Week 3: Hidaskurt - Mostova - The Hometown of the Marafkos

This is my gripe page.

I had a number of goals planned out for Hidaskurt. The primary goal was to visit surviving members of the family which just didn't happen. In the 2 weeks I was resident there, I met only with 2 other Marafkos and that was by accident.
Well I wrote a 9 page longhand report on my last day there, about why my Hidaskurti relatives would not introduce me to any others in my field of interest. I may just publish that on the net one day soon as I think it would be instructive and a warning to other researchers who may be in the same position as myself. But briefly, the problem arose from a misconception. A quote from Marafko Olga, the matriarch of the family, told to me many times is:

"There are lots of Marafkos, but none of them are our relatives."

I could say in the politest way, that they didn't understand why I came, what 'relative' means, what 'research' meant, what genealogy means and so on.

On the other hand - dark histories, the theft of land during the socialist regimes, power plays by powerful people, false alterations in land ownerships could add to the reasons for their extreme reluctance in helping me. I just don't know. At the end, Olga said to me that the only ones she knows, she's already told me about and that she couldn't talk of others because 'they weren't relatives'.

Now as a reminder, I could not walk for long periods of time. I was still hurting badly and taking strong medications during the day and before sleep. I had no transport unless I was asked to accompany one of them somewhere. They didn't even give me a bicycle to use. I could barely walk to the cemetary and back. In fact, I was at their mercy.

When I asked about a particular person, I was told that they wouldn't be interested - they have no information for you - we don't know them - oh she's too old and couldn't help you and so on. They seemingly had no conception that other branches of the family exisited or even if they did, saw no value in what I did.

It wasn't a total loss though as I had already uncovered a branch of Marafkos in Vaga, just north of Galanta (Hidaskurt was just south of Galanta) before I left. When the Kubicova family came to pick me up, I introduced them to the matriarch. A worker recognised them and the introductions went smoothly, but there was still reluctance to accept them.

I must say though, that I had a great time there, walking in the shoes of my father and his father, appreciating the lifestyles of the people, the way things worked and of course, a lot of the history of the place.

There are lots of smaller villages surrounding Hidaskurt and over the last 250 years, the Marafko family spread out to these villages and intermarried with about 14 different families. As most of the births were registered in the Hidaskurti church, I had very little difficulty in working out the branches. All I wanted was to meet with the remnants of each branch, copy any photos - hopefully pre WWII with captions, listen and record any family histories and interview them about life during the war, the Benes decree and so on. I had no problems with the people I met prior to this and I did visit the Kubicova family twice to take and copy photos and record their branch of the tree.

On the 2nd last day, I accidently bumped into the 'Sylvester' branch of the family during a Corpus Christie church procession (I have named each branch). Marafko Bela of the Sylvester line invited me into his home and gave me a glass of wine while I talked to him about what I was doing. He immediately understood and agreed to have his collection of photos and other documents available for me the next morning at 10 am - the day I was to leave. He told me he had to go to a doctor that day and would arrange everything for me.

Promptly at 10, I knocked on the door and was invited in by his wife who knew nothing about the arrangements. I apologised for their inconvenience and went back to my lodgings. Now the kicker to this story is that this branch lives directly behind the matriarch and are good friends with them! And I find this out at the end of my stay? What gives?

The Corpus Christie Ceremony:

The procession is heading back to the church.

A station of prayer along the route.

There they go back towards the Hidaskurti church.

My accidental meeting with the Sylvester line of Marafkos - Bela's wife left edge, his daughter, son and grandmother - a Dudas.

Dudas Margit - a Meszaros - a relative of my grandmother - Meszaros Maria.

On the last day, I told the matriarch and her family that I was a published author and I was serious in what I was doing, that I will finish the work and I only wanted good. Non-plussed, they gave me some presents and I left.

Well that's it for now. My next post is about my talks to the students of the Tallos ethnic school in the neighbouring village, one of the highlights of my trip.