Ioan Pușcariu

Ioan Pușcariu (September 28, 1824 – December 24, 1911) was an Austro-Hungarian ethnic Romanian historian, genealogist and administrator. A native of the Brașov area, he studied law until the 1848 revolution, when he took up arms. After order was restored, he embarked on a four-decade career in government that took him throughout his native Transylvania as well as to Vienna and Budapest. During the 1860s, Pușcariu was involved in the political debates of his province's Romanians, and also helped set up their key cultural organization, the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People (ASTRA). His historical interests lay primarily with the Transylvanian Romanians' nobility and their genealogy; Pușcariu's research into the subject secured his election to the Romanian Academy.

Origins and 1848 revolution

The first-born son of a Romanian Orthodox priest in Sohodol, a village located in the Transylvania region's Brașov County, he had eight siblings, and attended primary school in his native village.Berényi, p. 158 In 1834, he entered the German normal school in Brașov, and in 1837, the local Catholic high school. In 1841–1842, he attended the final year of gymnasium at Sibiu, as well as a yearlong theology course.Edroiu, p. 2 From 1843 to 1845, he took philosophy at the high school in Cluj, remaining for an additional year after completing this cycle. There, his classmates included Nicolae Popea, Avram Iancu and Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian. From 1846 to 1848, he audited courses at the Saxon law faculty in Sibiu. Pușcariu was there when the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 began in Transylvania; he joined the movement in March.

Known as the flag-bearer of the May 1848 Blaj Assembly, he was elected to a 25-member permanent committee of Romanians. Enrolling in the national guard, he was named "major tribune" of his native Țara Bârsei's prefecture starting that October,Josan, p. 287 and around the same time was named a teacher at the Romanian school in Brașov. In November, he was named assessor (councilor) of the Făgăraș district, as well as inspector of the Mândra area. The last important political event of 1848 in which Pușcariu took part was the December assembly at Sibiu, convoked by Metropolitan Andrei Șaguna in order to discuss the problems faced by the Romanian nation in a Transylvania considered "pacified" by General Anton von Puchner. In early 1849, while armed confrontations against Székely forces took place nearby, Pușcariu was able to exercise his administrative functions until Făgăraș was occupied by Józef Bem's troops in March. At that point, he fled across the Rucăr-Bran Pass into Wallachia, remaining until the revolution was crushed.

Administrative and legislative career

Pușcariu then returned home, reoccupying the post of deputy Făgăraș prefect in autumn 1849.Josan, p. 318Berényi, p. 159 He was subsequently named commissioner and then circuit judge for the Făgăraș district, holding office from 1850 to 1861. During these years, his seat of jurisdiction shifted from Perșani in 1850 to Viștea de Jos, Deva and Pui, all in 1851, to Veneția de Jos

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