NR/PEOPLE
Twenty-four profiles of people in the record, all deceased and born before 1900: dates, a short sourced biography and, where one survives, a portrait.
Where several men share a first name, the archive follows the numbering of Lendvai’s pedigree, as redrawn in the 2021 paper: Jovan III is the elder Jovan Nikolić, Jovan VI is Jovan Belčić, and Jovan VII is his son the baron, Fedor’s father. The other numbers — Petar IV, Šandor I and II, Mihajlo IV, Fedor I and II — appear in the sources and are used here only to tell men of one name apart.
Everyone listed here is deceased and was born before 1900. Later generations kept their genealogy private, and they are not recorded.
ennobled 1694
The three brothers ennobled in 1694
Manojlo (Emanuel), Petar and Slavon Nikola, and Manojlo’s wife Ana, received Hungarian nobility with arms from King Leopold I on 26 March 1694. Lendvai’s pedigree names a Nikola I as their father. Their descendants lived in Pest, Buda, Ráckeve and Szentendre; some reached Lugoj and Čakovo.
Pilgrim to the Holy Sepulchre; grandfather of the buyer of Rudna
Son of Petar I. The nickname “Hadži” marks a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a far harder journey then than now, which his descendants prized; the 1783 confirmation of nobility recalls it. His grandson Jovan bought Rudna.
active 1772–1810
Trader and school administrator in Osijek; buyer of Rudna (1782)
Documented from 1772 in Osijek as a trader and school organiser, recorded as “Nikola alias Nikolić”. In 1782 he and his father-in-law Todor Janković of Mirijevo bought Rudna, and in 1783 Joseph II confirmed his nobility. Knight of the Golden Spur (1792), counsellor to the appeal courts and head of the Serbian schools in Osijek (1787). Having no children, he adopted Jovan Belčić. In Lendvai’s pedigree he is Jovan III, married to Marija Janković.
1776 – 1828 (1830 in Lendvai)
Adopted heir of Rudna; ancestor of the Banat branch
Born in Zemun, son of a citizen of the town and of Marta, born in Irig. Adopted by Jovan the elder; by the act of 14 August 1804 he took the name Nikolić with the nobility, arms and estate of Rudna. He married first Jelisaveta Karamat, then Alojzija Tekelija, and bought Macedonia in 1825. The family manuscript says: “we are not descendants of old Nikolić; we are actually Belčić.”
14 July 1810 – 10 May 1880
Baron; owner of Macedonia; Savka Obrenović’s husband
Son of Jovan Belčić and Jelisaveta Karamat; owner of the Macedonia estate. He married Savka Obrenović on 16 October 1831 and was made an Austrian baron in 1854. They had five sons — Miloš, Fedor, Milan, Mihajlo and Mladen — of whom Milan and Mladen died in childhood. He died at Rudna.
1814 – 5 October 1848
Daughter of Prince Miloš; wife of Jovan (VII); Fedor’s mother
Daughter of Prince Miloš and Princess Ljubica. She married Jovan Nikolić in 1831 and had five sons. Miklós Barabás painted her in 1845; the portrait is catalogued with the Residence of Princess Ljubica in Belgrade. She died in 1848, when Fedor was twelve.
1817 – 30 March 1878
Half-brother of Jovan (VII); co-heir of Rudna
Son of Jovan Belčić and Alojzija Tekelija; with his brother Šandor he inherited Rudna in 1828. He sold his share in 1875 and withdrew to Žitište, where he died. His wife was Marija Damaskin of Nemet; their son Ivan died without children.
1825 – 1893 (1897 per his son)
Half-brother of Jovan (VII); župan
Son of Jovan Belčić and Alojzija Tekelija. He inherited part of Rudna in 1828 and sold his share in 1873. Several times a member of Parliament and for ten years a župan (county head); he married Agnes Manasije of Hodon. Lendvai gives his death as 23 January 1893; his son says 1897.
1833 – 25 January 1863
Eldest son of Jovan (VII)
Eldest son of Jovan (VII) and Savka, made a baron with his brothers in 1854. He died in Pest in 1863, a young man. A photograph labelled “Báró rudnai Nikolics Milos” on Wikimedia Commons may show him.
7 June 1836 – 27 February 1903
Civil Adlatus of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Royal Commissioner; member of the House of Magnates
Second son of Jovan (VII) and Savka. A lawyer and deputy, co-heir with his brother Mihajlo of Prince Mihailo’s lands in Romania, Civil Adlatus of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1882–1886), member of the House of Magnates, Royal Commissioner to the Serbian Church-National Congress and president of banks and companies. He died at Rudna in 1903.
16 February 1841 – 21 November 1916
Baron; co-heir of Prince Mihailo; adoptive father of Jovan Thierfelder
Born at Macedonia. With Fedor and the Bajić barons he shared Prince Mihailo’s inheritance (1868–73). He married Countess Marianne Kinsky in 1877; they divorced in 1880. He owned a townhouse in Timișoara, gave the 1894 coin collection with Fedor and, in 1905, adopted Jovan Thierfelder with royal consent. The last family member covered by the family manuscript.
* 27 June 1848
Opera singer; Fedor’s wife
Born in Lemberg. An opera singer, praised in 1903 for her talent, beauty and education, and the mother of five children. She outlived Fedor, whose will gave her the use of a large part of the estate. The year of the marriage is 1869 or 1879.
1878 – 1926
State secretary; probable author of the family manuscript
Son of Aleksandar I. In 1913 a state secretary in the Hungarian Interior Ministry, secretary of the presidency of the judicial administration. Markov and Glăvan identify him, as a working hypothesis, as the author of Geschichte unserer Familie.
10 May 1870 – 17 May 1917
Baroness Duka de Kádár
Born in Budapest, the eldest of Fedor and Wilhelmina’s recorded children. She married Baron Géza Duka de Kádár (1867–1913) in Budapest on 16 June 1892; in 1903 he was a legation secretary and a member of the House of Magnates.
* 6 May 1871
Attaché; universal heir of Fedor
Born in Vienna. In 1903 an attaché in the Foreign Ministry and the universal heir named in his father’s will. His later life is not documented in the sources used here. A photograph labelled “Nikolics II. Fedor” (about 1900) is on Wikimedia Commons.
4 October 1877 – 2 December 1954
Countess Hardegg
Born at Väslau near Vienna; in February 1903 already Countess Hardegg, her husband a lieutenant-colonel of hussars. She married three times: Count Eugen zu Hardegg; Moritz von Remiz (Bratislava, 1911); Fritz Reska (Vienna, 1926). The date of her first marriage is recorded as 1889, which cannot be right.
22 November 1882 – 1 or 2 July 1901
Wife of Ludwig Wich von der Reuth
Born in Sarajevo during her father’s term as Civil Adlatus. She married Ludwig Wich von der Reuth in Vienna on 16 June 1900 and died at Riva in July 1901, aged eighteen.
Adopted son of Mihajlo; addressee of the family manuscript
Adopted by Baron Mihajlo with royal consent in 1905, he became an Austrian baron with the predicate “of Obrenov”. The family manuscript was written for him.
18 March 1780 – 26 September 1860
Prince of Serbia 1815–1839 and 1858–1860; Savka’s father
Born at Gornja Dobrinja; Prince of Serbia from 1815 to 1839 and again from 1858 until his death in Belgrade in 1860. He married Ljubica Vukomanović in 1805. Father of Petrija, Savka, Milan and Mihailo, and grandfather of Fedor.
September 1788 – 26 May 1843
Wife of Miloš; Fedor’s grandmother
Born Ljubica Vukomanović; she married Miloš in 1805 and bore him seven children. The Konak built for her in Belgrade (1829–30) is today a museum. She died in 1843 and is buried at the Krušedol monastery.
1808 – 1870
Savka’s elder sister; wife of Todor Bajić of Varadija
Elder daughter of Miloš and Ljubica. She married Todor Bajić of Varadija — in 1834, according to English Wikipedia. Her descendants, the barons Bajić, shared Prince Mihailo’s inheritance with the Nikolić brothers, and the family manuscript speaks of a double kinship between the Nikolić and Bajić families.
21 October 1819 – 8 July 1839
Savka’s brother; Prince of Serbia for a few weeks in 1839
Brother of Savka. He succeeded his father after the abdication of 1839 and died a few weeks later, unmarried and childless.
16 September 1823 – 10 June 1868
Prince of Serbia 1839–1842 and 1860–1868; Fedor’s uncle
Born at Kragujevac. Prince from 1839 until his deposition in 1842, and again from 1860. He married Countess Júlia Hunyady in 1853; the marriage was childless. He was shot in the Košutnjak park near Belgrade on 10 June 1868, and his young cousin Milan was named heir. His property in Romania was divided among the descendants of his sisters in 1873.
1831 – 1919
Widow of Prince Mihailo; later Duchess of Arenberg
She married Prince Mihailo in 1853; the marriage was unhappy and childless, and a planned divorce never took place. After his assassination in 1868 she settled with his heirs, and in January 1876 she married Duke Karl of Arenberg.
