Budapest, Tuesday, May 25

The day started ominously but finished with a bang. We awoke to overcast skies and the sound of lightning and rain. But, by the time we had breakfast, checked out, and loaded the bus, the sun was beginning to break through occasionally. The rest of the day was mostly sunny and warm until evening, when we encountered a heavy thunderstorm, including hail, on our way to Pilisvorosvar. Even before this, the fields were all very wet with lots of standing water. From what we here, it has been raining regularly here for weeks.

Lee had been feeling low for the last couple of days and thought she needed some help, so we stopped at a pharmacy on the way out of town. We took a wrong turn almost immediately and worked our way back to our intended route by using some side roads, including about 5 km on one gravel cart path that had some of the group pretty worried about getting stuck. But, it was packed hard and was not much of a problem except that we had to go pretty slowly due to all the potholes and puddles. We finally got back to the main road, drove less than 5 km and encountered a long detour. We finally reached our first stop almost one and a half hours late.

The first few stops were for Frank at Mor, Pusztavam, and Csakbereny. Fortunately, Frank did not really expect to find anything genealogically important and I had allowed a fair bit of time, so we were able to view the churches and drive through the towns and make up enough time to make our noon appointment.

At noon, we met Istvan Back, an old friend that we met on our first rip. He had arranged to have the church opened in Kozma, a village of interest for Mary Ann. He boarded our bus and we drove to Kozma where we found the home of the lady with the key. She opened the church and demonstrated its renowned acoustics by giving a brief a capella singing performance. It was very special. Some of us also climbed the hill behind the village for a for a most pleasing view of the countryside.

After dropping off Istvan, we went on to Szar, where Betty had arranged a meeting. On our 2008 tour we had planned to attend Mass here, but arrived late. We were all standing in the entrance when the service ended. Maria (Hasenfratz) Macher introduced herself and was surprised to learn that we had come from North America to visit her village. Betty corresponded with her through translation (She speaks German, but not English.), leading to further correspondence with the Mayor, Eva Garon, who is quite fluent in English. We were to meet them and view the church books. Mayor Eva told us that we would go to the parish house (sort of like a church hall, but in a house, not a gymnasium) for some coffee and cookies. The house and church are 250 years old. Mayor Eva hinted at something bigger going on by saying that she did not know the details, but that Maria had planned something. A few other ladies followed us as we were ushered into a large meeting room where we were served coffee, wine, and cookies.

Soon, other people started arriving, two or three at a time. Before long the room was packed with Hasenfratzes! Betty was beside herself with excitement and the rest of us weren’t far behind. It was a magical moment that you had to experience to appreciate. Although we couldn’t communicate, you could feel the love in the room. We spent over an hour celebrating friendship and family.

Reluctantly, we set off for Budapest because Betty had arranged another meeting for the evening. We dropped about half the group off at the hotel because it was already about 6 pm, and the rest of us carried on to the meeting.

Betty had emailed the Pilisvorosvar Mayor’s office and been referred to Zsusanna Krupp, who has excellent English and has been helping Betty via email. Zsusanna took us to meet the Mayor, Istvan Gromon. The two of them spent about an hour with us, trying to understand and solve Betty’s genealogical problems. The Mayor made several phone calls to people he knew who might know something about the Hasenfratz genealogy. They told us that they frequently receive similar inquiries and try very hard to help people in search of their families. Finally, we went to a house that his mother has furnished with original artefacts as a hobby museum. It was quite a collection, but we could not take the time to enjoy it fully as it was nearing 8:30 pm. We finally arrived at the hotel at about 9. We had hoped to depart at 7:30 tomorrow, but Johannes must rest for eleven hours by law, so it will be 8:00 again.

Our hotel is very nice again. The bedroom is separate from a sitting room with a fold out bed. Miles and I have a HUGE balcony. It sounds like the rooms of the others are equally nice, but I don’t think anyone can touch our balcony.