Slovakia Within the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The map above shows the ethnic groups of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1910. The brown area in northern Hungary is the homeland of the Slovak people. My paternal great-grandparents came from the eastern part of the brown area. Note the proximity of Poles (purple) & Ukrainians (yellow). I know my ancestors didn’t come from these other ethnic groups because they spoke the Slovak language.
Despite the great variety of peoples and language groups within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, governmentally it functioned as a single entity. Politically, my ancestors were Austro-Hungarian and subject-citizens of same. Here, Austria is shown in pink and Hungary in green. (Blue is Bosnia-Herzegovina.)
This map shows the nations that made up the Austro-Hungarian empire. The Empire of Austria consisted of Bohemia (1), Bukovina (2), Carthinia (3), Carniola (4), Dalmatia (5), Galicia (6), Küstenland (7), Lower Austria (8), Moravia (9), Salzburg (10), Silesia (11), Styria (12), Tyrol (13), Upper Austria (14), Vorarlberg (15). The Kingdom of Hungary consisted of Hungary proper (16, which encompassed all of Slovakia), and Croatia-Slavonia (17). Austria and Hungary had jointly annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina (18).
Technically, Slovakia was part of Hungary in the late 19th century. In the US, however, my ancestors were often identified as coming from Austria. Both were true. Similarly, between 1863-4 until 1914, most of present-day Poland was part of the Russian empire. So there were Poles but technically no Poland then.
All images from Wikipedia, here, here, and here.
This is the first in a series of pages I’m writing about my origins.
Click here to go to the top “Origins” page.
Click here to go to the next post, “The Slovakia Census of 1869.”
30 July 2015
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Very helpful in understanding why one set of my husband’s Slovak great grandparents have the Very Polish name Dualsky. Thanks. We are still wondering how the possible Italian Wenturas (or Ventura) got to Slovakia!
I’ve been told that the mountainous border between Poland and Slovakia has always been porous. A native Pole told me that even in Communist times, Slavic women would go to market in Poland, where they were distinguishable by the colors of their babushkas.
Hi, I just found out that my great grandmother was born in Neu-Walddorf Austria-Hungary which is now considered part of Slovakia. Excited to learn more about where she came from (she settled in Philadelphia early 1900s.) Susanna Schmogner and Bela Enyedy came to Philadelphia and had two children, John O. Lysinger and Bertha Engedy. -Great granddaughter, Melissa Barrow
I have found the same thing regarding my great grandparents who came from Maly Sulin in what is now Slovakia but some information has them coming from Austria.