Mária Mocsáry

Béláné Mocsáry (1845–1917) was a Hungarian geographer and one of the first people from her country to write extensively about her journeys to Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. Sometimes she called herself Mrs. Bélán Mocsáry, Mária Fáy.

Biography She was born in Pomáz, Pest County, Hungary, on 21 October 1845 with the name Mária Fáy. The daughter of landowners Ignác Fáy and Franciska Kenessey, her mother died when Maria was only one year old, so her father and her father's former guardian, the writer András Fáy, jointly took charge of her upbringing. The financial resources for her lessons were provided by income from the family's land holdings. Between the ages of eight and twelve, she lived in Pest, and then returned home to her father's house in Pomáz, and learned several foreign languages, handicrafts and piano. When she was 14 years old, Maria's father took her to visit Venice, Italy, which ignited her passion for travel, which would keep her on the move for the rest of her life.

She married Béla Mocsáry in 1862 and she adopted her compound name: Béláné Mocsáry Mária Fáy. With her husband, she lived in a small village in Nógrád County, where she enjoyed gardening. In their spare time, the couple would travel extensively, notably visiting Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, England, and Germany. However, her husband died in 1890 and Béláné Mocsáry, who had no children, never remarried. Instead, she went to South America visiting Córdoba, Orizaba, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Acapantzingo, Guanajuato, and Querétaro. of which she was a member. (When the society was founded in 1872, it admitted women as members and claims to have been the first scientific society to do so.) Mocsáry is known to have delivered lectures about her travels to society members at the specific request of their president. Mocsáry, Béláné. Journey to the East (1901) Mocsáry, Béláné Fáy Maria. My Journey on the West Coast of North America. (1902) Mocsáry, Béláné. My Journey to Mexico: Travel Notes (1905)