Nemesi származás és identitás Módszertani. dilemmák a rendi státusz 1848 utáni örökségének prozopográfiai vizsgálatához
Noble Origins and Identity. Questions of Methodology in the Prosopographical Examinations of the Heritage of Noble Status After 1848

Summary/Abstract: The primary goal of this study is to figure out what methods can be used to analyze integrational social mobility in prosopographical research about the era of the dual monarchy, focusing on determining noble status in a legal and historical sense. The first half of the study presents the methods of Gábor Benedek and I. Gábor Kovács, in examining ministry officials and the intellectual elite respectively. These two influential and enduring studies used a methodology in determining noble status characterized by a genealogical perspective focusing on ancestry. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of this method, I conclude that as we examine the lower levels of the social hierarchy, it becomes more difficult to define the group with noble heritage. This study argues that combining the genealogical method with an approach focusing on social representation produces more accurate results. I present the differences between studies conducted with the two methods on the sample of the “police elite”, comprising state police officials of the dual monarchy. The second half of the study switches scope, and presents the advantages and limitations of the genealogical method and social representation analysis through the micro-level examination of the ancestry of a particular police official, Károly Saly.

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