Historiography, Sources and Methodological Possibilities to the Research of the County Officeholders

Experiences from South Transdanubian Region through the Examples of Baranya and Somogy Counties between 1790 and 1848

Abstract

The research of the county officers of the 18–19th centuries is a popular topic in Hungarian historical research; however, significant differences can be detected between certain counties and the methodologies used to analyze them. In the course of our work, we briefly introduce the authors and their works, whose methods can serve as examples, and point out what additions should be given to them. In the second half of the work, we present the administration of the selected counties (Baranya and Somogy), the structure of the county officers, and the changes that occurred in them in the period between 1790 and 1848. We also present the traditional archival sources for the history of the two counties, as well as the possibilities provided by digital data mining in addition to the literature and published databases. After all this, we present a general methodology that can serve as a guide for future works dealing with the middle-level public administration.