Metadata: Records of the Pest District Royal Law Court, 1872-1944
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Hungary, Pest County Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Pest Megyei Levéltára
- Postal address:
- Pf. 141., H-1450 Budapest, Hungary
- Phone number:
- +36 1 455 9050
- Web address:
- http://mnl.gov.hu/pml/
- Email:
- pml@mnl.gov.hu
- Reference number:
- VII. 1.
- Title:
- Records of the Pest District Royal Law Court, 1872-1944
- Title (official language):
- A Pestvidéki Királyi Törvényszék iratai, 1872-1944
- Creator/accumulator:
- Pest District Royal Law Court
- Date(s):
- 1872/1944
- Language:
- Hungarian
- Extent:
- 348.82 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection holds the records of the Pest District Royal Law Court, including the records of the civil court and the records of criminal court as well as land register records.
VII.1. a. Presidential Records mostly concern the organisational and administrative matters and personnel files of the Pest District Royal Law Court from the years 1875, 1887-1898 and 1920-1945. (1 box, 1 vol., 0.16 linear metres)
VII.1. b. Records of lawsuits and out-of-court settlements (Peres és peren kívüli iratok) from the years 1874-1944, which cover various aspects of the life of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens in Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County. Jewish-related lawsuits and other cases can only be identified by file-level investigation. This part of the collection holds civil lawsuits concerning various private law issues, including marriage and divorce, ownership, guardianship and adoption, bankruptcy and warrants, inheritance, testaments, salaries, contracts and other work-related cases, sales, lease and distribution (tagosítás) of lands, etc. Several Jewish citizens can be found among the defendants, aggrieved parties and witnesses of the criminal court cases as well. These cases include fires and other damages of assets, breaking and entering, compensation, breakdown and liquidation and various other types of lawsuits. Cases of Jews as defendants include the charges of usury, falsification of bills/notes (váltóhamisítás), reset (orgazdaság) and other financial offences, as well as robbery, assaults and other conflicts. The material also includes various types of petitions of Jews, among them their appeals from the decisions of the Court. From 1938 onwards, several cases are pertaining to offences connected to the regulations of Jewish laws and other anti-Jewish regulations and bureaucratic antisemitic practices, including cases of trade licenses, Strohman cases and examples of violation of the race-protection law (fajgyalázás/Rassenschande). There are also criminal cases against members of extreme right wing movements and parties, including the Arrow Cross. Most of the records from the period before 1916 were sorted out or destroyed. (1084 boxes, 89 vols., 127.23 linear metres)
VII. 1.c. Records of land registers (Telekkönyvi iratok) from the years 1872-1914. This part of the collection include the registries of real estate, by localities of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County numbered from 1 (Vác) to 197 (Kisoroszi). It provides plenty of information on urban and landed property of Hungarian Jews before the Holocaust. (1630 boxes, 156 vols., 220.93 linear metres)
- Archival history:
- The records of the Pest District Royal Law Court were taken to the Pest County Archives in the 1950s. The material was re-arranged and described in its present form in the 1990s and 2000s.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Pest District Royal Law Court was created in 1876 and had an authority over all the towns and municipalities in Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County, excluding the capital city Budapest. The members of the Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County were elected judges. The Royal Law Court included a Civil Court and a Criminal Court.
- System of arrangement:
- The records were arranged into 3 provenance subgroups (állag): Presidential records, Records of lawsuits and out-of-court settlements and Records of land registers, numbered VII. 1.a-c. Within these groups, the files are arranged chronologically, the number of files re-started each year. Records of land registers are arranged by the names of localities (instead of alphabetical order, they are numbered from 1 to 197) and by year.
- Finding aids:
-
Fragmented finding aids are available for the collection, including roll books (főlajstromkönyvek) for 1916, 1919-1933, fragmented roll books and alphabetical indexes (névmutató) for 1933-1944 and indexes (mutatókönyv) for 1874, 1916-1944. Some of the indexes are in poor condition and require rebinding. For records of land registers, however, all indexes and registries survived.
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.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
- Author of the description:
- László Csősz; Hungarian National Archives; 21-11-2015 (In cooperation with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)
