A First Look at the Transylvanian Unitarian Archives

Entering the Archives

The sign above the door says Church Archives in Hungarian. A large metal door rolls down in front of this wooden door every night as part of a basic fire safety system. Of course,getting here is not this easy. Below is the last flight down, you can see the Archives door at the end of the hall.  From my room, there are five more similar flights. Wow, do I feel my quads getting stronger!

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This is my work station with my pile of correspondence received from the English Unitarian church by the Unitarian Bishop's office in Kolozsvar between 1820s-1920s. My job is to summarize in a data base letters in English, so Hungarian researchers can understand the nuances in the content. My biggest challenge is mysterious handwriting and convoluted English sentences.

Much of the content is the English offering condolences for deaths in Transylvania, invitations to visit, scholarship arrangements for Hungarian Unitarians at the Channing School (English Unitarian Girls High School) and Manchester College, Oxford (Unitarian Seminary- all men in this period, though changing around 1920 when my thesis subject, Margaret Crook, was accepted there) and offering support and congratulations for anniversaries. Some of the letters are first drafts of 

English translations of the Bishops letters.

See the oddly-shaped brown wooden "box" in front of me? Any guesses? I'll tell you soon.

This morning I spent over an hour on this letter below.  Want to give it a try?

I think I finally got most of it.  I found if I worked on it for a while, then came back, more fell into place.

 Molnar Lehel (family name is always given first in Hungarian)  the Archivist at his desk. One of his colleagues told me the Archives was a pile of brown paper when Lehel began here around 15 years ago after finishing theological School- now it looks organized and you can find things.  He is trained as a parish minister, but was always finding himself doing research in the Archives. He is very efficient and exacting and loves to tell the stories of the Archives.  What a joy to work with such a kind person who has truly endless amazing true stories!

 Below, the neat and organized part, rows of ancient record books on the left.  The Archives is also working on gathering parish records for safe keeping, and a book shelf over 200 years old (brown) in the center.

 Archivists dream, acid free boxs neatly catalogued, stacked and marked, below.

                       I would call this the Archivists' lament, Lehel might call it a treasure trove; it gets worse. 

My workplace with a magic keyboard.  It can switch back and forth between English and Hungarian which means that z often turns into y and quotation marks are hard to find, to name just a few mysteries.

To be continued.

Also, my friends, if you have questions or things you would like hear and see from an American Unitarian Minister in Kolosvar, let me know in the comments