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Archiver > HUNGARY > 1997-11 > 0878407679


From: Joanne Nagel Connolly <>
Subject: Re: Arranged marriages
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1997 10:07:59 -0800


Maybe "arranged marriages" are related to marriages to "recommended
women". When my grandmother SZALOZSANY Anna died in childbirth in 1918
in Trenton,NJ, and subsequent wife IVAN Erzsebet died in childbirth
1922, my grandfather BARRA Mihaly, widowed with a small child (my
mother), immediately married KOVACS Helen, age 17 or 18, as caretaker.
My cousin, (Helen Kovacs' grandson) tells me Helen Kovacs was a
"recommended woman", - one whose parents were happy to "marry off".
It does not seem to have begun as a "love marriage" (although they were
married for the rest of their lives), but rather began as a marriage of
economic convenience, even necessity.
I'm certain we cannot imagine how marginal our immigrant grandparents'
lives were when they arrived in America, and how they must have made-do
with life problems here. Anyone else heard of 'recommended marriage'?
Regards, Joanne Nagel Connolly, Miami

sfck wrote:
>
> A while ago, there were a few post regarding arranged marriages in
> Hungary. I read them, but didn't save them. Wish I had. I just found
> out this afternoon, that my grandparents marriage was arranged, however,
> they were married in Michigan. My grandmother was born in Hungary, and
> my grandfather's parents were both born in Hungary. I was not aware of
> arranged marriages here in the states. I am wondering, when the
> arrangement took place, and wouldn't it mean, if it was an arranged
> marriage, that the families knew each other beforehand? This marriage
> took place about 1926 give or take a few years, when my grandmother was
> about 16 or 17 years old.
> It makes me wonder, because my grandmother came to the states abt, 1912,
> lived in New York for a few years, then settled in MI. My grandfather
> was born in OH, but his parents immigrated from Hungary, before 1909 ,
> and they settled in OH. So where did this arrangement take place? They
> were living in two different states.
>
> Anyone who has any knowledge of this, such as what was a ' typical'
> arranged marriage, and were there alot of families who did this even
> after leaving Hungary?
>
> I'd appreciate any information.
>
> By the way, my grandmother's name was Julianna Szegfu and married John
> Benadict Sprentz, Sr.

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