Population of Petelea

  Set at crossroads, in a fertile area in the Mures Valley, in Petelea, there came different populations belonging to different ethnic groups, that can be traced forth to the present day. Starting with the XII century, upon the already existing Romanian population came the Hungarians, as masters. Petelea was a royal domain, where, starting with the XIII century, Saxons were colonized. The Saxons (German immigrants) were to enjoy special rights, compared to the Romanians, of whom most were serfs, and belonged to the poorest populations. Then, we believe that, beginning with the second half of the XV century, when the Gypsies were mentioned around Reghin, they may have appeared in Petelea, too.Over the territory of the locality, there have passed other populations, some as invaders, like the Tartars, some others in order to find a place to settle down, like the Armenians. They were political and economical refugees from the Moldavia, seeking shelter in Transylvania, where they were indeed accepted. Such a group of people came from central Moldavia in 1672 during the rule of Duca Voda. They came through the Bicaz Pass, descending through the Mures Valley towards Batos, Gurghiu, Petelea, Suseni, Reghin.

 The first reliable information concerning the number of people living in Petelea come from 1724, when a statistics points out 91 farms that may have sheltered 455 souls. the Imperial statistics from the XVIII century, and later statistics and population counts, give us more exact information about ethnic groups, occupation and religion.

  In 1762 we note the existence of about 60 Romanian families, grouped by religion, 18 Greek-Catholic, 42 Orthodox families, in all about 300 Romanians, who meant about a half of the locality's population, the other half being Saxons (German settlers).

 The number of people is growing so that in 1785 there were 1040 inhabitants, in 1869there were 1911 inhabitants.

  For a better overview let us have a look upon some of the modern census, starting with the ones from 1881. We will see the following situation concerning nationalities:

 The years with the most registered births: 1920 with 79 births, 1922 with 76 births.

  The years with the least registered births: 1895 with 14 births and 1944 with 9 births, evidently World War II time, and the leave of the Saxons (German settlers) from September 1944, a number of 220 families, representing half of the population.

  The years with the most registered deaths: 1896 with 88 deaths, probably an epidemic, and 1913 with 74 deaths, compared to 1953 and 1960 with only 9 deaths each.