Dear oversea Relatives!

Appeal, request

I would like to ask my Dear fellow researchers if they find the Szelestey name in any document, if it is not taking them any extra trouble, to be so kind and note the source and the subject in 2-3 words and send it to me in an e-mail. Mainly I’m thinking about family fonds and letters from Szelesteys.

My other request is for everyone, if anybody possesses or finds anywhere any picture, painting, photo or any articles for personal use or any ornaments that can demonstrably be related back to the Szelesteys please notify me. I’m not a potential buyer because my financial resources are limited also my goal is not the passion for possession I would only like to encounter. Unfortunately not one material relic had survived, or at least we did not come across any. A photo or a short muster would be a great experience. The last station was the house in Uraiújfalu where the recordkeeping branch extinct with Pál in 1893. This is where the 700 years old material of the Szelestey archives or rather what survived from it got into the archives. Thank God quite a lot. According to the records there were also paintings of the ancestors. It would be the experience of a lifetime to stand in front of any of them. It would be a fantastic experience to be able to hold the for many hundred years handwritten the Medical book of the Szelestey’s which was given by the aforementioned Pál to Mihály Németh head shepherd and medicine man, his father gave it to Sándor’s employee later gifted it to his coworker. From him József Bencze doctor the autobiographer of László Szelestey got it as inheritance. Then it vanished from my eyes.

About Elza Szelestey we only know that in the beginning of the 1900’s she performed in the Theater of Pozsony, Miskolc and Pest. Her family ties are unknown. It is the same with Károly Szelestey who was born in Nagytöre in Bars County on the 1st of February 1847. He was a Soldier later gendarme lieutenant-colonel in Székesfehérvár. György Szelestey vicar of Kapornak +1782 about his family ties I only have assumptions but the identity of his parents are still unknown, in spite the fact that he had an extended family in Zala county. The family branch of Ferenc Szelestey pandúr first-lieutenant who moved in Veszprém at the end of the 1700’s. I could only follow the descendants of his two sons Ferenc and Károly until 1860 after that they vanished from my sight without a trace. László Szelestey chief notary, superintendent, representative etc. (1821-1875) about his second wife we know only that not soon before his death did László marry her in Pest and after the death of her husband she remarried, be we don’t know her name.

I have a special appeal to those relatives with whom I couldn’t get into contact yet, either I don’t know about them or my letters missed them or they were not interested in us, maybe someday they will change their mind. Please contact me and share with us your family history either in brief or in longer, show pictures of your kinship. As I’m writing in the foreword of my chronicle for us every family member is equally important. Not the public reputation, the greatly successful life career is the standard but the blood tie which willingly or unwillingly connects us. It is very unfortunate that with the death of the elders such memories, pieces of experiences vanish that the next generation has no knowledge of or the pictures, documents that are meaningless to them end up in the trash. Their absence cannot be replaced so they leave a void in the family’s history not only for those members concerned with the past but also for us or rather for our descendants thus hurting the integral whole. In my chronicle of the Szelestey family which is in the making I would like to give the most complete picture of our family.

Among the American Szelesteys uncle Charls and aunt Leitizia are over 100 years of age, here at home aunt Ilonka is in her 90th year. On the pictures only my closer family is visible, not because of exhibitionism but because I did not get permission from the others. Who doesn’t object to the publication of his own or of his family’s pictures please notify me and send me a copy of the pictures. In my opinion the pictures fill the dry words with life. Of course who doesn’t want his pictures or any other relics to be presented to the general public but would share them with the family can also reach us on a private address.

Our grand but yet hopeless wish is the restoration of the 13th century frescoes of the Church of Ják, before they completely disappear. Firstly the main altarpiece of Saint George the Dragon Slayer. We think it is not only a local interest but the country’s interest because it would greatly increase the value of a tourist attraction. There would be no need to build something grandiosely new but an existing value needed to be furbished which is of course not necessarily easier. We also know that there are currently more vital tasks but we feel that with due “advertisement campaign” with raised awareness the restored frescoes would increase the tourist traffic with an order of magnitude, which would affect the whole surrounding area.

We were also thinking about a solution that each fresco would have a range of patrons whom would specifically bind their donations to a specific painting which would be noted so the donors would be more closely tied to the creation.

I would like have a heraldic page, to I’m awaiting pictures of coat of arms from everybody of their family’s, relatives’ or of those that are simply in their possession. So the Hungarian family coat of arms could be researched at one place.

Veszprém -Ják
24. May 2011.

Attila Szelestey P.
Guardian of the Past