431 East 16th Street, Manhattan

...was the address of the Ujlaki family in 1920. It is the first appearance of Ferencz & Ilona in a U.S. Census that I could find, although I'm sure that they must have been counted in the 1910 U.S. Census (although I cannot find this record, possibly because of spelling errors or similar difficulties).

We have a beautiful family portrait of the Ujlaky family just a few years before the 1920 census. (Click on the picture to view the family up close.) The portrait was probably taken around 1916 or 1917. Pictured are Helen & Frank Ujlaky (formerly Ilona & Ferencz Ujlaki) with their children: Wilma, Mitzi, Helene & Frankie. The back of this portrait is actually a postcard addressed to Mr. Maik Gayer at 433 E. 16th Street. I assume this was a neighbor of theirs.

By 1920, Frank had been in the U.S. for fourteen years. Helen and little Frankie had been in the U.S. for eleven years. As I mentioned in my previous post, Frankie was now 13 years old, and had three little sisters listed in the census along with him: Helen (whom we know as Helene) age 9, Mary (Mitzi or Marie) age 8, and Wilhelmina (Wilma) age 6. (According to Helen's grand-daughter Helene Gregory Helm, the couple also had a baby named Anna who was stillborn in 1918.)

The census lists Frank's occupation as carpenter making wagons. According to his daughter, he was a talented artist and craftsman. He was a wheelright and built wooden wheels, which took much mathematical precision. Also according to his daughter, at one time Frank built Mack trucks out of timber before they were made of metal and aluminum. When the trucks went from wood to steel, he was out of a job and had to work odd jobs as a carpenter.

Below is the writing on the back of the above portrait. Can anyone translate this from Hungarian for me?

The king

Today is the feast day of St. Stephen of Hungary on the calendar of the Catholic Church. Well, actually it is celebrated on August 20 in Hungary, so consider this an early reminder.

St. Stephen of Hungary is BIG for Hungarians. You know the Irish and how they honor St. Patrick, I'm sure. Well, if you have any Hungarian heritage, St. Stephen is just as big for you.

Born in the year 975, Stephen was the ruling Prince of Hungary from 997-1000 and became the first King of Hungary from 1000-1038. Hungary celebrated 1000 years of statehood in the year 2000, and St. Stephen is still the most well-remembered and beloved Hungarian ruler. Stephen was canonized by the Catholic Church as St. Stephen of Hungary in 1083, along with his son, St. Imre. Here is an excerpt from St. Stephen's advice to his son Imre. Not bad words of wisdom for all of us.

My beloved son, delight of my heart, hope of your posterity, I pray, I command, that at every time and in everything, strengthened by your devotion to me, you may show favor not only to relations and kin, or to the most eminent, be they leaders or rich men or neighbors or fellow countrymen, but also to foreigners and to all who come to you. By fulfilling your duty in this way you will reach the highest state of happiness. Be merciful to all who are suffering violence, keeping always in your heart the example of the Lord who said, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Be patient with everyone, not only with the powerful, but also with the weak. Finally be strong lest prosperity lift you up too much or adversity cast you down. Be humble in this life, that God may raise you up in the next. Be truly moderate and do not punish or condemn anyone immoderately. Be gentle so that you may never oppose justice. Be honorable so that you may never voluntarily bring disgrace upon anyone. Be chaste so that you may avoid all the foulness of lust like the pangs of death. All these virtues I have noted above make up the royal crown, and without them no one is fit to rule here on earth or attain to the heavenly kingdom.

On new countries, new babies and a wedding

Let's recap a little bit of the life of Ferencz Ujlaki and his wife Ilona as a newly married couple before we get to the next part of their journey: their life in New York City.

• February 15, 1905 - Ferencz Ujlaki & Ilona Bence were married at the Catholic Church in Legrad, Hungary.


• April 12 - May 2, 1906 - Ferencz traveled to America - a 20-day journey on the Ultonia from Fiume (Trieste), arriving in Ellis Island, New York. (As I mentioned in this earlier post, this information is probably correct, although his name and place of origin is mispelled. I would like to find other documentation to prove that this is actually him.)


• May 9, 1906 - Baby Ferencz is born in Legrad, Hungary.


• February 13 - March 2, 1909 - Ilona & 2-year-old Ferencz travel to America - an 18-day journey on the Carmania from Fiume (Trieste), arriving in Ellis Island, New York.

At that point, the little family was reunited and the new life that Ferencz had begun in Manhattan was continued along with his wife and young son. As I mentioned here, I cannot read the information on the Carmania ship manifest that indicates the address to where Ilona was going upon arrival. It must have been the address where Ferencz was living in Manhattan, but I have not been able to read it.

The year after Ilona's arrival in New York, the 1910 U.S. Census was taken: the perfect opportunity for us to learn where this young family settled. However, I have not been able to find them in the census for this year. If anyone of you would like to take a look yourself, please let me know if you find them! (Their names may be mispelled and not appearing on the indexes that I have used to search.)

We do know that the couple's second child, also named Ilona (later known as Helene) was born in 1910, a little over a year after her mother and brother's arrival in New York. We have a beautiful portrait of this young family at the wedding of Peter & Maria (Gaspar) Gres. Although I'm waiting for confirmation from church records, I believe that the couple was married at St. Stephen of Hungary Catholic Church in Manhattan sometime in 1913.


Pictured in the wedding are portrait along with the bride and groom and some unknown wedding attendants are Ilona seated on the left and Ferencz seated on the right. Little Helene and Frankie are standing near their mother and father, respectively.

"Mrs. Grace", as I understood her name when I was a child, was actually Ilona's first cousin once-removed. (Ilona the mother, not Ilona the daughter later known as Helene.) Ilona's mother, Magdalena (Bedenices) Bence, was the sister of Maria Griesz' grandmother. (If I've confused you with this family tree, try writing it out on paper or plugging it into Family Tree Maker software - visual aids are very helpful when it comes to family history.)

This beautiful portrait amazes me for several reasons - Ilona's elaborate hairstyle and the beautiful clothes that she and her husband and children are wearing. As new immigrants, I'm sure that they had very little in terms of money and possessions, but they did a beautiful job with what they had. The children must have been much admired at this wedding. Sadly, Peter & Maria Gres never had the blessing of having children of their own. Instead, Maria spent many of her later years living with Ilona at the home of Wilma and her family and had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the comings and goings of many generations of family members, myself included.

Taxi!!!

On this day in 1907, 100 years ago to be exact, the first motorized taxicab took fares in New York City. Chances are that Ferencz Ujlaki, a new immigrant the year before, probably never saw this first taxi or the other 65 that serviced the streets of New York City that year. But by 1923 (the year after he became a U.S. citizen) there were already 15,000 taxis serving New York City. I'm sure he was well aware of them by that time.

A little more New York City taxi trivia for you on this historic date in taxicab history:

• At an early peak in 1931 there were 21,000 taxicabs serving New York City (according to Schaller Consulting).
• Today, there are approximately 32,000 taxicabs serving the Big Apple.
• The average number of miles that a New York City taxi travels in a 12-hour shift is 180. (Info thanks to World Almanac 2007 Daily Calendar.)
• New York City yellow taxis will be "going green" by the year 2012 - by that date the entire New York City taxi fleet will be made up of hybrid vehicles, reducing carbon emissions for the city.

Are you one of the millions of customers that has taken a NYC cab lately?

For those of you in or near New Jersey...

Now through September 2 the Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation (300 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ) will have an exhibit on display that might be of interest to you. "From Budapest to Allentown: A Hungarian Artist in America” is a display of the works of John Kurz. Born 100 years ago in Hungary, and ending his life as an American citizen, his work began in realism but ended in more abstract art. His works and life story are on display at the museum for a few more weeks. Check out the museum website at http://www.ahfoundation.org/ or call (732) 846-5777 for more information.
If you can't make it to the exhibit in time, or are not much interested in this man's artwork, you might like to make a trip to the Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation to see the rest of its collection. According to the website, "the museum's collections capture the flavor of Hungarian immigrant life with a fine art, folk art and folk life focus. The center's short-and long-term exhibition area of 10,000 square feet features shows of Hungarian naive art, one-man shows of American and Hungarian artists and photographers, as well as special aspects of Hungarian-American history, art, culture and traditions. Program services include tours for the public, schools and special interest groups, library research, traveling exhibitions and related lectures." The website mentions items in the collection including coins, paintings, medieval manuscripts, photographs and more.

Sounds like a great place to do a little research on Hungarian and American Hungarian immigrant culture! Please let me know if any of you make a visit.

Knock, knock...

Two-hundred and seventeen years ago yesterday, on August 1, 1790, census-takers went door to door knocking on homes in the young United States of America and the first official U.S. Census of the United States was completed. If you're old enough, you may remember participating in one or more yourself. (The last U.S. Census was completed in the year 2000.)


The U.S. Census is a goldmine for family history researchers and it was one of the first places I started when I began looking for information about our family. At this time, the most recent census information available to researchers is the 1930 census, and I started there and went back each decade as I learned more about different branches of our family. Each census year provides a little bit different information, including home addresses, family members' occupations, ages, birthplaces, and more.

Below is an image from the 1920 Census of Frank & Helen Ujlaky and their family residing at 431 East 16th Street, Manhattan, New York. Listed are their children Frank, Helen, Mary and Wilhelmina, ages 13, 9, 8 and 6. The census lists Frank's job as "Carpenter: Wagons".



If you are interested in taking a look at original census records yourself, you can access them free via Ancestry.com at most local libraries. If you have a library card, you can access the census records from your home computer via most local library websites' connection to Heritage Quest online. (Unfortunately, Ancestry.com does not allow remote access for library users, and their subscription prices are pretty steep.) Some census records are also available online at the LDS Family Search website. Each site has a different search engine so sometimes you can find your family census records on one site when you can't find them on others.

Family Tree Magazine's website has some easy to use downloadable forms for the U.S. Census and other family history purposes. Print out a stack of these for each census year that you are taking a look at and it will make it easier to understand what you are reading.

I hope you'll enjoy trying your hand at a little family history research yourself. Please let me know if you make any exciting discoveries!