County Magistrate’s Archives in the Nineteenth Century. Diplomatics, the importance of origin and the value of records

Originally, the archives of state officials were mainly considered to be the private property of those who made and maintained them. With increasing interest from scholars in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, however, researchers demanded more access to these archives and they were slowly opened to the public. Proper registration of documents thus became an important key to accessing the content of archives. In the nineteenth century in France, a rule emerged as to how to respect the origin of records and properly arrange and register an archive. The importance of the origin became known as Principle of provenance and is still today the main principle used in archival studies. This article argues that the foundation for evaluating the value of a document as source material lies in knowing its true origin and the context of its creation. By using the same approach as used in diplomatics, the study of medieval documents and manuscripts to determine their authenticity, it is possible to determine the origin and value of documents from recent centuries. Why was the document made, in what context and with what purpose? Such questions help the researcher determine its value as a reliable source material. In this article, the archives of county magistrates (sýslumenn) in Iceland are used to demonstrate how methods used in diplomatics can be helpful to researchers in assessing the origin and value of records. County magistrates are among the oldest administrative officers in Iceland and formerly served as represent - atives of the king in each county. Their preserved archives date back to the seventeenth century, although the majority of their records are from the nineteenth century onwards. Different sources, such as letters of appointment and other directives from the king, are used to point out what documents the county magistrates were obliged to produce and how their form and structure were predetermined by a higher authority. Through an understanding of the set structure of documents it is possible to establish the authenticity and origin of the documents and shed light on their value. Through county magistrates’ records, researchers can gain deeper insight into administrative functioning in Iceland, and different voices of citizens can be heard, making these extensive archives useful as source material when researching the country’s past.