Mayor's office of Onceşti

Collection

Holding institution:: Maramureş County division of the Romanian National Archives

Holding institution (official language):: Arhivele Naţionale. Direcţia judeţeană Maramureş

Postal address:: Bulevardul Bucureşti 26, Baia Mare 430052, judeţul Maramureş

Scope and content:: This fonds comprises the files and registers of the mayor’s office of Onceşti from 1935 to 1968. It includes registers of vital records (births, marriages and deaths), notary records concerning especially cases of succession, financial registers, payrolls of employees, budget sheets, correspondence with the district and county authorities, decisions, instructions and records concerning the agrarian reform of 1945.

Adminstratively, Onceşti was subordinated to the larger village Bîrsana which had an important Jewish community, part of which lived in Onceşti. In 1920, there were 664 Jewish inhabitants out of a total population of 5,562, in 1930, 595 Jews out of a total of 5,854 inhabitants and in 1941, 557 out of 6,490. After the Holocaust and subsequent Aliyah movement, in 1956 there are only 19, in 1977 only 7 and in 1992 two persons who declared themselves as Jewish. The presence of Jewish references in this fonds is in keeping with this evolution of the local community.

Archival history:: The fonds was held by the Popular Council of Bîrsana and was transferred to the Maramureş County division of the Romanian National Archives, where it was inventoried and made accessible to researchers.

Administrative/biographical history:: Onceşti is situated in Maramureş county, 12km south-east of Sighet, on the river Iza. It was mentioned for the first time in a record of donation issued by the Hungarian king Louis (Ludovic) the Great in 1360. In the second half of the 19th century it was included in district of Cosău, then Iza, then Şugatag. In 1880 a Jewish community is mentioned here, having 67 members while the total population of the village was 1,070 inhabitants. In the inter-war period it was part of Ocna Şugatag district and after the Hungarian administration from 1940 to 1944, it became part of the same district again in 1945. In 1950, after the installation of the Communist regime, it was included in the district of Sighet and the mayor’s office was replaced with the Popular Council until the fall of Communism in 1989.

System of arrangement:: The fonds is organised into thematic files and registers which are arranged in chronological order.

Finding aids:: Inventory No. 892, held by the Maramureş County division of the Romanian National Archives.

Yerusha Network member:: Romanian Institute for the Research of National Minorities

Author of the description:: Anton Dörner (retired researcher), Ladislau Gyémánt (emeritus professor) 2018