PARIS · 1931 – 1936
An ordinary blue door in the 15th arrondissement, and the household the census still remembers behind it.
- Status
- Closed
- Location
- 6 Rue Mademoiselle, Paris, France
- Period currently documented
- 1931–1936
- Research
- Verified
6 Rue Mademoiselle, Paris.
There is nothing remarkable about it. A blue double door set into pale stone, a number above the entrance, a street that most people walk down without looking up. We chose it because it was ordinary, and because we had no idea who we would find behind it.
Everything below comes from surviving records. Where the records stop, so do we.
A household of three.
The 1931 population census of Paris lists three people living at this address:
- Pierinoborn in Italy
- Hélèneborn in Loir-et-Cher, France
- Suzanneborn in Paris in 1927
Hélène was recorded as the concierge.
That single word changed the direction of the research. A Parisian concierge in this period was not simply a doorkeeper. Historical research covering Parisian concierges through the 1920s and 1930s describes responsibilities that included collecting rents, maintaining the building, keeping order, and controlling and opening the main entrance. Other studies of the first half of the 20th century note that concierges commonly cleaned shared areas, distributed mail, collected rent, and acted as the intermediary between tenants and the owner.
Concierges also commonly lived inside the building they looked after, usually in a small ground-floor apartment — the loge — close to the entrance. There is even a Parisian expression for the work: tirer le cordon, "pull the cord," from the mechanism that let a concierge open the street door from inside the lodge.
In other words, our first randomly chosen doorway led us to someone whose working life may have revolved around a doorway just like it.
The same address. The same family. One more.
The 1936 census records the household at 6 Rue Mademoiselle again. Hélène is still there, and still listed as a concierge. Suzanne is still there. Pierino appears again, this time recorded as Pierre.
And the household has grown by one.
- Hélènerecorded again as concierge
- Suzanneborn Paris, 1927
- Pierrerecorded in 1931 as Pierino
- Pierre Félix Berdoatiborn in Paris on 25 September 1934; died in Mantes-la-Jolie in 1992, aged 57
What we know
- •Three people — Pierino, Hélène and Suzanne — were recorded at 6 Rue Mademoiselle, Paris, in the 1931 population census.
- •Hélène was recorded as a concierge in both the 1931 and 1936 censuses.
- •Pierino was born in Italy; Hélène was born in Loir-et-Cher, France; Suzanne was born in Paris in 1927.
- •The 1936 census records the household at the same address, with a fourth member, Pierre Félix Berdoati, born in Paris on 25 September 1934.
- •Pierre Félix Berdoati died in Mantes-la-Jolie in 1992, at the age of 57.
What we think
- •Pierino and Pierre are very likely the same man, recorded under an Italian and a French form of the same name five years apart at the same address.
- •As the building's concierge, Hélène most likely lived in a ground-floor loge near the entrance, which was the standard arrangement in Paris apartment buildings of this period.
What we don't know
The surviving records give us only two census moments, so we do not know what became of Pierino/Pierre, Hélène and Suzanne after 1936.
Archives de Paris — population census of Paris, 1931
- Record type: nominative population census return
- Address: 6 Rue Mademoiselle, Paris
- Household: Pierino, Hélène, Suzanne
- Digitised and made available online by the Archives de Paris
Archives de Paris — population census of Paris, 1936
- Record type: nominative population census return
- Address: 6 Rue Mademoiselle, Paris
- Household: Pierre, Hélène, Suzanne, Pierre Félix Berdoati
- Digitised and made available online by the Archives de Paris
French public death records index
- Record type: death registration index entry
- Subject: Pierre Félix Berdoati, born Paris 25 September 1934
- Place of death: Mantes-la-Jolie, 1992
Published research on Parisian concierges, 1920s–1930s
- Used only for general context on the duties and living arrangements of concierges in Paris apartment buildings of the period
- Not used to make any claim specific to 6 Rue Mademoiselle
Census imagery on this page comes from the population censuses of Paris, digitised and made available by the Archives de Paris.
FILE 001: CLOSED.
If another record, photograph or family connection finds its way to us, we will open it again.
File 001
6 Rue Mademoiselle
Paris, France
No Fiction. No Hype. Just What We Find.
The Doorway Files