French prefects and prefects since 1800

The career records of closed Ministry of Interior officials are archived and kept by the National Archives. Since the 1980s, the files of the prefects have been the subject of numerous scientific studies and publications, starting with the biographical dictionaries of the prefects in two volumes ([1800-1870](https://sia.culture.fr/siv/IR/FRAN_IR_001513) and [1870-1982](https://sia.culture.fr/siv/IR/FRAN_IR_001514)) published by the National Archives under the direction of René Bargeton. A third volume dedicated to [prefects since 1982] (https://sia.culture.fr/siv/IR/FRAN_IR_060133) was published in 2022, an inventory that is expected to grow as the career files of the prefects are paid. These dematerialized and published online inventories have been the subject since 2018 of a vast work of alignments and mutual enrichment with Wikidata, thus making it possible to develop this dataset relating to French prefects and prefects since 1800. This dataset of nearly 3900 individuals includes the following information: * Name; * First name; * Gender; * Link to the biographical note on the National Archives’ documentary portal; * Wikidata entity link; * Departmental post (if applicable); * Post in department with years of service (if applicable): as far as possible, the dates of installation and not of appointment were chosen; * Year of birth (excluding data subject to the GDPR); * Year of death. This list includes all persons who served as prefect of a department from 1800 to 2024, as well as individuals who were appointed prefect (non-executive, task manager, deputy prefect) until the 1990s. Please note: it is possible, particularly during the Second World War, that there will be a regional prefect and a deputy prefect at the same time. This list is to be updated as career files are transferred to the National Archives (usually 6 years after their closure by the Ministry of the Interior). For more information: * [Preferred 3.0 ticket: from printed biographical dictionary to online structured data"](https://labarchiv.hypotheses.org/1926) (National Archives Hypotheses booklet). * Wikidata identifiers: [Préfets 1800-1870](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4944); [References 1870-1982](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4906); [Prefets since 1982](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P11080). _Updated 22/05/2023: Addition of data on 26 prefects and prefects (archive release 2023022)_ _Updated on 06/09/2023: addition of 5 missing individuals and dates of death in 2022 and 2023 _ _Updated on 06/11/2023: Addition of 5 _ individuals _Updated 28/01/2025: Addition of 92 individuals and update of functions for 2020-2024_ *Update 13/10/2025: Addition of records of 69 individuals (archive release 20250356)*