Meaning of "Servant" in 18th and 19th Century Hungarian Censuses

[Hilary Stein Osofsky hilary2@aol.com]

X-No-archive: yes
There are two censuses of Hunszdorf (now Huncovce, Slovakia) that contain
unusual references to servitude with respect to my ancestor/s, Marcus
Wolf/f, for which I've been unable to obtain a meaningful explanation --
although perhaps the translation is at the bottom of this.

The census of 1771 describes Marcus Wolff as being "in Hungary since 1729;
servant of the Jewish community."

And according to the census of 1838, Marcus Wolf was "extremely poor,
occupation as a servant to endure."

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has any insight into these
comments.

Thank you.

Hilary [Stein] Osofsky
Orinda, CA
WOLF Bucovce,  Huncovce, Jelsava, Kosice, Kral'ova Lehota, Liptovsky
Hradok, Maly Slavkov, Nehre, Nizne Ruzbachy, Porubka, Revuca, Sulin, 
Satu Mare, Visne Ruzbachy
NUERENBERGER Frankova, Hagy, Krizova Ves, Olublo, Podolinic, Spisska
Stara Ves, Vysne Ruzbachy, Zalesie, Zilina
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[Eric M Bloch bloch@wi.rr.com]

X-No-archive: yes
In response to Hilary's query, in this case, Marcus WOLF was listed as a
"servitor communitatis Judaicae habens conventionem."Google roughly
translates this as "service of the Jewish Community having executed
agreement." Another man was listed in this same census as the Rabbi, so
Marcus may have been a contracted administrator or caretaker of the
synagogue, or served the Jewish Community in some other capacity.

For Marcus WOLF, the 1838 Census says, "extreme pauper, servitus vitam
sustentat," translated by Google as "extremely poor, serving sustains
life."

These censuses were transcribed many years ago, before resources such as
Google Translate were available, which accounts for the slight
difference in translation.

In other cases where occupations are identified in these censuses,
"servant" in the modern sense applied.

Hope this helps.

Eric M. Bloch, Coordinator
Other Hungarian Census database
Milwaukee, WI

---
From: hil...@aol.com
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2018 21:04:01 -0500

There are two censuses of Hunszdorf (now Huncovce, Slovakia) that
contain unusual references to servitude with respect to my ancestor/s,
Marcus Wolf/f, for which I've been unable to obtain a meaningful

explanation - although perhaps the translation is at the bottom of this.

The census of 1771 describes Marcus Wolff as being "in Hungary since
1729; servant of the Jewish community."

And according to the census of 1838, Marcus Wolf was "extremely poor,
occupation as a servant to endure."

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has any insight into these
comments.

Thank you.

Hilary [Stein] Osofsky

[news@dreader36.news.xs4all.nl news@dreader36.news.xs4all.nl]

X-No-archive: yes

(Eric M Bloch bl...@wi.rr.com) wrote on 20 Jan 2018:

> For Marcus WOLF, the 1838 Census says, "extreme pauper, servitus vitam
> sustentat," translated by Google as "extremely poor, serving sustains
> life."

Google translate is *not* a good translator of Latin.

I would translate that as:

"Being quite poor, he earned his livelihood as a servant."

In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire [even now] the term "servus" ["slave"]
was used as an informal greeting, probably stemming from a class or
employent difference, so "servitus" ["slavery"] would not have had the
feeling of the original Latin.

--
Evertjan Hannivoort.
The Netherlands.
exjxwxhannivoortATinterxnlxnet
(Please change the x'es to dots)