Ghampi wrote:I have to disagree with your point about ones origins being quickly lost. As far as I've found, my ancestors were all ethnic Germans, and resided in the Kingdom of Hungary since at least the 1600's. My grandparents and great-grandparents were expelled in 1946, their mother tongue was German and Hungarian was only learnt in school, not at home. .....The culture of Germans in Hungary was not only conserved, but flourished for most of their history. It wasn't until the late-1800's that ethnic Germans in Hungary began to lose elements of their culture, due to pressures placed on them by the Hungarian government.
I bow to greater knowledge. Although I'm British I also have German roots but it's so far back (>200 years), it's gone forever really from us.
The Germans are still around here where I am and in many villages but I tend to think the first language is Hungarian now, not German. Interestingly a work colleague just showed me a document written in English by a French person with a Hungarian last name! Who knows what is going on there. So there are many Hungarians, all over and widely dispersed.
I suppose your relatives being ejected in 1946 was as a result of the Russian takeover and ethnic cleansing. Mrs Fluffy's grandparents were also hiding out in Germany apparently during the actual war period. I can only speculate that perhaps there were two phases of name changing. One around the 1920s for the Kingdom of Hungary nationalism and perhaps a second wave post WW2. There's only really 20 years between them so perhaps it's possible. But yes, indeed they also did the Janos from Johann type change too I understand.