I Intend to Rewrite and Supplement All Published Genealogical Books...: A Letter of V. V. Rummel to V. V. Golubtsov

Abstract

The article offers a source analysis of the only surviving letter written by the famous genealogist, author of the two-volume Genealogical collection of Russian noble families, Witold Vladislavovich Rummel to his co-author on this collection, the Perm landowner, amateur local historian and genealogist Vladimir Vladimirovich Golubtsov, dated July 29, 1884 and sent from Simansky Log, his St. Petersburg estate, to the Urals. It is stored in the personal provenance fond of the Perm landowners Golubtsovs in the State Archive of Sverdlovsk Region. Written in the early days of the two well-known genealogists acquaintance, it contains information on ways the two specialists exchanged specific genealogical information, complementing each other's data on the history of well- and little-known genealogic trees, mostly in some way related to the Golubtsov family. The letter allows to gain an impression of Rummel's literary taste and to partially reconstruct the structure of Witold's library: it lists 18 books used by the genealogist, when compiling genealogical lists, and thus demonstrates Rummel's sources. Finally, Rummel shared his plans for the publication of the collection and invited Vladimir Vladimirovich to send him any new data to complement the published materials on the noble families. It was after this letter that the Perm researcher seriously thought about the possibility of publishing his work and offered Rummel to act as his collaborator and companion and to finance the publication. Thus, this document marks a beginning of joint work on preparation and publication of the Genealogical collection of Russian noble families, the book still considered quite authoritative in studying genealogy of noble families, as it provided the scientific methodology and greatly expanded the possibilities of genealogical research.