Science/Economics paper by Long, Beth
From Madéfalva to Bukovina to Saskatchewan: Using Y-DNA Testing, Genealogy Software, and the Internet to Connect Bukovina Székely Families to their Canadian Cousins and their Transylvanian Roots
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
About fifteen years ago, a genealogy project was initiated to document all the inhabitants of the five Székely villages founded in Bukovina in the 1780s under the auspices of the Austrian government. These villages existed for more than 150 years until the inhabitants left in 1941 to be resettled first in Bácska,and ultimately in Tolna and Baranya counties after the end of World War Two.
This data has been entered into a searchable computer database, which now contains the data of more than 93,000 individuals, mainly extracted from the Bukovina church registers. Via the Internet connections have been made between Canadian and American descendants and their Hungarian extended families, which resulted in a 2005 trip by a group of 18 Canadians to visit Bukovina descendants in Tolna County and also to Bukovina itself. In many cases, family contacts were made in Tolna County, and, in addition, research has been done in the Romanian National Archives (Csíkszereda and Sepsiszentgyörgy), but with limited success. In any case, these written records go back only to about 1700, leaving open the question of whether Bukovina families of the same surname are genetically related to each other or not.
Just at that point, some new technology came along to definitively answer this question. Y-DNA testing (that is, testing of male-line DNA) became available to the general public for a reasonable price. Y-DNA does not recombine, but is rather handed down virtually unchanged from father to son over thousands of years, making it very valuable for genealogical testing. In the four years since the DNA project was begun, over 200 samples of Bukovina and Transylvania Székely DNA have been collected, with interesting results which give hints about the ancient origin of the Székely as well as making it possible to know which surname lines have the same ancestor and which do not.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
From Madéfalva to Bukovina to Saskatchewan: Using Y-DNA Testing, Genealogy Software, and the Internet to Connect Bukovina Székely Families to their Canadian Cousins and their Transylvanian Roots
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
About fifteen years ago, a genealogy project was initiated to document all the inhabitants of the five Székely villages founded in Bukovina in the 1780s under the auspices of the Austrian government. These villages existed for more than 150 years until the inhabitants left in 1941 to be resettled first in Bácska,and ultimately in Tolna and Baranya counties after the end of World War Two.
This data has been entered into a searchable computer database, which now contains the data of more than 93,000 individuals, mainly extracted from the Bukovina church registers. Via the Internet connections have been made between Canadian and American descendants and their Hungarian extended families, which resulted in a 2005 trip by a group of 18 Canadians to visit Bukovina descendants in Tolna County and also to Bukovina itself. In many cases, family contacts were made in Tolna County, and, in addition, research has been done in the Romanian National Archives (Csíkszereda and Sepsiszentgyörgy), but with limited success. In any case, these written records go back only to about 1700, leaving open the question of whether Bukovina families of the same surname are genetically related to each other or not.
Just at that point, some new technology came along to definitively answer this question. Y-DNA testing (that is, testing of male-line DNA) became available to the general public for a reasonable price. Y-DNA does not recombine, but is rather handed down virtually unchanged from father to son over thousands of years, making it very valuable for genealogical testing. In the four years since the DNA project was begun, over 200 samples of Bukovina and Transylvania Székely DNA have been collected, with interesting results which give hints about the ancient origin of the Székely as well as making it possible to know which surname lines have the same ancestor and which do not.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
computer projection