Administrative Paperwork

Have been Spending some time looking for information in the Salornay sur Guye Town Hall (Mairie). Salornay is one of the approximately 36,800 communes in France. The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the France. It is interesting that French communes still largely reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution more than two centuries ago. The median size of a commune (the size where half the communes are bigger and half smaller) is only 380.

The communes prepare a "Table Decennale" which is a record of the births, marriages and deaths, each recorded in alphabetical order, for a ten year period. These appear to be a summary of the marriages, birth and death records records of the commune.

The earliest in the group inspected was for the period 1823 to 1833.

photo by Dave Harcourt
(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

photo by Dave Harcourt
(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

Obviously all created by hand in very controlled copperplate - imagine the effort and input of 36 000 people sitting, sorting and transcribing some 20 pages of 25 entries.

photo by Dave Harcourt
(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

The 1923 to 1932 document was the first completed with a typewriter.

photo by Dave Harcourt
(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

Interesting is the general lack of errors and with no tipex either. There was an error with Maurice Bruin being missed the first time round.

photo by Dave Harcourt
(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

The 1933 to 1942 document was the first one that was mechanically reproduced

photo by Dave Harcourt
(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

What is interesting is what was done with all these forms - were they analysed and "upcopied" into other forms looking at other structures.

Now it is surely computerised and all summaries available at the press of a button.