Families and family structure in a Neo-Hellenic city: Hermoupolis in the mid-19th century

This article begins with the creation and development of the city of Hermoupolis and stresses its prominent economic role during the 19th century in the Greek state. It points out the problems of the official censuses and emphasizes the importance of the original source of the 1861 census of Hermoupolis, which was found in the city's municipal archives. It analyzes this source and offers some working hypotheses about the structure of households (where the dominant type is the simple family), the frequency of domestic servants, the wide spectrum of occupations, the origin of inhabitants, and social mobility based on 501 households (17%) representing 1901 individuals (17.52%) of the total for which we have information.