Genealógiai emlékezet és tudatosság. A sárospataki Pataki család levéltára
Genealogical Memory and Awareness: The Family Archives of the Pataki Family

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses a unique family archive from early modern Transylvania. The archive’s distinctiveness lies in the self-documentation efforts of successive generations of the Pataki family – intellectuals, primarily doctors – who produced numerous introspective and chronicle-like ego documents. Above all, it highlights the “loving care” with which the Pataki family preserved the written memory of their ancestors over three centuries. I will explore the construction and curation of the family archive through an inclusive examination of the Pataki family archives and the personal legacy of Jenő Pataki, which is inextricably linked to it. By approaching the archive not only as an object but also as a subject of enquiry, this paper focuses on the motivations of the family members involved in its creation. It examines how and why these repositories came into being, as well as the reasons later generations restructured, reshaped, and refashioned family memory.

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