Ottoman court records have been a treasure trove for social historians for decades. The records kept by the qadi and his scribes have illuminated numerous aspects of Ottoman society from economics to gender relations, from inter-communal relations to artisanal production. Yet, like every historical source, court records have a blind spot. They remain silent on how the courthouse related to the rest of the community as a key space of encounter between the state and the society, between the offical and the local. In contrast to the pretense of neutrality and self-erasure the qadis adopt in keeping court records, their personal notebooks (manuscript macmu’as) are replete with information about their family and social lives, reading habits, and cultural interests. This paper introduces a ‘family archive’ kept by the high-ranking judge Baldirzade Mehmed Efendi (d. 1650) and his son, Dervish Mehmed Efendi (d. 1668) from Ottoman Bursa. The manuscript, passed down from father to son, is full of information about other members of the family, too. In short, the work is a rare example of an early modern family archive. Being a scholarly family, the family also kept extensive records of their correspondence with other ‘ulama,as well as notable legal opinions and court cases. The letters and cases come from the major provinces where the family held posts: cases from Istanbul, Konya, Mecca appear alongside those from Bursa, where the family remained rooted despite their professional peregrinations. Through the family archive, this paper investigates how the Baldirzades compiled and passed down information about various provinces of the Ottoman Empire within the family and beyond, across their social circles in Bursa. Therefore, the manuscript notes of Baldirzades were not only a private family archive, but also a window onto the rest of the empire for residents of Bursa.