Antonis Nasis
The long-standing provincial dragoman dynasty of the Francos has served at the French consulate in Chania, the capital of the Ottoman vilayet (province) of Crete, since the mid-18th century. Their legacy seemed to be in jeopardy when Monsieur Latten emerged as a contender for the dragoman position at the consulate. In response to the French ministry’s intention to appoint Mr. Latten, the French consul, Bertrand, argued that the candidate’s “mediocre curriculum vitae” suggested he was considered primarily due to strong connections. This situation also had significant implications for the Franco family. On 15 July 1861, the French consulate in Chania initiated a procedure to register the family as French nationals. Despite any omissions regarding “certain formalities and bureaucratic acts”, as the consul himself acknowledged, the French authorities would ardently advocate for the Franco file, ensuring they could continue to maintain their centuries-old privileges under a specific legal framework. This framework was based on the Capitulations (῾ahdname), which conferred upon non-Ottoman subjects a set of privileges and obligations (Van den Boogert 2005).
Beyond Ottoman jurisprudence, the Franco family was required to consider amendments to the French Civil Code (1804, 1849) for individuals who were “not French nationals and who have made a substantial contribution to the French economy through the provision of services”. This entailed collating a substantial corpus of documentation attesting to their French origin. The collected documents were travelled in an envelope along the following routes: Chania, Bayonne (southwestern France), Paris, the port city of Smyrna (Ottoman Empire), and back to Chania. The collection of these documents, initially intended for individual use, will ultimately be used by the family as a set of seventeen pieces from various state and non-state entities, spanning over a century (Fig. 1).


Fig. 1 (left). List of the seventeen records in the Francos’ envelope (AMAE, Personnel, Moïse Franco, 23 August 1861); Fig. 2 (right). Copy of the birth certificate of Moïse Franco’s ancestor, Abraham Dacosta Franco, from Bayonne Municipality (AMAE, Personnel, Moïse Franco, 23 August 1861).
The Franco family, originally from the Iberian Peninsula, most likely Portugal, was compelled to follow migratory flows due to mass persecutions of Iberian Jews and eventually settled in the Jewish quarter of Saint-Esprit in Bayonne, a town in southwestern France. For this reason, in April 1861, Moïse Franco travelled to Bayonne to obtain a copy of his ancestors’ birth certificate to establish his lineage (Fig. 2).
Subsequently, additional documents were presented by the French consul in Chania, certifying the long-standing services of the Francos as dragomans and merchants who had served France’s interests across various periods (1823, 1837, 1843, 1848, 1853, 1858, and 1860). The Francos’ activities extended beyond the island of Crete and maintained a presence in the central Mediterranean port of Smyrna, as evidenced by archival records in the Ottoman archives. They acted as brokers (ṣarrāf), a function equivalent to that of moneylenders in the absence of bankers. They constituted a significant source of profit for the Ottoman state in the context of the capitulations (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. The document describes the appreciation and the long-standing contribution of the Franco family to Ottoman interests as brokers (BOA, İ.HR.239/14162).
However, the complex legal status of the Franco family required supplementary documentation. Consequently, the Francos requested the local Jewish millet (community) of Chania declare their religious affiliation. They declared that they had never “never renounced their French citizenship, nor their ancestry” (Fig. 4). Ultimately, the unique legal framework of the Capitulations allowed individuals from outside the Ottoman Empire to engage in commercial enterprises within its territory. However, this entailed formal ratification from the relevant Ottoman authorities. In this case, the vali (general governor) of Crete Muşir İsmail Paşa corroborated that Francos had always been part of the French delegation (Fig. 5).


Fig. 4 (left). Certificate of the Jewish community of Crete with signatures (Source: AMAE, Personnel, Moïse Franco, 23 August 1861); Fig. 5 (right). French translation of the Certificate issued from the Ottoman authority of Crete by the vali Muşir İsmail Paşa (AMAE, Personnel, Moïse Franco, 10-12 June 1861).
The case of the Franco family of Chania illustrates the legal pluralism that characterised the Ottoman Empire at the time, particularly for individuals under the protection of the French state who were not formal subjects of that state. The Francos served the French “colony” for a century without being subjects of the French state. Their case offers valuable insights into the evolving legal concept of citizenship in the Mediterranean and inter-imperial contexts, as exemplified by Crete. This aligns with Jessica Marglin’s concept of “legal belonging” in her microhistorical research, which examines the complexities of nationality and citizenship between imperial contexts and the personal positioning of actors (Marglin, 2022). The documents collected in the Franco case, while naming specific family members, would ultimately have a profound influence on all of the Francos’ professional and economic activities. Over time these records played a decisive role in their fate, leading to the loss of French citizenship and the subsequent extermination at the hands of the Germans in June 1944 – at least for the majority of them. The Franco family’s case demonstrates how legal and administrative documents, at different times and in various locations, were accorded disparate statuses and functions. However, these documents eventually constituted a unified cohesive whole – an envelope – of legal and historical significance. This collection of records reflects the broader transformations occurring in the Eastern Mediterranean, where individuals and families sought to protect their interests and maintain continuity through inherited legal and economic strategies.
Sources
Archives du ministère des Affaires Étrangères [French Foreign Ministry Archives]
Personnel, Moise Franco
Devlet Arşivleri Başkanlığı, Osmanlı Arşivi [Ottoman State Archives]
BOA, İ.HR.239/14162
Bibliography
Julia Phillips Cohen, Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Jessica Marglin, The Shamama Case. Contesting Citizenship across the Modern Mediterranean, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.
M’hamed Oualdi, “Une succession d’empires. Les historicités d’une société maghrébine (1860-1930)”, Annales HSS 72, no. 4, 2017, p. 1055-1083.
Marie-Carmen Smyrnelis, Traversées méditerranéennes. Jeux d’espace et mobilités au XIXe siècle, Paris : Classiques Garnier, 2023.
Maurits H. Van den Boogert, The Capitulations and the Ottoman Legal System: Qadis, Consuls and Beratlıs in the 18th Century, Leiden: Brill, 2005.



















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