Getting to Know Peasants: Local Population Records and
Rural Society in Nineteenth-Century France
Authors
Harvey Smith
Abstract
Inconsistent terminology and under-reporting of agricultural occupations in the
French manuscript census schedules from the nineteenth century has proved to be
a serious problem for historians. Drawing on the literature that discusses these
matters, this article presents evidence from a sample commune to propose a
solution: creating linked population files to construct a set oflongitudinal analytical
class groups into which specific occupations can be assigned in a variable way,
depending on standard criteria, from one census to the next. Several tests of social
data from local records using the analytical classifications are presented to
demonstrate their usefulness for social history.
