Records of the County Command of Pest and the Pest-Pilis Imperial and Royal County Authority, 1850-1861

Collection description

Holding institution (official language):: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Pest Megyei Levéltára

Title:: Records of the County Command of Pest and the Pest-Pilis Imperial and Royal County Authority, 1850-1861

Title (official language):: A Pesti Megyefőnökség és a Pest –Pilis Cs. Kir. Megyehatóság iratai, 1850-1861

Creator/accumulator:: County Command of Pest; Pest-Pilis Imperial and Royal County Authority

Scope and content:: This collection holds the surviving records of the County Command of Pest and one of its successors, the Pest-Pilis Imperial and Royal County Authority. The first part of the collection, the presidential records, are of less relevance, as they mostly concern personnel matters, except for certain files on controlling foreigners and aliens. The administrative records, however, contain several issues related to the everyday life of Jewish citizens in Pest and its vicinity, including files of funds, testaments (végrendeletek), investigation of Orphans’ Cashiers (árvapénztári vizsgálatok), files on trade and building permits, holding taxes and tolls, state monopolies, permits of factories and financial institutions, regulation of prices and markets, and many other economic issues; school matters; conscription; files on religious groups and their institutions and many other issues.

Archival history:: The material from the years 1849-1861 had been incorporated into the medieval (feudal) section of the county archives. In the 1860s, the records were sorted and re-numbered. Since then, the collection has been rearranged and selected several times. The record group has been in its present form since 2007.

Administrative/biographical history:: Following the suppression of the independence war of 1848-1849, Hungary was under military governance until beginning of 1851. In 1851, Habsburg authorities re-established civil administration. Five governmental districts were formed in Hungary (kerületi kormányzatok), headed by prefects. Counties were integrated into the governmental districts, under county commanders (megyefőnök). Pest-Pilis-Solt County was divided into three commands (megyefőnökség) – Pest, Kecskemét and Kalocsa – in 1850. In 1851, two county authorities (megyehatóság) were formed on the same territory: Pest-Solt and Pest-Pilis. Key persons in the collection are county commanders József Keresztessy, Mihály Horváth, Ede Kapy and Ferenc Péchy. Governmental districts were dissolved on 1 May 1853 and replaced by five departments of civil government (helytartótanácsi osztályok). The territorial departments of civil government were dissolved on 1 July 1860 and were replaced by the re-organized Statthalterei für Ungarn. The language of the administration was German in 1853-1860 and Hungarian from 1860 onwards. In 1861, the County commands were dissolved and incorporated into the re-established Pest-Pilis-Solt County.

Subject terms:: Education; Education--Schools and universities; Financial matters; Law enforcement; Law enforcement--Police; Military; Orphans; Taxation; Trade and commerce; Wills

System of arrangement:: The collection is arranged into two major parts: Presidential and general records (IV.151.a-b). Within these groups, there are provenance subgroups created in 1857, numbered from I to XIX, the most relevant of which are Police (III.), Public health (IV.), Justice (V.), Military (VI.), Education (VII.), Religion (VIII.), and Trade and Commerce (IX.).

Finding aids:: Original indexes and registries are available for the collection. Ernő Lakatos, ed: A Magyar Állami Levéltárak fondjegyzéke, Vol. III. A Területi Levéltárak fondjegyzékei Part 13. A Pest Megyei Levéltár fondjainak jegyzéke. Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1975.

Author of the description:: László Csősz; Hungarian National Archives; 26-11-2015 (In cooperation with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)