THE 1522 BAČKA SERF POPULATION ROLL Due to extremely fortunate circumstances, the serf population rolls along with their obligations to Bačka, Bodroš and Čongrad’s county are available to the historians of today. The above mentioned...
moreTHE 1522 BAČKA SERF POPULATION ROLL
Due to extremely fortunate circumstances, the serf population rolls along with their obligations to Bačka, Bodroš and Čongrad’s county are available to the historians of today. The above mentioned obligations occured during the tithe census in 1522. Although only partially preserved (for instance, the preserved roll material covers approximately 60% of the Bačka county settlements, and in the case of the other two counties it covers even a smaller proportion of the territory), the list of names still contains precious and rare information in connection with the economic, demographic and onomastic history of today’s Bačka from the beginning of the new century.
Indeed, it is the best source of a statistical character from the 16th century for the territory of southern Hungary. The roll data give evidence in regard to the interim period during which a characteristic decline in the social and economic development level occured in relation to the previous ones. However, in relation to the Ottoman rule period, which followed, it still represented a higher level of the social and economic development, with a rather differentiated society, cultivated land and numerous settlements. On this occasion we have restricted ourselves to the onomastic analysis of the Bačka county roll only, due to the voluminous data that the roll provides. The research results encourage us strongly to even expand the geographical and thematic scope of this subject further.
Within the present analysis we included 2,095 names of listed chieftains. The general impression, on the basis of the obtained results, suggests that the observed area was a developed and consistent one when it comes to economic and social terms. Demographic, economic and social indicators state that the level of the above mentioned area development was higher than the one during the period of Ottoman rule, i.e. the continuation of its development achieved before the 1522 was the one that was not going to occur again until 18th century.
One of the indicators of that area relative development is the fact that the process of creating of the two-part names in the time of the Bačka county roll was in its final stage and that we have acquired the basis for our claim (based upon the uses of the surnames among the widows, based on the fact that the chieftains with the same family names are listed one next to the other, due to the consistent separation of the family names from the names of the functions, etc..).
Then we have found out that the surnames, back in 1522, were predominantly being inherited with the surf population, i.e. that the real family names originated from their nicknames. An interesting surname structure, by the motivation of their inception, testifies upon the much more developed labour division, upon the society differentiation, the existence of numerous crafts and a variety of other professions, so we have also noticed the names regarding the church, judiciary and executive power. However, there is also a noticeable number of surnames incurred in connection with military responsibilities. One part of the names refers to the existence of migrations, while they were (at least the ones that went in the direction of the observed area) of mostly shorter range, up to 30 kilometers, between the studied counties. The roll records even smaller-scale migrations from the direction of the Balkans, Baranja
and others, and the most frequent target of the migrations were the trading centres Sond and Bodrog. Unfortunately, an insight into the migrations, from the observed areas into the other counties, due to the Turkish threat cannot be gained according to the roll.
There is also a somewhat surprisingly small number of surnames indicating the ethnonyms, but there is some logic in it: the ones, retreating before the Ottoman threat, probably did not settle themselves right next to the border, in order to avoid the Turkish re-oppression. On the other hand, if we take into consideration that Srem,
at the time of the roll, was already under heavy Ottoman attacks, just a small number of the listed Srem population has ever raised issues regarding the reasons for such a situation: was it due to the methodological problems or specific historical circumstances? So, we have tried, with all the necessary precautions taken, to assess the ethnic origin of the names in the roll. According to the results of the analysis the three-quarters of the population have the Hungarian surname, approximately ten percent of them have the Slovenian ones, three percent have the German, Jewish, and others, and for the twelve percent of the surnames the ethnicity could not have been determined. A dominant Hungarian majority and the social environment, at the time of the roll, testifies that the settlements back then had the names of Hungarian origin or if that was not the case it testifies that they were written in accordance with the spirit and rules of the Hungarian language. It was the same with the names of handicrafts, occupations and functions, which were also recorded in the Hungarian language. The family names fund from the roll is very similar to the current Hungarian one. So, the roll does not include any or it hardly includes many of the German, Slovak, Romanian, Serbian, and other foreign surnames that are being so characteristic for the family names fund of these regions since 18th century. On the whole, it can be concluded that this roll is extraordinarily valuable and certainly deserves further detailed study of the economic, demographic and social aspect of the one.
