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OVERVIEW

The History of the Bart[h]alos Family of the Mog[h] Clan

The settlement

The progenitors of the Bart[h]alos family, the Mog[h] clan, are mentioned in historical records ever since such records were regularly maintained in Europe. These documents, preserved at the National Archives of Hungary in Budapest ("Magyar Orszagos Leveltar" in Hungarian), indicate that by the early 1200s they were settled in the western part of historic Hungary, belonged to the nobility and occupied a large tract of land that they owned by royal decree. Their land was not far from and to the north of the Danube River in an area that currently forms part of the Slovak Republic and is referred to as Csallokoz in Hungarian.

Pope Innocent the Third refers to the “predium Dominicus de Mog/h” (the estate of Dominic of Mogh). in two letters written to archbishop Bertold in Hungary in 1212 and in 1215 (Fraknoi, V.: Monumenta romana episcopatus Vesprimiensis. Vol. 1, pp. 25-26 and 31-33, 1896). This entity might be identical with the nobleman’s estate described in a survey (circumambulation) ordered by King Bela the Fourth in 1260 and has been variously referred to as Mogh and Mod and was located in the county of Pozsony. After a period when the names Mogh and Mod were used interchangeably, Mod and its variants such as KysMod (Little Mod), NagyMod (Greater Mod), and FelMod (Upper Mod) were in use for about 300 years. Around the fifteen hundreds the name undergoes another permutation and is now written as Mad in the official documents.

In accord with the changes in the settlement’s name the people who inhabited it were variously designated as being of Mog/h, or of Mod, or of Mad (in Hungarian: moghi, modi and madi).

Today the official name of the settlement is Mad both in Hungarian and in Slovak. Mad was part of historic Hungary until the end of the First World War but today it falls within the boundaries of the Slovak Republic. Its inhabitants, however, are ethnic Hungarians.

Social Organization of the early inhabitants

The people who founded present day Hungary entered the Carpathian Basin from the east around 900 A.D. They were largely nomads and had a tribal-clan system. They represented a coalition of some seven tribes and the tribes, in turn, were composed of clans ("nemzetseg" in Hungarian and "gens" in Latin). Members of the clan were related by blood along the male line. The newly occupied land was divided up among the different tribes. It is believed that the area where we find our progenitors in the 1200s was settled some 300 years earlier by the Lel or Lehel tribe and by the Huba tribe (Kiszely,I.: A magyarok eredete es osi kulturaja, 2000).

Within the tribes the most important people were the free warriors who made up the fighting force. When the Hungarians gave up nomadic existence and settled down in the Carpathian Basin , the free warriors and their extended family were given land to settle and to cultivate as a unit. In return for their privileges they were obligated to go to war with the King when the need arises. Each family owned their land as a group; individuals did not owe land and could not inherit land. The land remained the property of the extended family from generation to generation whereby duties and obligations were assigned to each individual by senior members of the group. They worked together, celebrated together and mourned together. The glory of one brought recognition to all and the weakness of one was also felt by the rest. Members of a "large family" thus were held together by their blood relationship, by their shared name, by their shared property, and by their shared legal responsibility (Laszlo,Gy.: Emlekezzunk regiekrol, 1979).

The former free warriors, once settled, continued their free status and acquired the somewhat misleading new designation of “varjobbagy”. When on Western influence the institution of nobility was established in Hungary, the now settled and landed descendants of the former free warriors constituted the first group of nobles, the ancient nobles ("osnemesek" in Hungarian) (Kristo,Gy., Barta,J. and Gergely,J.: Magyarorszag tortenete eloidoktol 2000-ig, 2002).

The family known today by the name Bartalos is an offshoot of the ancient noble family known as Mogh. Unearthed documents suggest that the name giver of the family was not a mythical person but and individual who lived at the end of the 12th century in Hungary . His name was written most often as Mog or Mogh, he was prominent nationally and internationally and is mentioned in contemporary historical documents between the years of 1192 and 1210. (For more information on this please see “Mog[h] – Our Presumed Founding Father”.)

Medieval Conflicts with Invaders from the East

During Hungary ’s medieval history two events stand out due to their negative consequences to the nation; these were the invasion by the Mongolians (Tatar) in 1241 and the hostilities with the Turkish Empire in the 1500s and 1600s. A fateful event was the battle that took place on August 29, 1526 near the city of Mohacs . Here a Hungarian army of about 25,000 faced a Turkish army consisting of about four times as many well trained and well equipped fighters. The Ottoman Turkish army under the leadership of Sultan Suleyman II (a.k.a. Suleyman the Magnificent) won a deciding victory over the Hungarian army. In less than two hours 20,000 Hungarians were killed. Among the dead were the King of Hungary , Louis II, and, according to family tradition, three Bartalos brothers.

For the next 150 years, until 1686 to be exact, the central part of historic Hungary , including the capital city of Buda, remained under Turkish rule. During this time the western, northwestern and northern parts of the former Hungary , a crescent shaped area, became to be referred to as the Hungarian Kingdom with Pozsony (Bratislava, Pressburg) serving as its capital.  For the rulers in Vienna, this area served as a buffer zone between them and the Turks. During the Turkish occupation of the central portion of Hungary the northwesterly  Hungarian Kingdom had to accept Habsburg influence and dependency from Vienna while the south-eastern part of Hungary, known as the principality of Transylvania (called Erdely in Hungarian, Transylvania in Rumanian, and Siebenburgen in German) enjoyed semi-independence, paid tribute to the Turkish Empire and was spared from devastation by wars or direct occupation.

The western and northern parts of the former Hungary were dotted by numerous defensive installations to engage and contain the Turkish forces. Today one can still see the ruins of many of these castles.  Here periodic incursions by the Turks and defensive fighting by the Hungarians were the rule. It was in this area where our ancestors had to survive the 150 years of hostilities with the Turkish occupiers. This arrangement however worked well for the Habsburgs as the Turks managed only twice to break through the defenses in Hungary and march all the way to Vienna . In both instances, however, by the time they reached Vienna their forces proved too weak to overtake that city.

From Mogh to Bartalos

The Moghs repeatedly received royal donations of land, mostly for meritorious military services. One of these occurred on May 18, 1453 when Mate's sons Bart(h)olomeus and Marcus of Naghmod received a donation from King Ladislaus (Laszlo) V. It is believed that in the late 1400s the descendants of this Bartholomeus transfigured the name Bart(h)olomeus through Bartalan and Bartal into Bart(h)alos and adaptad this for a family name. (For more details please read the section "About the Name 'Bartalos'".) To this the prefix "nagymadi" – meaning “from Nagymad” - was added to denote their noble status and origin. Thus, from the early 1500s, the descendants of this branch of the Moghs were identified as the Bart(h)alos of Nagymad or, in Hungarian, “nagymadi Bartalos".

King Ferdinand III on June 12, 1655 confirmed the historical ownership of the possession Nagymad by the ancestors of Gergely (Gregory), Janos (John), Gyorgy (George), Matyas (Matthias), Jakab (Jacob), Pal (Paul) and Mihaly (Michael) Barthalos, along with Istvan, Balint and Adam Markus, Istvan, Janos and Mihaly Vaczy, Pal Bozoky, Gergely Laszlo, Matyas and Gergely Gergely, Mihaly Baga, Mihaly Mady, Marton Kovats and Istvan Poda and reconfirmed the full and unrestricted right of these descendents to it. (Erroneously this document is referred to in some writings as a land grant. No new land has been granted by this document, only existing rights have been reconfirmed and made to apply to the currently living descendents of the original grantee.)

In the following century King Charles VI. likewise issued an order, dated October 24, 1719, in Vienna to the religious chapter of Pozsony to prepare a document to affirm the rights - to - possess - by descent of Nagy-Mad by Istvan, Gergely and Imre Bartalos of Bogya, and Peter, Gyorgy, Janos, Istvan and Andras, and Gergely and Istvan Bartalos of Nagy-Mad, as well as Ferenc, Pal and Imre Markus, Gergely Vaczy, Gyorgy Bozoky, Gergely Laszlo, Istvan and Gergely Nagy alias Gergely, Ferenc Mady and Gergely Kovacs, all then residents of Nagy- Mad. This document, which incorporated within word by word the entire document issued by king Ferdinand III in 1655, was issued on June 14, 1720 by the chapter of Pozsony. Thus by 1720 the village of Magymad or “Greater Mad” was still in the possession of those listed above who were descendants of the founder Mogh and were residing there. While the above listed by then adapted different family names they were very much aware of their common descent along the paternal line and this was acknowledged by this royal document.

However their common ownership of the village could not have survived much longer. The laws were changed and individual land ownership became the law. As the land was subdivided between the family members, they could dispose of their land as they pleased to. As the buyers did not need to be family members, this led to a more mixed composition of the village landowners and thereby also of the village’s population.

In 2000 I visited the village of Mad where still everybody spoke Hungarian. There I found living direct descendants of the ancient Mogh - Bartalos people. Unaware of their glorious heritage, generation after generation they humbly continued the cultivation of their ancestral land, which provided the livelihood for their direct ancestors for 800 plus years. Yet they maintained their family's tradition. Like their ancestors they interrupted their work to respond to calls to protect their country when the need arose. In the cemetery of Mad close to the entrance gate is a prominent memorial that honors the soldiers from the village who died fighting for Hungary during the first and second World Wars. Among these we find two with the surname Bartalos. Mr. Jozsef Bartalos, an elderly gentleman of the village showed us a photograph from World War One depicting his father Gyula Bartalos [1887-1946] in the company of another Hungarian soldier. He was one those who went to fight in World War I and was fortunate to return alive.

The Barthalos of Varbogya

Records suggests that from the early 1300s, or perhaps even earlier, an exodus from Mogh took place which was most likely induced by a combination of wanderlust, participation in military campaigns rewarded by land donation in other parts of the country followed by resettlement by the awardee and his family and the inability of local economic resources to keep pace with population growth. This process continued after the Bart(h)alos name was adapted and is still taking place today.

One exodus took place on May 21, 1551 when Simon Bartalos of Nagymad and his sons Benedek, Peter, Janos and Mate bought land in nearby Varbogya in Komarom county and moved there. On February 2, 1563 their land holding was reconfirmed as a donation through the issuance of a certificate by Gabor Olah, archibishop of Esztergom and representative of King Ferdinand I. This constituted the beginning of the branch of the Bartalos family referred to as the "Bogyai". (This certificate has been preserved by the Hungarian National Archives.) Some of the descendents of Simon Bartalos retained the Barthalos name with the Bogyai or Varbogyai prefix while a branch, which moved to Zala county where they received renewed nobility and land grant, began calling themselves Bogyay of Nagymad and of Varbogya ("nagymadi es varbogyai Bogyay" in Hungarian). Descendents of this Bogyay family were responsible for depositing over 2000 family documents in the Hungarian National Archives (at that time part of the National Museum ) in 1906. Thus the explanation why so many Barthalos family papers are found at the National Archives under the grouping of the “Bogyay family archive”.

The Bartalos in Szap

In the late 1600s Gyorgy Barthalos of Nagymad and Varbogya - who was one of the individuals named in the royal edict of 1655 and was a descendent of Simon Bartalos, who moved from Nagymad to Varbogya in 1551, - appeared as a landholder in a nearby village, called Szap (in Slovak: Sap), then part of the County of Gyor. He had two sons, named Istvan and Ferenc, who were from different marriages. These sons settled in Szap and left several descendants. I was much delighted to meet some of these people when I visited Szap in the Summer of 2000. My closest relative there was Piroska Takacs, the daughter of my father’s sister, whom I liked very much as a child and called Aunt Janka.

In our family line my father, the late Dr. Mihaly Bartalos (1902-1945), was the last person who was born in Szap. After our expulsion from Slovakia in 1939 we moved to Hungary and settled in the city of Edeleny where my father worked as a physician and died in 1945. My children and I are direct descendants of the above mentioned Ferenc Bartalos of Nagymad who made Szap his home in the late 1600s.

For more information about our branch of the Bartalos family please refer to the section "Our Family in Szap/Sap".

A more detailed discussion on the formation of the major branches of the Bart(h)alos family since the royal edict of 1655 can be found on pages 36-45 of the Hungarian language book "Nemesek faluja: Szap" (in English: Szap, the Village of Nobles) written by Ferenc Vegh, el

[Written by Michael K. Bartalos, M.D., New York City, 2005]

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