The text contains information about The Voices of the 20th Century Archive and Research Group, a department created in 2009 in the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The archive is a collection of data from historical—and sometimes forgotten—qualitative research. The Group attempts to complete the information and protect it from destruction. For example, in regard to research into labourers’ life styles in the 1970s, the author shows how difficult it is after years to create a cohesive whole from the scattered materials. She likens the task to putting together a puzzle. She points to the possible advantages of reusing the material, as well as the limitations a contemporary researcher encounters in attempting to make sense of it.