Romani population in Wallachia, development of a new database

CEDAR seminar with Julieta Rotaru.

Title:
Romani population in Wallachia, development of a new database.

Abstract:
This study draws on the unpublished 1838 first demographic count of Romanian population. As a specificity of this part of Europe, ethnicity or “nationality” was recorded: Romanian, Greek, Hungarian, German, Russian, Țigan, and even sub-ethnic groups of Țigani, based on self-denomination, and the understanding of the situation by the census taker, namely Rudar, Ursar, Căldărar, etc.

MapRom succeeded to gather data about the entire Romani population from Wallachia:  12,282 Roma households (48,508 individuals), from 2,586 localities, 1,304 with Romani population and 1,282 without any Rom inhabitant. The official aggregate tables published in the 1840s show a number of 13,244 Roma households. The difference comes from not having included in our research the Wallachian capital Bucharest (which is the subject of an individual study) and from loss of archival material.

We went through all the volumes from the National Historical Archives, Bucharest (over 100 volumes, cloth paper, dozen linear meters) and selected the Romani population: not only the “Țigan” households, but also the family or individuals who were living on their master’s property. By now, MapRom has a good count of Romani population living on territory of nowadays Southern Romania just before their Emancipation from slavery. We have reconstructed: the Romani household composition, the age of marriage, the professional occupations, their settings, etc.