Growing up I was told, “We are German, but my grandparents were born in either Austria or Hungary. As it turns out, all 4 of my grandparents were all born in what was then the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. One was born in present-day Austria, one in present-day Slovakia and two in present day Hungary. All of my grandparents were Danube Swabians and all spoke German, so I always identified as German until I did a DNA test and started researching my family tree.
I discovered a few things:
1. My last name “Krafty” was originally “Krafcsik” – my grandfather changed it after coming to America and his fellow steel workers had a hard time pronouncing his name.
2. My lineage in Hungary that I was able to trace so far goes back to at least the 1700s, so am I German or am I Hungarian? I now consider myself to be both and my DNA test confirms that.
3. My grandmother and her one sister both immigrated to America, but she had a brother who remained behind in Hungary. This was confirmed by both genealogy research as well as a picture my mother had of when some relatives visited Hungary in 1974.
4. I hired a genealogist who was able to find and connect me with relatives till living in Hungary and some still living in the same house my grandmother was born and raised in.
As part of my genealogical research, I came across a website that told me I could acquire Hungarian citizenship through “simplified naturalization” provided I could prove Hungarian lineage. Easy enough I thought, and an EU passport is very valuable to an American who loves to travel. And then I read further; I had to learn to speak Hungarian!
The company who was helping me the simplified naturalization process referred me to Helpers Hungary (the owner Renata Forgacs is also presenting at this conference). They offered me one on one lessons via Zoom. Even though I had read many places that Hungarian is one of the toughest languages to learn for an English speaker and I had never heard even one word of Hungarian (except for palacsinta), I was very excited… until my first lesson! But I had the desire now that I discovered living relatives in Hungary and I was retired, so I told myself that I had no excuse.
A little over a year later, I was confident enough in my speaking abilities to go for my citizenship interview at the Hungarian Consulate in New York City. My interview was on July 28th, and I am happy to report that I “passed” and am awaiting the paperwork to be cleared in Budapest and to be invited to come back for the citizenship ceremony.
I will be back in Budapest at the end of of Danube River Cruise in late September.
