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We arrived in Budapest on the morning of August 28, 2003. The direct flight from New York City the night before was pleasant and uneventful and the flight crew on board the Malev jumbo jet (Hungary's national airline), gave us our first taste of the warm hospitality of the Hungarian people.
We rented a car at the Budapest airport and decided to spend our first two nights at a hotel halfway between Budapest and our real destination—the Hogya family hometown of Lácza. Our magnificent accomodations was the Hotel Palota, a former castle—now luxury hotel—in the historic town of Miskolc.
This may as good a time as any to mention that I don't speak a word of Hungarian, or Magyar as it is more properly called. But my Aunt Elaine can—enough at least to get the locals to help us get our bearings, which was often. My Aunt (my father's sister) shared my passion for uncovering the Hogya family roots and can be seen here attempting to get me out of another personal episode of "Lost."
Before leaving New York City, I hired a terrific interpreter named Imre Harasztosi to meet us in Damóc, a town right next to Lácza. Damóc was home to the Catholic Church my ancestors attended. Before setting foot in Lácza for the first time, Imre enlisted the help of the parish priest to help us uncover our family's history. Here, he translates the cornerstone of the old church building for us. |
With Imre and the parish priest's help we began a door-to-door inquiry where some of the oldest villagers were asked about the Hogya family in Lácza. Incredibly, many of these elderly residents had never been out of the small town in their lives. A few recalled the family name and one even mentioned the existence of a family carpentry shop that had once been a fixture in the small town. Eureka! My ancestors in Lácza were carpenters.
Lácza was established in 1787. A few decades ago, it was combined with another small nearby village named Cseke to form a larger town, which can be seen on modern maps as Láczacseke. I can't begin to tell you how inspiring it was to see this sign for the first time. But nothing could prepare me for what was to come.
I live in a large house with five bedrooms. There are three bathrooms and an in-ground swimming pool just off the patio in the backyard. We have a separate spacious dining room and a large family room with a plasma screen television hooked up to a surround sound stereo system. But #15 Lacza was perhaps the most beautiful house I had ever seen. The entire building could fit inside my garage. It had just four small adjoining rooms: a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom.
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