Adolescent migrants from Normandy in Paris at the end of the 18th century

The article deals with the social and family environments and modes of departure of migrants from Normandy to Paris at the end of the 18th century. It also considers in-migrants' future once in Paris. This approach to long distance migratory phenomena — applied here specifically to follow a population of adolescents — was possible due to the fruitful linking of serial nominative sources, each created independently. For the departure zone, we have examined three regions in Normandy for which the population was reconstituted over a period covering the end of the 18th century. For Paris, we used the registers of identity cards, or cartes de sûreté, issued between 1793 and 1794. The typical portrait of the adolescent in-migrant consists of an individual who is the youngest member of a fairly large family. He was often born in a small town, not in a village. It is likely that his decision to migrate was not impeded by his father's refusal. Indeed, the father of the in-migrant was often dead when the son left. In-migrations tended to be isolated; the adolescent rarely joined a family member in the capital. Migration to Paris often seemed to lead to a rupture with the childhood region.