Traditionally the information contained within the parish marriage register has been used to consider the separation distance of bride and groom when they marry. However, this method of approaching the parish marriage register can be misleading and conceals a hidden narrative. By creating longitudinal narratives, the marriage can be viewed not as an isolated event, but as an event set within the bride and groom's broader life history. This method is time consuming if carried out on a large scale, so the ideal vehicle for this close analysis is the local study, and the parish this paper uses as a case study is Fletton, Huntingdonshire. Fletton is an ideal parish to choose for an analysis of marriage as it was an area of population growth and migration, and so attracted young unmarried migrants, both male and female. In addition, despite its growth, for the period 1891 to 1911 Fletton still had a comparatively small population so full record linkage can take place. In carrying out this approach this paper makes it clear that a quite different narrative of marriage horizons, separation distances and belonging can be told from that which would emerge from a consideration of separation distances in isolation.
he main objective of this paper is to reveal the effect of social value in child mortality in the city of Zacatecas, Mexico, between 1835 and 1845. The source of the data analysed was the departures of deaths of the parish of El Sagrario, and the statistical techniques of historical demography were used under the approach of demographic anthropology. The results indicated differences in the causes of mortality by sex, gender, and age. In neonatal mortality there was a greater number of deaths due to infectious processes (fevers), especially diseases related to the respiratory system, and there was a male predominance (53 per cent). From the second year of life female mortality has a predominance. Due to gastrointestinal infections, fevers, nutritional deficiencies, and epidemic diseases (measles), women recorded higher mortality (53 per cent), especially from measles. These results suggest that the cultural value attributed to gender had a fundamental role towards the care provided to children.
Ciarán McCabe's appraisal of charwomen in early twentieth -century Dublin tenements revealed large numbers of widow chars maintaining independent households. This initial quantitative demographic study of a one fifth sample of rural Berkshire charwomen, using raw data from the 1911 census, finds similarities with contemporary Dublin. Charring was often a response to financial imperatives, and migration played little part in the life of charwomen.
This research note adds to the evidence of the scale and nature of the 1727-1731 mortality crisis by describing some evidence from the parish registers of Surrey. It shows that non-metropolitan Surrey experienced waves of raised mortality over a period of several years between 1727 and 1731 and, to a lesser extent, into 1732. The raised mortality affected different parishes at different times and to different extents. The seasonality of peaks in burials and differences in the ages of those buried provides an indication of the diseases which may have been involved. There is some evidence suggesting a degree of social disruption during the crisis.
In their extensive research into early modern literacy rates, through the marriage partners' signatures, Roger Schofield and David Cressy alerted us to the potential variability of literacy by region and locality. Modern theorists of literacy have also denoted the desirability of more localised considerations. In an attempt to address that issue in combination with the development of modern society through industrialisation, this article investigates the ability to sign marriage registers (after 1754) as a nominal marker of literacy in two contiguous parishes in north-west Leicestershire, both going through the industrialisation process, but one with more diversity than the monoindustrial character of the other: Loughborough and Shepshed. In addition, the analysis takes into consideration the ability to sign by witnesses to the marriage, as a separate cohort. The printed marriage registers introduced by the Marriage Act of 1753 (26 Geo. II, c. 33), which required signature or mark by two credible witnesses, coincided with the acceleration of industrialisation and thus have particular significance for some localities. In industrialising societies, the decision to attain literacy was also influenced by local social attitudes, such as whether illiteracy carried a social stigma or not.
This paper, the fourth of four, discusses infant mortality during the twentieth century. It charts the changes and major influences on infant mortality over the course of the century. The paper also includes examples of how research into this important topic can be carried out and it ends with suggestions for future research.
The Registrar General's Returns are an integral source for historical demographers. Concerns have been raised, however, over the geographical accuracy of their pre-1911 mortality figures when institutional deaths were not redistributed to place of residence. This paper determines the extent of the distortions caused by institutional mortality in the context of aggregate infant mortality rates for London's registration sub-districts. The potential of two alternative methods to 'correct' these distortions is then assessed. The first method uses indirect estimation techniques based on data from the 1911 Fertility Census, and the second exploits the rich detail available from the Medical Officer of Health reports. Through narrowing the focus to seven London registration sub-districts over the years 1896–1911, it is shown that both suggested alternative methods remove the institutional mortality biases found in the Registrar General's figures, yet they come with their own limitations.
This article uses aggregate analysis of parish registers to consider mortality in the early modern period. Based on a case study of the majority of the historical county of Surrey between about 1550 and 1750, it explores the nature and geographical distribution of mortality crises and seasonal patterns of mortality in normal, non-crisis, times. For the former it focusses mainly on two crises only a few years apart but with different causes, the dearth of the late 1590s and an outbreak of plague in 1603.
Industrial colonies were one of the most characteristic phenomena of the industrial revolution in Catalonia. They first appeared in the 1870s, developing their own labour and social model, and eventually totalled more than 70 in number. Taking 11 cotton textile colonies as its point of reference, the aim of this paper is to analyse, based on local sources such as municipal enumerators' books and worker censuses, the labour force participation of the women who lived and worked in the Catalan textile company towns in the early twentieth century. Once the rate of female activity is calculated, the article analyses the determining factors of female participation in these labour markets and the family strategies adopted to combine productive and reproductive work. Furthermore, it also examines workforce composition and employment structure, observing the behaviours of female workers in the labour market, the occupations that women performed, and the job stability that they enjoyed.
This article shows that, for a sample of Devon parishes during the period c.1700–1850, there were seasonalities in the events of marriages and baptisms in general, but that in parishes linked to seafaring, especially in the Newfoundland trade, the seasonal patterns were much greater and occurred in different months. Seasonal variations also declined and changed over time, which in part was due to the changing economies of the maritime parishes, especially after 1800 when the Newfoundland trade changed and declined. It cannot be claimed that this trade was exclusively responsible for the seasonal pattern, but the results confirm that seafaring was linked to the variation in the number of marriages and baptisms from month to month.
This short note examines the role of payments for sparrow catching in the parish of Mattishall in Norfolk in the 1820s. Payments for sparrow catching were made by the poor law authorities to those who otherwise had no income, or an insufficient income to subsist. They were part of the economy of makeshifts. A plausible interpretation of the evidence is that the overseers of the poor in Mattishall felt that it was important that paupers do some work in exchange for their dole money, if suitable work could be found.
This paper uses parish burial records to examine the impact of the 1727–1731 mortality crisis in Bedfordshire. This was a significant local event resulting in almost 4,000 excess deaths relating to multiple overlapping events starting in the autumn of 1727 and ending in the spring of 1731. It is argued that the temporal and geographic spread of burials is indicative of epidemic disease, most likely typhus and influenza-like infections, with famine playing, at best, a minor and localised role. The spread and impact of the disease was socially selective though with an element of differentiation. The elderly, the labouring poor and those living in urban areas found themselves at greatest risk, due to age-related susceptibility and their cramped living conditions, which created the conditions that allowed disease to spread effectively. Death rates among the traditional poor reduced during the crisis, possibly representing the triumph of effective local parish arrangements under the Old Poor Law.
All births, marriages and deaths that occurred in two rural parishes in south-west England in the period 1754–1914 were examined, using a wide array of source material. Records of individuals were linked together into large multi-generational family groups. There were 4,940 births, of which 319 were illegitimate. For the illegitimate cases, the rates of subsequent marriage of mothers and fathers were determined and compared with those for other people in the same parishes. Being the father of an illegitimate child did not impact the chances of subsequent marriage. Being the mother of an illegitimate child decreased the chances of subsequent marriage but only if the mother was co-resident with her children. Where the mother did not live with the illegitimate child(ren), her chances of marriage were similar to that of other women. Mothers of illegitimate children were more likely to marry their cousins and were less geographically mobile than other mothers.
This paper, the third of four, discusses infant mortality during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, 1837-1910. It mainly uses sources generated by the civil registration of vital events, which was established in 1837, to identify trends and patterns, and more importantly, it discusses the beginnings of the secular decline in infant mortality that occurred during this period. The paper also includes examples of how research into this important topic can be carried out and it ends with suggestions for future research.
The case of the Ukrainian community in the Italian town of Cagliari is analysed in order to investigate how the dividing political and geopolitical events which have affected the independent Ukraine since 1991 have produced significant evolution in the sense of identity of this community, particularly through heterolocalism and transnational projections of ongoing conflicts and ethnic redefinition. Diasporas tend to develop their own peculiar relation and sense of belonging to the homeland, either tightening their ties with the place of origin, and closely reproducing the related representations, or producing new interpretations and visions. The aim of the research was to focus on some of the numerous aspects of ethnic identity redefinition in their transnational dimension, adding to these themes the further challenging consequences of geopolitical conflicts.
Plague and the poor law were inextricably entwined, yet there has been little research into the extent to which poor relief contributed to the economic costs of plague epidemics. While much of the huge expense plague represented to local communities was met largely by special plague rates, fasts and fines, and income from charitable briefs, poor relief was a part of this mixed economy of funds. Through a microhistory of the parish of St Benedict in Cambridge in the town's worst outbreak of plague in 1665–1666, this article indicates that poor relief supported a substantial number of families and paid for their burials. The costs met by overseers represented around one month's additional parish spending. If this was scaled up proportionately to all fourteen parishes this would represent a significant sum of money.
