When I was ten years old, my father told me about my great-grandfather.
He had been a gifted lawyer in Hungary, spoke seven languages, and was murdered in Auschwitz. I became fascinated by this man I had never known. Who was he? What was his life like? Where did our family come from? And what had happened to everyone?
Those questions stayed with me.
I began trying to piece together my own family’s past. What started as curiosity became something much deeper: an understanding of what it means to recover a family story fragmented by war, migration and time.
Years later, that personal search became my profession. As a Jewish woman researching my own Hungarian family history, I came to understand personally how persecution, migration, lost records and changing borders can fragment a family story across countries and generations. Today, much of my work is with Jewish families reconstructing those histories while establishing their rights to Hungarian citizenship.
Where genealogy and Hungarian citizenship meet
Hungarian citizenship cases are rarely just about filling out forms.
A case may depend on finding a birth record from more than a century ago, proving where an ancestor lived, understanding a historical name change, tracing a family across borders that no longer exist, or connecting records created in several countries and languages.
This is where my different areas of experience come together.
I studied law for three years at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Faculty of Law, in Budapest. After my marriage, when my husband completed medical school, we moved abroad and I left the law program. Although I did not complete the degree, that legal education has continued to shape the way I approach complex citizenship and documentary cases.
I later completed an MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies at the University of Strathclyde.
Since 2010, I have worked with individuals and families researching Hungarian ancestry and navigating Hungarian citizenship procedures. I work extensively with Hungarian historical and administrative records and particularly enjoy the cases where the obvious document is missing and the family history has to be reconstructed piece by piece.
A particular connection to Hungarian Jewish genealogy
Hungarian Jewish genealogy is especially close to me, both professionally and personally. Many of the cases I handle involve families whose lives were shaped by the Holocaust, migration, changing borders, naturalization, name changes and the upheavals of twentieth-century Central Europe.
For many families, the documentary trail does not run directly from Hungary to the United States, Canada, Australia or elsewhere. Israel was often an important chapter in the family story. Family members may have immigrated to Israel, married there, had children there, changed names, or obtained Israeli civil-status documents before later moving elsewhere. Because I am familiar with Israeli archives, civil registration and government documentation as well as Hungarian archival and administrative systems, I can help trace and obtain records across both the Israeli and Hungarian documentary systems when they are needed for a citizenship case.
In these cases, genealogy is not simply about locating an ancestor’s birth record. The entire family history must be reconstructed carefully and understood in its historical and citizenship context. Migration, naturalization, changes of residence and nationality, and the borders in force at a particular time can all affect the citizenship analysis.
My work combines professional genealogy, historical research and precise knowledge of Hungarian citizenship rules with practical experience navigating Hungarian and Israeli records and authorities.
Languages have always been part of my work
Being able to work directly with records in their original languages helps me understand names, terminology and historical context that can sometimes be lost in translation. I have always loved languages and the worlds they open, and genealogy is one of the fields where that passion becomes an important professional tool. I speak several languages, including Hungarian, English, Hebrew and German, which are particularly valuable in my work with Hungarian and Jewish family histories. Records relating to the same family may appear in different countries, archives and languages, sometimes even within the same generation.
I taught Hungarian at the University of Haifa and personally prepared applicants for the Hungarian-language component of the simplified naturalization process.
Today, Hungarian-language preparation is provided by my team under my supervision. This allows us to coordinate the different parts of a simplified-naturalization case – genealogy, documentation, application preparation, and Hungarian – rather than treating them as unrelated tasks.
Professional research. Personal involvement.
My practice has grown, and I now work with a trusted team of researchers, case managers and Hungarian-language professionals. But I have deliberately kept my practice personal. I remain closely involved in every case we take on.
I review the strategy, follow the documentary chain and become particularly involved when the evidence is unclear, a record cannot be found, or an unexpected historical or citizenship question arises. My clients are not simply handed a checklist and expected to navigate the process themselves. We coordinate the genealogical research, obtain and review the necessary civil and archival records, arrange translations, prepare the application, liaise with archives, consulates and the relevant Hungarian authorities, develop the submission strategy and, where relevant, coordinate Hungarian-language preparation.
My team supports me throughout the process, but I personally supervise the strategy and professional direction of every case we accept. I have deliberately chosen this model rather than operating a high-volume citizenship service. It allows me to work with a limited number of clients and give each case the attention it requires.
My service is designed for clients who want their case professionally managed from beginning to end — not for those looking for a do-it-yourself application service.
For families dealing with complicated histories, multiple countries, missing records or questions of historical citizenship status, that level of involvement can be particularly important.
Clients work with a team, but they never disappear into a system.
Complex cases are often where genealogy becomes most valuable.
Why this work matters to me
Every family has a story, but many of those stories have been fragmented by war, migration, changing borders and time.
Genealogy is never only about documents. A birth record is evidence, but it is also a trace of a life. A marriage record connects two families. An old address can lead someone back to the street where a grandparent once lived.
Citizenship has a practical side, of course. But for many of the people I work with, it is also a way of restoring a connection that history interrupted.
That is why I approach this work with both precision and care. The documentation has to be right, but the people behind it matter too.
