Proceedings from an international conference held in 2001 in Martin, Slovakia, the goal of which was to evaluate activities in the field of genealogy, heraldry and related disciplines in the closed Central European countries. Archivists, historians, genealogists and teachers from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria elucidate both positive and negative phenomena that accompanied the process of preserving and making access into information in the mentioned branches and countries in the years 1988 – 2003 (before publishing the proceedings were updated). The book can serve as a source of useful information to archivists, teachers, researchers etc. Extensive English summaries make it accessible to the wide international public.