Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

Szolnok Megyei Levéltár (Szolnok County Archives)

ly the special legal status of the Jászkun districts ceased to exist: the Jászság and Nagykunság villages and farms of its territory were attached to the new county. The historical material of the then organized county archives, the records of the Jászkun districts, has been transferred from Jászberény to Szolnok, to the recently built county hall. World War II wrought havoc in the records of the county and of the boroughs, parishes and enterprises in its territory. Of the material of the old county archives the pre-1945 archival groups of the Lord Lieutenant, the school inspector, the economic inspector, the chief medical officer, the district chief constables have been annihilated. The archival material totals 3 600 running metres. We have 3 charters prior to Mohács. The series of the journals and records of the nobilitary assembly of the former Jászkun district (1573-1876) has an outstanding source value. From the records of the county Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, established in 1876, a considerable quantity remained in the municipal committee journals, the records of the sub-prefect and those of the administrative committee. As to the records of the districts, only Jászapáti and Kunhegyes have avoided total destruction, but they are only fragmentary. The archival groups of the boroughs are remarkable. The records of Jászberény, Karcag, Kisújszállás, Turkeve boroughs and of Jászapáti, Kunmadaras, Kunszentmárton, Kenderes and Tiszaroff villages begin with the seventeenth century. Of the organs of specialized administration only the material of the Szolnok River Engineering Board deserves mention. The records taken over from the judicial organs is defective too: only those of the Szolnok tribunal and the Kunszentmiklós district court surpass 10 running metres. Among the records of schools only four archival groups (the former Reformed public schools of Karcag, Kisújszállás and Mezőtúr, the Verseghy state public school) are worth mention. The Archives succeeded in gathering a relatively rich material of village guilds, drainage companies and associations, on the other hand the papers of enterprises are fragmentary. We preserve the records of the former Szolnok Franciscan Convent from 1601 to 1943, and the papers of the Balskovich (1422-1817), Szinyei Merse (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries) and Taby (1571-1866) families.