Zalai történeti tanulmányok - Zalai gyűjtemény 42. (Zalaegerszeg, 1997)
Bősze Sándor: Zala megye dualizmus kori egyesületi katasztere
SÁNDOR BŐSZE: COUNTY ZALA’S SOCIETY-REGISTER FROM THE ERA OF DUALISM Summary According to the sources, more than five-hundred societies were established in County Zala between 1867 and 1918. The definition of the society’s concept is rendered difficult by the facts that, on one hand, several other forms of organisations show up similar features to the clubs. On the other hand, organisations which couldn’t be considered as societies were listed in the society-registers in the decades following the compromise of 1867 as well as after the era of dualism. In County Zala 4 register-books survived. The registered periods of two of these books are uncertain: one might have been kept about between 1894 and 1903, the other ca. between 1904 and 1913. The two other booklets were started in 1920 and in 1926, respectively. Beside the society’s documents the collection of the societies’ constitutions can be taken as most important. The constitutions were to be collected by the sub-prefect’s office, according to the order of the minister of the interior. In the Archive of County Zala this is - only partly - to be replaced by the so called collection of deposits. The fonds of the ministries, stored in the Hungarian National Archives, complete excellently the documents of the local archive. The most important sources can be found in the archive of the ministry of the interior. Later on the societies’ chronological, quantitative and local features can be examined and extended on the basis of the Zala Society-register. 236
