The chancery (guardianship of the orphans) cases database processes the documentation of cases involving typically the inheritance cases with minors as inheritors run by guardianship courts. These documents were created by the Budapest Municipal Court of Chancery with a significant number of guardianship or adoption cases as well. The database contains the documents from the unification of the capital in 1873 to 1919 (the latter only partly). The year of origin means the year of filing; these cases often cover many years and sometimes continue over many generations, therefore, earlier documents can occur as well in these bundles. We can find cases filed in 1950, also, although the Board of Guardianship’ elimination was already underway, so new cases were actually addressed by and handed over to the newly created district guardianship bodies (in most cases, we can only find out here where were they transferred to). The properties were typically in Budapest but in some cases we can found lots of information on rural properties (buildings) as well.

The records include the specific cases – sometimes with a detailed description (complete with family tree) and specifying the main types of documents (fatality records, bequest inventories, wills) involved – and the data of the persons involved in different statuses (as legators, inheritors, guardians, etc.) in the case. There are almost 13,000 processed records but the customers’ number is many times more than that: roughly 50,000.

The database – beside the archival filing system – can be accessed through the Hungarian Cultural Heritage Portal

The chosen cases can be consulted on the basis of their reference code (eg. HU BFL – IV.1411.b – 1894 – 03774 – Károlyi) in the archival research room.