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

Csongrád Megyei Levéltár (Csongrád County Archives)

Today's Csongrád County Archives are competent for the archival material which has been produced in the course of the activity of organs active (or once acting) in the area subjected to the Csongrád County Council; including the records derived from the Battonya and Mezőkovácsháza districts of the former Csanád county, abolished on the 15th March 1950, till the cessation of their activity. The archival material totals 9190 running metres. Of this sum the records of the feudal and the capitalist periods give 6701, those after the liberation 2279 running metres. The records of the counties and municipal cities total 3720 running metres. We have mentioned the 50 charters of Szeged city; the Franciscan order at Szeged preserved another 100 charters, mainly pertinent to the city, already published. In the archives of both counties, Csongrád and Csanád, the greatest historical value is represented by the journals and records of the nobilitary assemblies and of the county courts, the tax assessments, "dicales conscriptiones", national censuses and the bequests of some county officials. The archives of Szeged city also contain records of such character. Its "Secret Archives" keep the eighteenth century witchcraft trials and the lawsuits for the Coman "puszta"-s. The archival material of boroughs and villages totals 1530 running metres. With the exception of Makó, the feudal period is very defectively represented. Continuous serieses remained mostly from the nineteenth century. 15 villages have records from this century, the others only from the twentieth. Also the archival material of the regional organs of state administration is very scarce. From the nineteenth century only the records of the Szeged imperial Police Direction (1853-1860) deserve mention. On the other hand, the records of the regional organs of jurisdiction are very valuable. One finds the records of the Szeged Table of Justice from 1883 and of the Szeged Public Prosecution (at two levels) from 1876. As to the material of institutes and institutions one has to note that the lack of room prevented us from collecting the records of important ones, as those of the Szeged Medical University and the Gyula Juhász Teachers' Training Institute. But we keep the records of the Attila József University, among them those of its predecessor, the Kolozsvár University with some lacks (1870-1922). Of the public schools but two are represented, the Gábor Bethlen Public School of Hódmezővásárhely and the András Dugonics Public School of Szeged (from the eighteenth century).