The transcription and evaluation of heritage records of Edremit district in Karasi province

Heritage records have been considered as one of the fundamental elements of the social history research for the last half century. In past, these records were enregistered into Shariah records in the small settlements. In cities, where the population is higher, there was a register book comprised by those records only. The heritage records of Edremit have been included in the Shariah records of Edremit. In this study, Recording Books number 1220, 1221, 1222, 1223 and, 1224 were analyzed; the transcription and the assessment of the heritage records, which were recorded in years between 1645 and 1732, were made. This research includes the heritage records of 139 people, forty of whom are women, and ninety-nine of whom are men, in total. It is possible to say that the most of the people, who are in the records, are the part of the middle class, when their heritage quantities are considered. It is found out that 137 deceased have 527 heirs. The research demonstrates that, the economy was based on agriculture in general, and the agriculture was based on olive culture and viticulture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. So it is understood from the acquired datum that livestock breeding and trading were kept in the background. In this study, it is tried to verify information from the archive records about socio-cultural and socioeconomic structures of Edremit Municipality in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.