Barbara Kiss

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The roots of the Weisz family can be traced to Zala County in Western Hungary. Houdini’s father, Samuel Weisz, claimed that he was born in Nagykanizsa. At a date which is not known, he moved to Pest, where he married his second wife, Cecila Steiner, in 1863. Let us pause for to explain an important detail here. The city now known as Budapest did not exist before 1873. The geographic locations of Pest, Buda and Old-Buda were united in 1873 to form the metropolis known as Budapest.

There is a handwritten page in The Houdini Birth Research Committee’s Report (HBRCR) which consists of a letter by John Henry Grossmann describing a visit he made to Budapest with his wife, Marya. They made the trip in search of the birth record of Harry Houdini. His assistant in this endeavor was Rodolfo – a name he mentions three times in the double-page entry. Henry Grossmann travelled to Budapest at some point in the 1960s.