Angela, I am not certain that I explained this before, so forgive me if I had. Prior to the end of WW I, Hungary was part of the Habsburg Empire aka Austria Hungary, which inc all or parts of the modern countries of Austria, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Czech Rep, Slovakia, Roumania, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro. That old Empire had 12 official languages. After WW I, c. 1920, the victors and the Habsburg Empire (the loosers) "signed" the Trianon Treaty, which created new countries and reduced Hungary by perhaps half. What we need to understand is that the US was NOT the first multi-ethnic society in the world! And that someone coming from that old Habsburg Empire could have been identified as having a Nationality of Hungarian or Austrian. In the early 1900s Nationality simply meant "the country of which a person is a citizen or subject of". If you look at many (not all) Ellis Island ship manifests there will be 2 columns one for Nationality (citizenship) and one for Race or People, which today we call ethnicity. There is little chance that if he were Slovak he would have identified himself as Magyar. Perhaps you need to do a bit more research before you become overly concerned with what his ethnicity was! Suffice it to say at this point anyones conjecture as to his ethnicity if futile. Some more research in the US may help. For instance I think of some questions such as... 1) while the name of the town was crossed through, can you make out any of the letters? What does it look like? 2) What was his wife's name? 3) when did he arrive in the US? 4) where did he attend church in Cleveland? 5) where did he live in Cleveland? Robert Jerin JANDA143@aol.com wrote: Dear List, Thanks to the help from this list, I received the petition for my John HEGEDISH yesterday in the mail! This gives his birthdate, the town has a ~~~ through it, but it states HUNGARY! It states the day he arrived and the day he "declared his intention to become a citizen." There is a handwritten notation, "Alien under 18 years of age No. 3324" and then it is signed on the same date, which is the same date of his declaration. Would that be because he was under 18 at arrival? It shows his occupation as a tin plater???? Back to one of my earlier questions: Slovak vs. Magyar. Is it possible that his wife was Slovak and that is why he said that he was? (family stories are such that she was quite the lead foot in the family~not very kind, to put it mildly) This document does not show the town, therefore I hope to rely on baptismal records of the children to figure it out. Besides the baptismal records, does anyone have any good ideas? Angela Grand Rapids,MI ==== OHCUYAHO Mailing List ==== Virus warnings RootsWeb's mailing lists are filtered and attachments are not allowed. 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If you are using an e-mail program that stores attachments elsewhere on your computer, such as Eudora, find it there and delete it too. ============================== Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx Interested in visting Croatia? Click on the link below to find out about a wonderful tour of Croatia! http://www.kollander-travel.com/