This sub-district spanned in the South of district Dolj, on the bank of the Danube, between the villages of Poiana and Desa (to the West) and the river Jiu, to the East. The form that it had in late 1837 (when the census started) lasted shortly, since both in earlier and later decades, there were two sub-districts that covered this territory: Upper and Lower Balta. Therefore, the census was conducted in a time when Southern Dolj (West to the river Jiu) was organized as a single administrative unit.
In 1837, it was composed of 26 villages: Băileşti, Bistreţu, Cârna, Catanele, Comoşteni, Coveiu de Jos, Coveiu de Sus, Desa, Gângiova, Ghidiciu, Greceştii Târnava, Gighera, Măceşu de Jos, Măceşu de Sus, Nedeia, Negoiu, Piscu, Plosca, Poiana, Rast, Rebegi, Săpata, Seaca de Jos, Seaca de Sus, Tunarii Români şi Zăvalu. According to the sample that we compiled, there were 17,727 recorded inhabitants. The census aggregates at the end of the register mistakenly give the sum of 16,718. Poiana was the most populous village, not just from Dolj, but even from the entire country, with 3,705 people. The smallest within Balta – Coveiu de Sus – numbered just 21.
The forms of these villages are preserved as copies sent to Bucharest, certified by the local subprefect, Nicolae Gioroceanu. They were bound in a single book, kept today at the National Archives, fond Catagrafii, no. I/9. The book contains 424 pages and does not seem to present large gaps – all villages are covered. The most important shortages consist of missing information for eight houses from village Coveiu de Jos, and twelve from Rebegi.
This material was transcribed in its entirety. Based on the transcription, a dataset was compiled. The process was performed by Bogdan Mateescu (project director) in 2020 and 2021.
Interested audience have free access to the digitized material, we only ask that it is cited where it is being used in publications.
Population sample:
1837-8 general census forms of sub-district Balta-Dolj [historical microdata file, Dem-Ist database. Bogdan Mateescu] 1.0
xlsx
csv
Dataset with numeric codes for sex, family relation, household relation, occupation (HISCO codes) and quality
variables.
xlsx
csv
Cite this material as follows: 1837-8 general census forms of sub-district Balta-Dolj [historical microdata file,Dem-Ist database. Bogdan Mateescu] 1.0. demist.iini.ro. 2021
Page numbers within the census book and the aggregates summed up by the census taker, for each village:
1837-8
content list of census book of sub-district Balta-Dolj
csv
xlsx
Cite this material as follows: 1837-8 content list of census book of sub-district Balta-Dolj [historical aggregates, Dem-Ist. Bogdan Mateescu] 1.0. demist.iini.ro. 2021
Interactive map. The villages of the sub-district, their pages within the census book and population according to the population sample.
