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As for the first question, maybe I can answer that. Napoleon tried to
enforce a civil registration system in the Europe he conquered, since in
most countries the churches kept the baptismal, marriage and death
records but only the state recognized churches, so if you would for
instance marry in a baptist church, which was not a state recognized
church, you were not married. <br><br>
Priests would write down names as they heard them which could, depending
on the dialect of the priest and the parishers, greatly vary and yes,
identities were fluid, you were born on a certain farmhouse which had a
certain name? That was your surname, you moved to a farm with a different
name? So did your name. People often forgot with what kind of names were
baptized and changed it at will (well, they left a few out or added
one)<br><br>
Napoleon wanted the government to register that and municipalities
(mairies as they were initially called with the French word) were set up,
as the lowest governmental unit, provinces (Departement, also French) as
the unit to supervise the municipalities and finally the government to
supervise the provinces, existing church records had to be handed over to
the municipalities and from that moment on the civil registration was
born. <br><br>
After Napoleon was defeated, some countries, Belgium, Holland, France,
and maybe others kept that system in place. Germany abandoned the system
only to be reinstated a 100 years later. The churches did the
registrations again with all the difficulties for the government to
control and easy to change identities again. <br><br>
So, yes, identities in Germany were much more fluid in Germany than in
the countries which kept the Napoleonic system. There the names stuck as
they were written down at the moment you were born. Well, to an extent,
of course civil servants sometimes made mistakes but then again, that
mistake was to be your future identity. <br><br>
At 05:42 PM 1/3/2014 Friday -0800, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Dear All:<br><br>
I hope it is okay to just ask a buch of questions. These are issues <br>
that could likely be answered when finding the right kind of <br>
publications. Just that I am not quite sure where to look ... maybe <br>
anthropological literature? <br><br>
(1) Passports and other ID documents:<br>
My impression thus far is that IN EUROPE and the U.S. passports and IDs
<br>
where much less important during the first half of the 20th century,
<br>
specifically before 1939, than they were after World War II. To clarify
<br>
what I mean: it seems that it was extremely easy to e.g. change one's
<br>
name, to change entire identities, carry several names at the same <br>
time, several nationalities also. It further seems that in peaceful <br>
times neither European nor U.S. government offices where that much <br>
interested in the real "historic" identities of people living
in their <br>
national territories. I say this as I came across more and more cases
<br>
where it had been evident to the authorities that the historical <br>
identity given in a person's passport did not match up with the actual
<br>
person, and this had no consequences of any sort. One explanation is to
<br>
argue that the technical means of today's total surveillance society
<br>
where simply not there. The other, partial explanation would be that
<br>
there was a different mindset at work where "identities" like
personal <br>
names and nationalities where far more fluid than they are today. If I
<br>
"reactivate" my almost lost childhood memories and recall
conversations <br>
with family or neighbors who where born in the 1880s to early 1900s,
<br>
then I would certainly favor this second explanation. They quite <br>
"naturally" talked about changing all sorts of identities as
<br>
needed--hard for me to summarize this in a sentence or two. (That is
<br>
certainly a very objective statement.) Is the life-long invisible data
<br>
string of name, nationality, and fingerprints directly related with the
<br>
development of nation-states? It would in that case be a real <br>
latecomer. I would be interested in any information or thoughts on this
<br>
issue, both for the West and for East Asia.<br><br>
(2) Marriages & Divorces:<br>
When was something like a "divorce" being introduced in
Korea--I mean <br>
in the sense that it would be recorded with some administrative <br>
'paperwork' with a public office? How where divorces handled during the
<br>
colonial period? That is, would a man (my focus is of the men here) be
<br>
able to remarry with any sort of traditional marriage ceremony without
<br>
any sort of official paperwork under Japanese rule? I am sure there is
<br>
literature out there on this issue, probably a lot, I just don't know
<br>
it. Any suggestions what to read (for a good overview).<br><br>
(3) Jap. colonial diplomatic and Secret Police records:<br>
Has anyone information if Japanese colonial diplomatic and Secret <br>
Police records were burned 1945 (in Korea) before Soviet and American
<br>
troops came? I noticed that records about e.g. Korean political <br>
activities on the peninsular but also in Manchuria and China are <br>
relatively extensive and detailed while others regarding Koreans in the
<br>
U.S. and Europe seem so poor that I can hardly imagine we now have all
<br>
there was. (To be sure, I do NOT have any sort of clear overview on <br>
this--it is all fragmentary, and therefore also a question based on <br>
fragmentary knowledge.) There should be more than a hundred times the
<br>
amount of records that we now see in the archives, that also becomes
<br>
evident when going through e.g. British or German records in the <br>
Foreign Offices of the time and see the references to Jap. sources. Any
<br>
thoughts or information?<br><br>
<br>
Thank you!<br>
Frank</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
_ _<br>
(o) (o)<br>
oOOO----(_)----OOOo---<br>
Henny (Lee Hae Kang)<br>
-----------------------------<br>
<a href="http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> Portal to all my sites<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>(in
English) Feel free to discover Korea with Hendrick Hamel (1653-1666)<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/indexk2.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/indexk2.htm</a>
</u></font>In Korean <br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/Dutch" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/Dutch</a> </u></font>In
Dutch<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.vos.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.vos.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>Frits Vos Article
about Witsen and Eibokken and his first Korean-Dutch dictionary<br>
<a href="http://www.cartography.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cartography.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> (in English) Korea
through Western Cartographic eyes<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hwasong.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hwasong.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>Hwasong the
fortress in Suwon<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.oldkorea.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.oldKorea.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>Old Korea in
pictures<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.british.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.british.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>A British
encounter in Pusan (1797)<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.henny-savenije.com/tng/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.henny-savenije.com/tng/</a> </u></font>Genealogy<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr/phorum" eudora="autourl">
http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr/phorum</a> </u></font>Bulletin board for
Korean studies<br><br>
<br>
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