Integration and social networks: Lutherans in revolutionary Paris, 1789–1797

Abstract

Using the wedding registers of the Swedish embassy chapel in Paris during the years of the French Revolution, the article analyses patterns of integration among Lutheran immigrants who had come to reside in Paris. Using the network paradigm but not restricting the analysis to kinship networks, the identified relationships show that geographical origin played a significant role in the creation of networks, as did occupation. People with common geographical origins, and within the same trade, built up social networks lasting many years. Residential proximity was also present in network ties. In most of the weddings analysed, these different factors were intertwined, suggesting that the process of social integration often demanded both time and space as necessary elements. Moreover, the evidence suggests more generally that examining only kinship ties in the study of historical network analysis is unnecessarily restrictive if sources permit the examination of other bases on which networks can be formed.

Notes

1 This article was first presented at the session of Marriages and social networks in urban context. European Social Science History Conference 22–25 March 2006, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I would like to thank the participants at the session for valuable comments, especially Gérard Béaur, Centre de recherches historiques (CRH), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris.

2 In this paper the concept network can be translated as social relations, because I have no intention of discussing or analysing the wedding register in the Swedish Embassy chapel from the perspective of classical network analysis. See Scott (1991).

3 Eschmann appeared as witness at 14 occasions during 1791–92 and Og at 13 occasions 1790–98.

4 Guillaume Albert was arrested in 11 Floreal year 2. See Archives Nationales (AN). Comité de sûreté generale. F7/4577, dossier 7, pieces 9–94.

5 See Le dictionnaire universel d'Antoine Furetière. Préface par Pierre Bayle, (1978) Paris: Le Robert, on the difference between the words, fourreur and pelletier.

6 Sewell, William H. Jr, Work and Revolution in France. The Language of Labour from the Old Regime to 1848 (Cambridge University Press, 1980), 20. Bergeron, Louis, “The Businessman”, in Michel Vovelle, ed., Enlightment Portraits (The University of Chicago Press, 1997), 122–123. Coornaert, Èmile, Les corporations en France avant 1789 (Paris: Les Éditions Ouvrières, 1968), 135.

7 Archives Nationales. Comité de sûreté generale. F7/4808.

8 In 1801 24% of the foreigners marrying in Paris were of German origin.

9 Compare with the conditions in Sweden where you will find a similar pattern. See Ericsson (2000).