A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 34. (Békéscsaba, 2011)
Seres István: A Sarkadi Csatáry család iratai
Seres István Documents of the Csatáry Family in Sarkad - István Seres - Resume The members of the Csatáry family were prominent figures of the Heyduck era of the Town of Sarkad. Two of them: elder and younger János Csatáry were captains for a long time in the town. Despite that, our knowledge of the life and the operation of the Csatáry family is scarce and their biographical data have not been fully clafired either. Csatáry the elder was a Heyduck captain at the time of the Long War in Sarkad and it seems that Csatáry the younger fell on 22 November 1659 in the battle of Zajkán. With the fall of II. György Rákóczi, Sarkad ceased to be an advanced garrison of Nagyvárad Castle. Consequently, together with several local families, the Csatárys also had to escape. Their inheritors, however, in the course of the 18th century, played ever increasingly important roles in the social and administrative life of Debrecen: local jurors, senators and mayors. In 1823, three members of the family, who had emigrated to Máramaros and Ugocsa counties, requested the recognition of their ancient nobility and they subsequently submitted several relevant old family documents. The file of the authentication procedure contains 28 documents, some of which may be related to the two Csatárys, who were captains in Sarkad, and their children. The documents found in Debrecen are well completed by a file containing 14 original authentication documents which can be found in the archives of the Kolozs Monastery Convent. Thus, two complementary source groups form the bases of our present study. The history of the Sarkad Heyducks is significantly enriched by our data and, last but not least, they substantially complete the biographical data of the two Csatárys. Seres István E-mail: istvan.seres@gmail.com 232
