Help identifying this Bulgarian (former Austro-Hungarian) soldier

[Petr]

Hi,

Can someone help me with researching this soldier? He's my ancestor for which I have a limited info only.

According to the first picture, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army as a private. The following photographs show him in various Bulgarian uniforms (as far as I am able to tell) and must have made quite a career. He's been awarded a number of decorations, e.g., Bulgarian Order of Military Merit, or German Iron Cross. Does that help me research further? Does this info allow me to search in some sort of database of awardees? Sorry for my lack of knowledge – I am purely looking at it from the perspective of building my family tree.

His name as I know it was Michal Petro, born in present-day Slovakia (at that time the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire), however, from the back of one of the pictures, he called himself M. Petrov, was well versed in Bulgarian cyrilic. From what I heard as a family legend, he's been close (adjuntant?) to the king of Bulgaria (Ferdinand I perhaps).

After the war, he's been photographed again in Slovakia. I heard about a photo of him from Algeria, too, but I don't have it nor I know when it was taken.

Any help or suggestion is much appreciated.

Thank you and stay safe!

[ilieff]

Hi,

Would it be possible if you post the original images, rather than the 'enhanced'/colourised versions, please? 

Also, would be nice to see a zoomed-in snips of the inscriptions

[Bayern]

Hello Petr , The first photo shows a private of the Austro Hungarian Army belonging to a Hungarian Regiment ,you can see the Hungarian knots on the trousers . A Hungarian Regiment of the Common Army because of the belt clasp with the double headed eagle and not the crowned shield of Royal Hungarian Army. The second photo shows Petrov in a Court uniform a Palace one . The third is a Cavalry Uniform , Royal Escort I guess . the Fourth is to me a Police Officer Uniform or.. a Palace official everyday uniform 

[Petr]

Thank you, @Bayern! This makes sense to me as it corroborates my understanding of his life (originating in Slovakia / Upper Hungary, royal guard in Bulgaria, long-time adjuntant/official to the king).

Is there a database I could search for his medals to confirm they were really awarded to him? Searched already on Wikipedia for German Iron Cross and Bulgarian Military Order of Merit recipients (both visible on the fourth photo I guess), but I didn't find him among the recpients. Guess the lists there aren't complete / the number of recipients was far bigger than assumed to contained on a wiki page.

[Bayern]

Petr , During WW1 they were awarded hundred of thousands of 2nd Class Iron Crosses , Iam not sure if Complete lists ever exists .