Digital Framework for the History of the Austrian Military Border in Transylvania

The study provides the documentation for the first public version of the database Digital Framework for the History of the Austrian Military Border in Transylvania by means of a detailed description and user manual. It includes: a short overview of the historical context of the establishment of the Austrian military border in this province, references to the international and Romanian state of the art, the detailing of primary sources issued by the military environment and starting from which the database was built and the main principles of construction and operation of the latter. The information in the database is extracted from the records of the military and administrative personnel of the Transylvanian border regiments between 1763 and 1850, including monthly staff records, information on salaries, enrollments, transfers, desertions, medical certificates, etc. The lists of conduct of the officers should also be mentioned, each of them including a detailed physical and psychological description of the respective person. The database serves two aims. On the one hand, to boost the use of and access to documents generated by the Austrian military and with this to bring the Romanian historical writing on the military border in Transylvania closer to the primary sources. On the other hand, to complement, for the territory of the former military border, the vital registration data provided by parish registers with social history data that can improve life course reconstruction and analysis.