Nobility

"Neither family is older than the other, except that those who were prosperous had their names painted on parchment, and those who were poor had their names written on a piece of wood at most - when they died. Our ancestors must have been people like that. I know nothing good or bad about them. My paternal grandfather was a locksmith in Sopron and then in Nemeskér. All I know about him is that he was a quick-tempered man and that the family spoke, felt and thought in Hungarian. But they also knew German, because the only book they had was the bible, buried with my father, a German book. And my maternal grandfather was a small landowner and tavern keeper, judge and jury, probably a peasant type of man in Szőllősgyörök. His name was Sándor Nagy. But he couldn't have been a pure peasant either, because he married the daughter of a teacher cantor, who not only knew how to peel potatoes, but could also play the organ. But his forefathers were peasants, knifers from Somogy, not nobles. Our nobility is not from the king, but from God. It begins from the moment my father took up the sword in 1848 and came home from Vienna, offering his fortune and his life to his country. If you are surprised that his name is German, you should know that he always intended to have it Magyarized, but as a man who did not know the ways of public administration, he postponed it year after year. On his mother's side, however, the physical forms of which you bear with me, if you search, you will find such names: Nagy, Csutorás, Henics, Paizs."