THE RUMANIANS AMONG THE FIRST RUTHENIANS WHO SETTLED BAČKA AROUND THE 18th CENTURY

Abstract

The paper elaborates the period of the first organised immigration of the Greek Catholic Ruthenians from the north-eastern districts of Hungary to Kerestur in Bačka, which at that time was called Nagy Keresztur (Ruski Krstur today), with whom also came some Orthodox Rumanians. Since by the settlement contract only Greek Catholic Ruthenians were allowed to settle there from 1751 onward, the district authorities did not allow the Orthodox Rumanians to stay at the same place. Because of that, some Rumanians moved to other settlements to live side by side with the Orthodox Serbs, while some accepted the Greek Catholic faith and stayed in Kerestur.

This paper, using the data from the census taken in Kerestur, traces the number of the Rumanians from the second half of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, when there were eight Rumanian families living in the village. At the beginning of the 20th century the citizens of Ruski Krstur only vaguely remembered that the families Erdelji, Manjos and Vlah were of Rumanian origin, because they had been completely assimilated by that time.