Somogy County

Helpful Hints by Henry Fischer

• Somogy is an administrative county (comitatus or megye) in present-day Hungary and was also the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary.
• Its territory, which was slightly larger than that of present-day Somogy County, is now in south-western Hungary.
• The capital of the county was and still is Kaposvár.
• Somogy County lies in SW Hungary, on the border with Croatia (Koprivnica-Križevci County & Virovitica-Podravina County)
• It stretches between the river Dráva and the southern shore of Lake Balaton.
• It shares borders with the Hungarian counties of Zala, Veszprém, Fejér, Tolna, and Baranya.
• It is the most sparsely populated county in Hungary. The capital of Somogy County is Kaposvár. Its area is 6,036 km.

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Researching in the Swabian Turkey is often confusing, as the church books were kept at different localities from time to time. Most of those settlements were of Lutheran or Reformed faith, whose churches and pastors were persecuted prior to the Edict of Toleration in 1784. The information below should help the researcher to find out where the church books were kept for individual localities at various times in the County of Somogy.  ~Henry Fischer

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Village Resources & Church Record Transcriptions

Provided by your Swabian Turkey Coordinator Henry Fischer

Researching in Swabian Turkey is often confusing, as the church books were kept at different localities from time to time. Most of those settlements were of Lutheran or Reformed faith, whose churches and pastors were persecuted prior to the Edict of Toleration in 1784. The information below should help the researcher to find out where the church books were kept for individual localities at various times in the County of Tolna. ~Henry Fischer

Somogy (Hungarian) – Schomodei (German) – Šomođska (Croatian & Slovenian)
County – megye (Hungarian) – Komitat (German) – županija (Croatian & Slovenian) – comitatus (Latin)

Church Record Transcriptions for Somogy County

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• The Nordschomodei in Swabian Turkey The term, Nordschomodei, refers to a government district covering the northeast portion of Somogy County. This area was also known by other designations during the 18th and 19th Centuries: Schümeger Komitat or Gespanschaft that are based on the medieval Latin Comitatus Simig(h)iensis.
• Heimatbuch der Nordschomodei: Nordschomodei, Heimatbuch und Geschichte einer deutschen Sprachinsel der Schwäbischen Türkei in Ungarn,
  [homeland book and history of a German-speaking island in Swabian Turkey in Hungary]
  edited by Anton Tafferner, 1973, München. Provides information on the villages in Somogy County.
• Emigration From Somogy County To Slavonia and the United States.
  A sociological take on the disproportionate numbers of Swabians who left Somogy at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and actually provides information on individuals and villages from that area (including my own grandfather).
  Henry Fischer, 15 May 2008

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Villages in Somogy County

Last updated: 09/10/2026