Who’s Who in Budapest, 1837, 1845

Name List · Budapest (Pest) · 1837, 1845

At the beginning of the 1980s, taking advantage of newly acquired computer learning, Peter I. Hidas began studying the nineteenth-century demography of the Hungarian Jews. He gathered most of the necessary data in the archives of Budapest, namely in the national and the city archives. His findings, a statistical analysis of the urbanization of religious groups in mid-nineteenth-century Hungary, were presented at a conference in Jerusalem in January 1988. In 1992, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published the study along with the works of other historians under the title Jews in the Hungarian Economy 1760–1945, ed. Michael K. Silber. The essay “Hidden Urbanization: The Birth of the Bourgeoisie in Mid-Nineteenth Century Hungary” can be found on the internet at www3.sympatico.ca/thidas/Hungarian-history/Jews.html.

Not all of the research material was incorporated in the original study. In the archives were found several enumerations of the Pest Jews. These lists were prepared by the authorities for taxation purposes and to establish legal residence in the town. The 1837 roll contained the listed person’s occupation, legal status, town of birth, and date of arrival (Budapest Föváros Levéltára, Pest Város Levéltára [Budapest Capital City Archives], Tanácsi Iratok [Council Papers, Archivum novum, 1814–1847, 1837]).

The 1837 roll was matched against an 1845 list found in the Hungarian National Archives (Feudális-kori kormányszervek osztálya [Department of Feudal Age Government Organs] (I. osztály) [First Department], C szekció [C section] Helytartótanácsi Levéltár 17.sz.1848 (1913), C 55, Departmentum Judaeorum, 1724–1876). Here each person’s yearly income was also added. The list was further followed up in the contemporary press (Pester Lloyd) and various registries (e.g. Chamber of Commerce) and the prominent members of the business community in the works by Professors Charles Vörös and Vera Bácskai (Károly Vörös, Budapest legnagyobb adófizetöi 1873–1917 (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1979); Vera Bácskai, A vállalkozók elöfutárai [The Forerunners of Entrepreneurs] (Budapest, Magvetö, 1989)).

There are 1,380 records in the database. The list is not complete but numerically close to the number of Jewish families present in Pest in 1837. In 1833, there were 1,356 Jewish families (6,983 persons) in the town. It is hoped that many researchers will find traces of the family they are searching for, in order to put more leaves on their family tree.

The database consists of the following fields:

This database is searchable via the JewishGen Hungary Database or the JewishGen Unified Search.

Data compiled and edited by Peter I. Hidas, Ph.D.
Last updated March 2003.