Nyitra County
The exact origins of the family are unknown. Some authors believe the Elefánthy to be a branch of the Ludány kindred, which itself was a branch of the genus Hont-Pázmány. The eminent 18th-century polymath Matthias Bel, in his "Notitia Hungariae novae historic-geographia", writes that a 12th-century ancestor of the family was part of King Coloman's delegation to Sicily to propose a royal marriage. This ancestor was gifted an elephant in Sicily, which he brought back and presented to the King, who in return gave him the original estates in Nyitra County.