State of souls register for Quenza, Corsica, 1757

Quenza is a mountain village in southern Corsica. In the 18th century the economy was based upon small-scale agriculture and seasonal pastoral transhumance between coastal plain and upland pasture. In summer, the population would be about 600 persons, but most of these would live in the coastal town of Portovecchio or its surrounding pastoral hamlets in the winter.

The state of souls register shown here, represents a summer population including pastoral families. It is simple in form. Each family is given a number, names, ages and relationship to the head (listed first) are stated. From the point of view of the Benevento formulary, this is very minimal information. Although the families appear to form discrete units, evidence from other sources, such as notarial acts, indicates that groups of brothers, along with their wives and children would in many cases occupy apartments within the same building, perhaps with communal facilities. Such fraternal groups appear to have had a strong identity and would continue to hold land together for many years, and appear to have exploited their property in common in many cases.

Notes

1 q Giacomo Alfonzo

conventional notation for stating father's name. Such patronyms were commonly used in Corsica into the nineteenth century. Many families did not use surnames until the mid-late eighteenth century, so the patronym was important as a means of official identification. The q stands for quondam - a certain.

2 Maggiore

Major. Military titles were often used by elite males in Corsica at this period. They could be inherited and do not necessarily signify a soldier or an achieved rank.

3 Alfiere

Military rank similar to lieutenant. See note 2.

The example shows two 'families' and the start of a third. The first consists of the parish priest. All three of the heads are brothers and probably inhabited the same property (the family of the fourth brother Marco Maria follows on but is not included in the illustration). The families of brothers are very often listed one following another in this manner in Corsica registers.