A Note about Harczvolva, Czeckloslovakia

 

Harczvolva, Czeckloslovakia

 

The oldest member of the Stern family whom I have located is Yusrael David Stern. He is reported by Marion Russ and others to have come from Czeckloslovakia. His son, Herschel Stern, was reportedly born in Harsfalva, Czeckloslovakia. (It is likely that Yusrael David also lived in Harsfalva.)

 

Hasfalva, sometimes spelled Harczvolva or Harcfalva, is now known as Nelipina (also spelled Nyelipine, Nelipino, Nelipyno, etc.) and is located in Ukraine.

 

Harsfalva is in Bereg Megye (a megye is a county)

 

A note on the meaning of “Harczvolva:”  The last part of the name could be “falva” or “falu”, meaning “village” and which is a common ending for many Hungarian places, usually preceded by a descriptive, such as “uj” which is new, or “kis” which is small, etc. The front part of the place name could come from such words as “Herceg” meaning duke or prince, or “harc” which means battle.

 

Here are some resources for more information about Harsfalva:

 

For some basic information on Nelipina, please see:

http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/ukraine/map/p513896/nelipyno.html

 

Harsfalva can be seen on a pre-WW I map of Bereg County, elsewhere on this web page.

 

Harsfalva is also referred to in the 1911 Baedeker’s Austria-Hungary, Page 502 in the paragraph headed by Munkacs, 375.8 mi. WSW of Kiev.  It is referred to as Szolyn-Harsfalva.  The Baedeker’s can be viewed elsewhere on this web page.

 

Munkacs, Hungary

 

Bertha Stern, the grand-daughter of Yusrael David Stern, was reportedly born in Munkacs, Hungary. Munkacs is now a town called Mukachevo and it is also in Ukraine.  Munkacs and Harsfalva are only about 30 miles apart.

 

Munkacs was a well-known shtetle. For some great information about it, see: www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Mukachevo/

 

Mukachevo, the modern name for Munkacs, is a large city which you can find on any map of the area. It was formerly the second major town of Bereg County in Ruthenia.

 

A lot of Jews from this region reportedly emigrated 1880 or so to 1920 or so to Pittsburg and McKeesport, Pennsylvania and worked in the steel mills.

 

 

About the Region Generally

 

Munkacs and Harsfalva are in the Carpathian Mountains. They are in the so-called sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, at the northern edge of the Hungarian plain, just north of the Hungarian border and just east of the border with Slovakia. People speak Ukrainian, Hungarian, or Slovak.

 

For more information about this are, see: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Carpathian_Ruthenia

 

and

 

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/History+of+the+Jews+in+Carpathian+Ruthenia

 

Is Harsfalva part of Czeckloslovakia or Hungary or Ukraine? Both Munkacs and Harsfalva were in the Szolyva District (jaras), of Bereg County (megye), in “Greater” Hungary before WW I. Harsfalva was therefore known as Szolyva-Harsfalva. That is, until 1919, Hungary was the Hungarian part of the Austria-Hungary Empire. After WWI, the whole territory became Czechlo-slavakia. From 1939 until 1945 (i.e., during WW II), it was part of fascist Hungary. From 1945 until 1991, it was part of the Soviet Union. And it is now Ukraine.

 

Zakarpatska Oblast is now the name of the whole region. (However, during the Hungarian rule, unofficially its name was “Karpatalja". It means the same thing: “Region-at-the-feet-of-the-Carpathians”.) In 1991 it became part of Ukraine. It is not clear when the name of the town was changed to Nelipina. This history came from many sources, including Peter Winter, a genealogist who lives in Budapest.

 

Thus, it is most accurate to say that we are Hungarian (on the Stern side) and that we come from a place that is now part of Ukraine.

 

For a great map, see http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/austhung.htm. This map is reprinted elsewhere on this web page.