Records of the Chief Constable of the Gyöngyös District, 1884-1951

The majority of the records of the Gyöngyös administrative district from the period 1938-1945 were lost or destroyed. The relevant parts that remained include administrative records of 1938-1944, including documents on the supervision and activities of extreme right-wing political parties and organizations in the localities of the district, nationalization and distribution of Jewish landholdings, as well as registries and lists of permits of tradesmen and merchants in alphabetical order of localities and persons between 1884-1951. Letter of support from an academic institution is required Hungarian data protection laws apply Indexes and registry books are available for the collection http://lnyr.eleveltar.hu/MNLQuery/detail.aspx?ID=638921 Headed by chief constables (főszolgabírók), districts were the basic administrative bodies of the counties in Hungary and the authority of first instance in the provinces. Districts already existed in medieval Hungary, but as modern-era administrative units they were created by Act XXI of 1886 (modified by Act XXX of 1929). Each district engulfed several villages (municipalities), the administration of which was subordinated to the chief constable. Besides, chief constables also supervised gendarmerie, the law enforcement agency responsible for maintaining order and persecuting crime in the districts. After World War II, chief constables’ offices were renamed chief notaries' offices, and in 1950 they were replaced by district councils.