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

Bács-Kiskun Megyei Levéltár (Bács-Kiskun County Archives)

villages. The archival material of the extensive agrarian settlements has a source value equal to the records of the county and district administration. Especially the archival material of the boroughs Békéscsaba, Gyula, Békés, Szarvas, Gyoma and Füzesgyarmat, of the villages Orosháza, Mezőberény and Körösladány prior to 1848 or 1867, respectively, also the archival group of the gardeners' settlement Csanádapáca are well preserved. From the decades after 1920 the records of more than 20 boroughs and villages are suitably complete for use. Among the organs of administration and jurisdiction under central direction the archival group of the Békés County Survey Direction (18521944) supplies fundamental data on the use and the division of land, that of the Gyula Districtual Factory Inspectorate (1901-1944) on the development of local industry. The records of the Békés County Land Board (1945-1950) are important sources of the agrarian reform (the partition of large estates) executed in 1945. Of the organs of jurisdiction the records of the Gyula Court of Law between 1920 and 1944 and those of the Gyula Public Prosecution have a considerable source value. Of the archival groups of institutions and institutes the series of county schools are significant. That of the Szarvas public school begins with 1802, that of the Békéscsaba public school starts with 1858. From Békés, Szarvas and Békéscsaba the archival groups of elementary instruction have remained from the 1830s on. The Archives preserves the records of the Békés-Tarhos School of Singing and Music, executing instruction according to the principles of Zoltán KODÁLY with a schooling programme, from 1946 to 1954 as well. Also fragments of 14 guilds' papers prior to 1872 are kept by the Archives. The most complete of the archival groups of trade-associations, starting with the 1880s (Békéscsaba, Orosháza) are copious sources of the history of workmanship up to 1948. In the past of Békés county the regulation of the Körös rivers, the antiinundation work, the irrigation played an important role. The basic sources of these are the series of anti-inundation companies preserved in the Archives, beside many documents of the county administration pertaining to such activities. The records of the Black Körös Anti-Inundation Company are found from 1854 to 1948, those of the Lower White Körös Anti-Inundation Company from 1873 to 1948. The Archives preserves papers from 1854 on the collective Szarvas garden cultivation, called garden-community. The repository has papers of more than 50 borough, village and farm reading circles and peasants' associations, partly from the end of the nineteenth century, but mainly from the years between 1920 and 1940.