One of the oldest known members of this kin was the boyar Solomon Boila, who was born around the mid-15th century and established the Boila de Sinka branch, reconfirmed in their rights at the end of the 16th century. The other branches from Făgăraș Land, including Bârsan de Sinka, Bălan de Sinka and Stoia de Sinka, continued to maintain their properties in Șinca Veche in the 17th and 18th centuries, where they were reconfirmed in their rights, first in 1633, then in 1657 by
Zsuzsanna Lorántffy, the Princess consort of Transylvania, and in 1689 by
Michael Apafi, the Prince of Transylvania. After the formation of the Transylvanian Military Frontier () by the Habsburgs in 1762, some of their descendants converted to Greek-Catholicism and became part of the 11th Company of the 1st Romanian Border Guards Regiment until its dissolution in 1851. Among the descendants of Sinka boyars was also identified the Oltean de Sinka lineage, whose ancestor, Oltean de Sinka, served as the assessor of the boyar seat of Făgăraș (1511). Other members of this lineage include
Ioan Olteanu, (Fig. 3) the bishop of Lugoj (1870-1873), bishop of Oradea (1873-1875), Ladislau Oltean, district-level official (
praetor) in Hunyad County (1863) and Vasile Oltean, lawyer in Blaj. The lineage Dumitru de Sinka was founded in the 16th century, with Aldea Dumitru de Sinka, the son of the boyar Stan Solomon de Sinka, a supporter of
Mihnea I Basarab, the
Voivode of Wallachia, born in the late 15th century. Their privileges were confirmed by
Ștefan Mailat, the
Voivode of Transylvania, in 1534, and later, reconfirmed by
Maria Christina of Austria, the Princess of Transylvania, in 1598. However, in the context of the changing economic and political landscape in the first half of the 17th century, the lineage of the Dumitru de Sinka branch abandoned its remaining estates in Făgăraș Land and sought refuge in the nearby
Saxon Lands (). There, multiple lineages developed successively in the villages of Șona, Ticușu Nou, and
Homorod, then part of the former
Rupea Seat () - an administrative unit that existed from the 14th to the 19th century in southern Transylvania, now part of
Brașov County. The cadet branch that settled in Rupea Seat on the Saxon Lands lost their noble privileges along with the particle
de Sinka and lived as free tenants, continuing to practice their Orthodox faith as their ancestors had. Another branch of the Sinka boyars includes the Strîmbu branch, which was formed by the 16th century, and embraced the
Greek-Catholic faith in the 18th century. Some members of this branch became priests, while others, like Ștefan Strîmbu Sinkay
literatus, a soldier who became a border officer at
Turnu-Roșu castle (ca.1729) at the onset of the Habsburg rule. However, the most prominent personality of this line was Ștefan's descendant,
Gheorghe Șincai de Șinca (1754–1816), (Fig. 2) historian, philologist, translator and poet, and a leading figure of the
Transylvanian School during the
Enlightenment. Two high schools in Romania, one in
Baia Mare and one in
Bucharest and the
Romanian Academy’s research institute for Social Sciences and Humanities in Târgu-Mureș, are named in his honour. A collateral branch converted to
Roman Catholicism and entered the ranks of the
Hungarian nobility as early as the 17th century, losing their Romanian cultural identity, while maintaining the geographic particle
de Sinka or simply
Sinka or
Sinkai. Through their integration into the province's administrative elite (as illustrated by the coat of arms granted to this branch in 1685, Fig. 1), they managed to expand their estate during the late 17th and 18th centuries, relocating their seat to Hunyad County. Members of this branch held several regional offices, including Deputy Lieutenant (), Judge (), and Councillor at the Transylvanian Gubernium (). == Notable Members ==