This talk summarizes the results of genealogical research done by the author – a linguist and academic from Hungary – which she has conducted in the past five years to uncover her own family’s history of mostly peasant ancestors in 18th-19th century rural southern Hungary. These results are then discussed in terms of the micro-historical, social-historical, and epigenetic contexts of modern (Central European) identity.

Anna Fenyvesi is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of English and American Studies, University of Szeged, Hungary. She lived in Pittsburgh from 1991 to 1996, working towards her PhD in linguistics at Pitt (which she received in 1998). She is a sociolinguist with an interest in the Hungarian language use of American Hungarians, bilingualism, and digital language use. She is a self-taught genealogist with over five years of experience in family history research. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, doing research into the linguistic heritage of American Hungarians in Appalachia.