Authentic sources
We build on period daily and weekly newspapers, articles, and original documents — presenting the past as it was once experienced.
Custom research
Every collection is the result of unique research: surname etymology, settlement history, and contemporary historical background tailored to the given occasion.
Antique, period-authentic appearance
We compile the materials in a period-authentic, newspaper-style format so that the final result is not merely a gift, but a true historical document.
Personal story
We put your family or personal history at the center — we also help with oral history interviews, audio transcription, and paleographic work.
Dr. Géza Ádám Bittsánszky
founder, sole proprietor
Our work is based on patient, source-based research. We draw on archival and press materials, as well as period newspapers, which we supplement with information on etymology, local history, and contemporary history. We treat every commission as an independent, unique research project to ensure that the final result is accurate and personalized.
We recommend our services to anyone who would like to present a special, historical gift to mark a milestone occasion, or who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of their own family or personal history. Our scholarly services—surname etymology, local history, oral history, transcription, and paleography—also assist with in-depth research.
Introduction to the Office
Decades-long history
La Famiglia Historical Office, a sole proprietorship operating under a trade name, has been engaged in social science and educational activities for several decades. In the period before the widespread adoption of digitization, we sought to make documents that were difficult to access available on the World Wide Web, largely through manual processing.
In the course of this work, we have found that there continues to be a high demand for tangible, non-digital items that help people look back on a period from decades ago, as is the case with old newspapers.
At that time, only libraries offered reprographic services; however, this method could only produce simple photocopies, and because clients lacked the necessary expertise, they were not even aware of which documents to search through in order to extract the most valuable content.
The Office sought to fill this gap by undertaking a comprehensive effort to compile chronological historical collections, in which it gathered the documents most characteristic of the era in connection with a specific date, and supplemented the package with a historical description that helped interpret the content of the articles, which appeared in national and regional daily and weekly newspapers.
Since a generation cannot be defined solely by political history, the collection also covers topics in cultural history, the history of science, the history of technology, the history of fashion, and humor. What made this collection unique was the inclusion of personal information about the honoree; the documents allowed readers to commemorate the honoree either within the text or on the front page with a photo and greetings, and the publication could also be supplemented with a collage compiled from available family photographs, which often served as the cover or back cover of the newspaper compilation.
Our Scientific and Educational Services
Since the Office’s mission extends beyond making historical documents accessible to include scholarly activities such as researching the meaning of family names (etymology), local history, the translation and transcription of old documents, and the recording of oral accounts from family ancestors (oral history), we strive to incorporate these services into our educational work whenever possible.
By incorporating these services, we can make the results of our service even more personalized, and they may indeed be of interest to descendants as well.
Through our work on etymology and the history of settlements, families gain a more accurate picture of their role in Hungarian history and the lives of their ancestors, and they are better able to appreciate the achievements that have allowed the nation to survive—achievements to which they themselves have contributed. In fact, it is our mission to uncover historical facts in hidden sources such as family names or the history of settlements, not to mention those old documents that their owners can no longer decipher due to changes in handwriting; but we provide the means to transcribe these texts and translate them from Latin as well.
Accordingly, our target audience consists of people looking for historical gifts, as well as citizens who wish to learn more about their own family and personal histories. We work with partners who have professional experience in providing these services.
More than twenty years of experience
Over the course of more than twenty years of work, in addition to producing numerous newspapers featuring contemporary historical compilations, we have identified approximately eight hundred family names, and we have written an equal number of local history accounts, which, in addition to synthesizing existing knowledge, also include the results of our own research.
Based on the positive feedback from our clients, we carry out our activities in a stable yet continuously developing manner. Our newest services now lead into the auxiliary sciences of history, such as paleography, the translation and transcription of old charters and documents, as well as the practice of oral history, through which the personal experiences of our elderly fellow citizens can be preserved primarily for their descendants.
It is a common experience that families don’t think to ask their elders about the old stories until it’s too late, and so these stories are either lost over time or fade into the mists of uncertainty without ever being put into writing.
Our Competitive Advantage
Our competitive advantage lies in our decades of experience, our professional training as historians and librarians, and our unique capabilities, which enable us to provide high-quality services in contrast to profit-driven mass-market products.
Our goal is to enable Hungarian families to make the widest possible use of their family records and knowledge, and to create value by preserving traditions—value that, incidentally, can take the form of gifts.