Louis-François Pinagot
He was an illiterate shoemaker in western France in the 19th century. French historian Alain Corbin picked Pinagot at random on a town registry, and wrote his biography as a way to describe the social environment of 19th century France, collecting as much data as possible about Pinagot, his family, his village, etc.
The result was published in 2001 in Le monde retrouvé de Louis-François Pinagot, sur les traces d'un inconnu, 1798-1876, translated into English as The Life of an Unknown.
Reviews of this original and interesting (imho) work can be found herein French in French or or therein English in English.