Metadata: Census of Jews in Bihar county
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Hungary, Hajdú-Bihar County Archives, Debrecen
- Holding institution (official language):
- Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltára, Debrecen
- Postal address:
- 4024 Debrecen, Vármegyeháza u. 1/B
- Phone number:
- +36 52 503 296
- Web address:
- https://mnl.gov.hu/hbml
- Email:
- hbml@mnl.gov.hu
- Reference number:
- IV.A.4.a
- Title:
- Census of Jews in Bihar county
- Title (official language):
- Bihar megyei zsidóság összeírása (Conscriptio Judaeorum comitatus Bihar)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Bihar county
- Date(s):
- 1752/1862
- Date note:
- 1752/1763/1764/1770/1772/1774/1828/1851/1862
- Language:
- Latin
- Hungarian
- Extent:
- 1 box
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The sub-collection ‘Conscriptio Judaeorum comitatus Bihar’ contains the tables in the censuses of the Jews from 1752 to 1862. The collection is part of the extensive collection of ‘Household and National Censuses, 1552-1848/-1862 /’.
The history of the Jews in modern times is rooted in feudal times. The ruler reserved the right of supreme control over the Jews and placed the emphasis on their taxation. In the modern era, the landlords played the role of protector as opposed to the ruler in medieval times. The enforcement of the tolerance tax introduced by Lipót failed because of the landlords’ resistance. However, Maria Theresa made this tax permanent, placing the Jewish population of Hungary in a legally tolerated status in 1748. (This type of tax was brought to an end only in 1846.)
The collection contains exclusively Jewish-related censuses. The censuses include details such as names, occupation, number of family members, size of households, tax rate, place of residence, place of birth. However, almost every census follows a different form. For Bihar County, county censuses from 1752, 1763, 1764, 1770, 1772-1774, 1828 have survived. These are the tables of the district censuses surviving from Váradolaszi (1828), Érmellék (1829, 1844-1845), Sárrét (1829, 1844, 1846), Belényes (1832, 1834, 1846), Várad (Oradea) (1735, 1841-1842, 1858), and Szalonta (1846) districts.
Tables of censuses from the civilian era can also be found in the collection from 1851 and 1862. These censuses have been placed in the collection due to their content in context within the collection. An interesting feature in these censuses is that they indicate the years when the citizens were granted permission to settle. The documents were written in Latin and Hungarian.
- Archival history:
-
The foundations of the Archives of Bihar County can be traced back to the 14th century when the conscious preservation of legal documents and property policy documents by sub-prefect and notaries began. Due to the low level of literacy and the fact that the county records were not maintained in a safe place, the notary took the materials and placed them in the county mailbox. Article LXXIII. 1723 regulated the development of archives, and the documents were transferred to the conservatory of the Oradea chapter in Bihar county in 1726. The old documents were placed here from 1729, and the new ones in the town hall building. In 1738, the county purchased a new building for archival purposes. The categorisation of the collection started during the reign of Maria Theresa.
From 1760, the records were placed in congregation shelves. In 1771 a new building was constructed for the archival documents. After the First World War, only a part of Bihar County remained within the borders of Hungary. Part of the Bihar County documents was transferred to Romania under the Treaty of Trianon, according to the territorial jurisdiction, which affected the documents from the feudal era to a lesser extent. The archival material remaining in Hungary was moved to the county hall in Berettyóújfalu. In 1950, according to the decree of the Ministry of the Interior, the source material was transferred to Debrecen, the archives of Hajdú county. Also as part of the new archival decree, the name of the archive became Hajdú-Bihar County Archives. In 1968, following the “state history” period, the documents came under the jurisdiction of the county. In the case of the Bihar county material this meant that they remained in Debrecen in the Hajdú-Bihar County Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The charging, imposition and collection of tax were one of the most essential administrative activities in the feudal age. It was one of the primary revenue sources for the Treasury. With the tax collection process, the state organisation, constantly bureaucratising since the 18th century, wanted to measure the number of taxpayers accurately. This was particularly true for Jews, on whom Leopold I imposed tolerance tax as early as the end of the 17th century. However, it was Maria Theresa who could make this type of tax payment permanent. The primary goal of the continually recurring Jewish population censuses in the period was, with few exceptions, to survey the increase in the Jewish population and taxpayers.
In the archives, taxation-related documents form the so-called “Household and National Censuses, 1552-1848/-1862 /” collection. Within this, the documents of contemporary censuses of the Jewish population were collected in box 10.
- Access points: locations:
- Belényes
- Bihar county
- Érmellék
- Sárrét
- Subject terms:
- Census
- Census records
- Taxation
- Taxation--Tolerance tax
- Finding aids:
- There are no finding aids.
- Yerusha Network member:
- University of Szeged
- Author of the description:
- Dr. Tibor Almási and Dr. Erzsébet Mislovics, University of Szeged, 2020