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Presenter: Anna Wiernicka

The lecture will present samples of, rarely used, notary records. The existence of notary public offices on the Polish land dates back to 1808. Until the mid of 1870's documents had been prepared in Polish. Starting 1876 public life in the Kingdom of Poland was entirely Russified and Russian became the official language. The Jewish population represented a significant number of notaries' clients. The analysis will involve only selected type of notary documents. I will focus my presentation on the most private and unique resources, last wills. Those documents include extensive information on family: relationships, the structure of a family itself and what is the most important reflect certain family relations. Last wills not only supplement typical genealogical information but also provide us private and even intimate details about the family.