Original scientific paper
The Population of Omiš According to the 1806 Census
Josip Celić
Abstract
According to the 1805 Bratislava Peace Treaty, Napoleon’s army occupied Dalmatia, the only Croatian land on the Adriatic coast. This area had a special geo-strategic significance to the French plans of conquest. Creating a new territorial-administrative division, the French authorities ordered a census to be made of the population, of the number of animals and boats in order to obtain precise information about the inhabitants and their properties for the purpose of the draft, for public works and other activities. The 1806 Census is stored amongst the Papers of the French Administration in the Zadar State Archive. It is written in Italian. According to demographic features the census is secular and restricted to the city of Omiš and its immediate surroundings. The estate structure of the city is reflected in the recording of the settled population: the remaining members of the municipal nobility, the burghers, the common folk and the clergy. The census shows that at the beginning of the 19th century, the Omiš population was still structured according to estates and that it still assembled in its corresponding social organizations, serving in city services and offices. Within a short period of time Napoleon’s administration did away with this practice. According to the number of houses the anagraph collectively registers the individual family communities composed of married couples, widowers and widows, with or without their children. By way of such family communities the census records the number of members living with the head of the family and those who, although not relatives, are associated with him. In most cases these were servants, other poor house members, whose family origin or marital status could not be established because of certain shortcomings of the census so that the author had to rely on other methods of reconstruction using other archival sources. Using these indicators the size of the family has been shown on a table and the characteristics of a stable family and its home were delineated. It is obvious that the Omiš family was small and that it corresponded to the size of the city family as distinct from the more numerous one in the village or the more compact and more tightly-knit one in the patriarchal family nucleus. On the basis of the size of the family, the author makes note of the number of male and female children and the age they enter marriage or remain single. The people who remained single were encompassed by the census and as such form a household, living alone or with relatives or with members of the household who are not their relatives. The few recorded persons belonging to the clergy, such as priests and nuns of the Tertiary order of St Francis in Omiš lived alone or together with their nearest relatives. In the supplement to the census, in addition to the number of inhabitants, individual Omiš merchants or individual craftsmen, who were in demand by the everyday life of the city and its environs, were recorded. The analysis of the census makes a contribution to a better understanding of Omiš society at the dawn of the modern age.
Keywords
Omiš; XIXth century; census; population; social estates; family; household; occupation
Hrčak ID:
11894
URI
Publication date:
5.9.2006.
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