Archiwum Główne Królestwa kontynuatorem zadań kancelarii koronnej w zakresie badania dokumentów

Currently judgment on the authenticity and reliability of records is not one of the tasks of the archives. However, such judgment constituted one of the main tasks of the former chancelleries. So if the Central Archives of the Kingdom of Poland acted in this area in the 19th century it was done as a continuator of the pre– partitions crown chancellery. Author based his analysis of the title phenomenon on the examination of documents executed by the Central Archives, and preserved as a correspondence from the Commission for Governmental Justice [Komisja Rządowej Sprawiedliwości] in Warsaw with the Secretariat of State of the Polish Kingdom [Sekretariat Stanu Królestwa Polskiego] in St. Petersburg. Opinions on the authenticity and reliability of documents were needed by the central offices of the Russian Empire which were located in St. Petersburg, in the cases studied in this article: Ministry of Justice or Department of Heraldry of the Ruling Senate [Departament Heroldii Senatu Rządzącego]. Secretariat of State acted as a go–between. Legal and political system required this kind of mediation but this lengthened significantly the time of doing things. Only about 20% of the time took appropriate consideration of the merits of a matter or archival query, the remaining time took translation of documents from Russian to Polish and vice versa, and transfer them between offices. Studying records of Secretariat of State of the Polish Kingdom author came across a trail of 43 records examinated by the Central Archives of the Kingdom. 5 out of these records were from the 16th century, 10 from the 17th century and 28 from the 18th century. Documents were usually issued by Kings of Poland (39 documents — 91%). It is striking that very often apparently erroneous, documents were directed to the Central Archives, although they could be checked at the Lithuanian Metrica (Acta Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae) stored in St. Petersburg. However, detailed and thorough analysis of the official correspondence leads to the conclusion that more important than finding of the paper at the Crown Register (Metrica Regni Poloniae) was to obtain the opinion on the original from experts working at the Central Archives, regardless whether it was a document of the Crown or Lithuanian and whether it concerned of the Polish Kingdom, or territories annexed to the Russian Empire.