was not able to play with friends on Sunday because the family went to church in the morning and then she was required to take the oxen into the fields in the afternoon. She often struggled with the oxen.

Living near Legrad, the family was right by the Drava (or Drave) River (and near its confluence with the Mura River also). They often had to cross the river by raft to tend to their crops and possibly their livestock. It may sometimes have been a difficult task to cross the river.

As Ilona told her daughter Wilma later, the Bence family owned much property and livestock. They produced eggs and milk, and harvested grapes and other things. Their land ownership was taken away when political upheaval began and the family was reduced to working their own land without being able to provide for their own needs. Hard life, but what a beautiful place to live!

Bumo vidli!

Well, not that I ever would have gotten around to it, but I've often wished that I could learn to speak Croatian, the original language of my ancestors - or so I thought. Croatian language courses are fairly easy to come by, and the language looked pretty simple (pronunciation-wise, anyway).

Now I learn that the dialect that my ancestors spoke was actually Kajkavian, a dialect of Croatian that is a transition language between today's standard Croatian and Slovenian. (Makes sense, because Slovenia is the area's neighbor to the west.)

Supposedly it used to be easy for natives of this area of Croatia (including those from the capital, Zagreb) to tell non-native speakers because they did not use Kajkavian instead of Croatian. Much immigration has lessened that now, but to think I might have spent time learning Croatian, thinking that I could fit in with the natives and then sounding to them, well, you know... I guess I'll always be an outsider in my great-grandparents' native land. Sad, but true.

But if only I could find myself a Kajkavian language course...

Bumo vidli! That means "We'll see!" (in Kajkavian, of course...)

Here she is

This is the actual S.S. Carmania, whose steerage section was home to Ilona and her little son for seventeen days back in 1909. Learn a little more about the ship's own fascinating story here.

A few facts on the S.S. Carmania:

• Built in 1905
• 678 feet long
• 72 feet wide
• Displacement: 19,524 tons
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, triple screw
• Passenger capacity: 2,650 (300 in 1st class, 350 in 2nd class, 900 in 3rd class and 1,100 in the steerage section where Ilona and her son traveled)

Crossing on the S.S. Carmania: Ilona's passage to America

A young 24-year-old mother and her baby son... Cute little fellow, don't you think?

When this photo was taken, in Hungary, young Ilona had a weight hanging over her shoulders that you cannot see in the picture. She knew that when it was the right time, she and her young son must leave her family and the only world that she had ever known and sail across the Atlantic to meet her waiting husband. What a trip it would be!

A few years ago I sat at the computer as I searched the Ellis Island website records for the names of these two travelers on a ship manifest. I was in awe when I found them. There was her name, his name, and other information. It was definitely my great-grandmother and her young son. Take a look yourself at the scanned copy of their original ship manifest as I saw it that day. If you take a look at this document online, make sure you view both pages. (You must register in order to view them, but it is simple and free.)

The ship was the S.S. Carmania. The trip was seventeen days at sea from departure at Fiume, Hungary (now Rijeka, Croatia) to New York's Ellis Island. When you take a look at the ship's manifest you will notice that Ilona is listed as Ferenczne Ujlaki, age 24, and below her is listed her young son, Ferencz, age 2. Ferenczne means "wife of Ferencz" in Hungarian.

Also notice:

• $10 was all she had to her name


• Her ethnicity is listed as Hungarian/German


• Her father's name is listed as the nearest friend or relative from whence she came


• It is difficult to read the final destination - if you can do so, please let me know

I'm so glad to know that they made it safely across the Altantic on the difficult trip. It must have been quite memorable, because in all of her ninety-seven years she never made the return trip.

An island visit

You can now visit Ellis Island as a tourist, take the ferry out to the island, leisurely stroll the grounds and the exhibits, and leave whenever the next convenient ferry arrives. A visit to that island has not been such an easy or enjoyable experience for everyone. My great-grandmother, Ilona (Bence) Ujlaki, for one, found herself detained there with her sick child while she waited to be cleared for entry into the United States to meet her waiting husband. She arrived on March 2, 1909, after 18 days at sea. Her 2-year-old son, Ferencz, became sick with measles while on board the ship. What should have been the pure joy of arrival in the new country (and finally the chance to get off that horrible boat) turned into even more suffering. Because of her little one's illness, he had to be separated from her and quarantined for a short period of time before he could be cleared for admittance into New York. Not too many pleasant memories of Ellis Island for this little family, I'm afraid.