My Album: Past Times

Maternal Grandparents (1)

My Grandfather, Bálint Pethő, when a young man, worked as a manual labourer at the rich Horváth farm in Diószeg. He married the eldest daughter of the farmer, Teréz, and went to work at the local station as railway guard. He was a very easy-going man; all his grandchildren loved him dearly.	My Grandmother, Teréz Pethő (neé Horváth), was a rather strict but very kind person. She was the eldest of six siblings, three brothers and three sisters. Her marriage to my grandfather caused a great scandal in the village. We found her a formidable person but she was the centre of the family, even when her children have founded their own.

These are the oldest pictures I have of any of my relatives; they were taken in 1908, when my mother was just two years old. They are, in fact, identity cards issued to the employees of the Hungarian Royal State Railways and to their families. They were of size 2½ × 4 inches. If you click on a picture you can see it in double original size.

The back of the card says:

Hungarian Royal State Railways Identity Card for Bálint Pethő, Railway guard of MAV | Mrs Bálint Pethő, railway guard’s wife as supplement to the owner’s pass for validating its authenticity | her free rail travel concessions granted by the agreement between the managements of the Austrian, Hungarian and Bosnia-Herzegovina Railways. Date Budapest, 27th April 1908 Owner’s signature: Bálint Pethő | Teréz Pethő

The text on the embossed stamp is:

Royal Hungarian Railways