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Description
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This was a pilot project to disclose the Paramaribo ward registers. For the full version see: https://hdl.handle.net/10622/VLN8FD
Structured dataset in rdf and csv based on a transcription made by Philip Dikland in 2009 of the ward register ('wijkregister') of Paramaribo in 1846. The original registers are kept in the National Archives of Suriname.
Since 1828, the Paramaribo municipal administration kept a register of all inhabitants, called the ‘wijkregister’. For each district, a ‘wijkmeester’ (ward master) was appointed by the Governor, tasked with creating and maintaining a register of all inhabitants living in his district. In January of each year, he would ask all the heads of households (owner or main renter of the parcel) to supply him with information on everyone living on his or her household, including sub-renters living on the ‘erf’ (yard). Failure to comply or to supply truthful information was punishable by a fine. In 1846, Paramaribo was divided into the districts A to F, plus the first and second ‘outer districts’ (‘Eerste en Tweede Buitenwijk’). The register of the second outer districts has not been preserved.
This register contained information on all households in the capital of Suriname. For each free person it contained: address, name, age, occupation, religious affiliation and skin color (either ‘white’, designating European descent, ‘colored’, for mixed descent, or ‘black’, for African descent) and the number of people in slavery that were housed on the plot, their skin color (‘black’ or ‘colored’), the sex of the enslaved persons and whether they were adult or child. Lastly, the form allowed room for general remarks, often about the ownership of the parcel or enslaved persons.
The 2009 transcription has been restructured into an rdf dataset (that is also available in csv format). It was converted using the CLARIAH tool COW (https://github.com/CLARIAH/COW). Documentation of this restructuring, cleaning, harmonisation process and the conversion to rdf is described in a data paper that has at this moment been submitted to a journal.
The creation of this dataset was made possible by the CLARIAH-PLUS project financed by NWO (Grant 184.034.023), and by Historical Database Suriname and the Caribbean. (2023-09-07)
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