We just
did a little walk around the Pinoso town archives. It was really
interesting in a slight sort of way. Not in the manner of seeing the
Pyramids at Giza but good.
We were
shown the census records, births and deaths stuff, details of the
charges for cutting wood or esparto grass on the land owned by the
town, details of the charter that set the town apart from what had
been the more important town of Monóvar in 1826 and lots more besides. There
was a broader history reflected in the paperwork - the way that the town
was governed under the Constitution of 1812, the change when Fernando
VII was reinstated and then when he was forced to accept the 1812
Constitution between 1820 and 1823. The broad stroke of history reflected in the fine
detail.
I
particularly liked those little details. For instance we were shown
the minutes of the council meetings. During the Republican period in
the early 1930s the paper was very official, with a watermark and a
letterhead, good quality, heavy paper. Into the Franco years and the paper becomes
much more flimsy and poorer quality because the country was poorer
and short of resources in general.
Obviously
nowadays lots of documentation is only presented electronically. Lots
of the older stuff is being digitalized. But technology changes. I
used a database in 1984 that is no longer supported by even the
simplest of modern programmes so it's useless. On the other hand I
can still read the cursive writing on those documents from1812. What
happens when the particular format chosen to digitalize records
becomes so long in the tooth that it is withdrawn?
