This special issue marks the thirtieth anniversary of The History of the Family and celebrates the retirement of Jan Kok, whose scholarship has profoundly influenced historical family demography over the past decades. Using life course theory as its central organising framework, this introductory article applies core concepts such as life span development, agency, time and place, timing, and linked lives as analytical instruments to examine both Koks scholarly trajectory and the contributions assembled in this special issue. This article first interprets Kok's academic career as a life course in itself, thereby situating his intellectual development within broader historiographical debates, institutional contexts, and collaborative research networks. It then extends this perspective to the collected contributions, allowing for a more systematic reflection on ongoing efforts to disentangle the complex interplay of social, economic, demographic, cultural and biological factors shaping families and societies across time and space. Finally, the discussion considers what these contributions reveal about emerging directions in historical family demography, future challenges facing interdisciplinary research on families, and the continuing evolution and ambitions of our journal.

Over the past two centuries, global health has undergone a revolutionary transformation, with life expectancy more than doubling. While the decline in the burden of infant and childhood mortality has contributed significantly to this improvement, all age groups have experienced remarkable improvements in health and longevity. Yet this health revolution has been uneven and remains incomplete. This introductory article discusses key theoretical frameworks — demographic, epidemiological, and health transition models; fundamental cause theory; and the life course approach — while also critically assessing (some of) their limitations. We highlight how health improvements have coincided with persistent and emerging inequalities, both between and within societies, shaped by such factors as socio-economic status, gender, race, and intersecting forms of disadvantages. The article explores enduring debates, such as the relative importance of nutrition, public health, and medical interventions in driving mortality decline, and identifies key knowledge gaps, including the social origins of morbidity, early-life determinants of adult health, and the historical timing of the rise in health disparities. Recent advances in historical demography, particularly life course and family-based analyses using individual-level cause-of-death data with a standardized international coding and classification system, have opened up new avenues for research. By situating contemporary inequalities in their historical context and linking individual health and disease trajectories to broader social processes, this article provides a foundation for the contributions in this issue and underscores the need for interdisciplinary, longitudinal approaches to the history of health.

Hospitals played a central role in the nineteenth century, as these institutions were the so-called gateways to death or places of healing. Who was admitted and if there is inequality in who died is, however, often understudied. Our study examines the development and mortality risks of the patient population in the Binnengasthuis in Amsterdam over time by analysing detailed patient records of people admitted to the hospital in the period 1856-1896. Our results demonstrate that mortality was not extremely high and depended on the admission policy, the composition of the patient populations was very diverse, and that mortality risks were mainly determined by the disease, year, age, and marital status of the admitted patients. This indicates that a diverse population could get a sick bed, for most it would not become their death bed, and that inequality in mortality risks within the hospital based on socioeconomic status or religion was limited.

Between 1812 and 1931, Amsterdam experienced profound demographic, social, and epidemiological changes that reshaped how, when, and why people died. By tracing seasonal mortality patterns over this time period, trends in the rhythm of death are explored in our study. Using monthly death counts from municipal yearbooks and the Amsterdam Cause-of-Death Database, and applying wavelet power spectrum analysis, we identify both persistent winter excess mortality and key disruptions caused by epidemics. For the period 1856–1891, for which continuous cause-specific data is available, our findings reveal that, although airborne infectious diseases largely shaped the winter mortality peak, excess winter deaths remained evident even after their removal. This suggests the important role of other causes-of-death, such as cardiovascular diseases, which are caused by other factors than seasonal viruses. Beyond these findings, it is argued that environmental exposures, such as temperature and reduced sunlight, alongside social inequalities in shaping seasonal vulnerability should be taken into account in future research.

One of the biggest challenges in the transition to open science is making data interoperable. Ideally, existing schemas and vocabularies are (re-)used to describe data, but these are generally problematic for historical data, as they exclude historical concepts and are insensitive to temporal variations in meaning. Therefore, the subdiscipline of historical demography has designed its own schemas and vocabularies to standardize historical data, as researchers require them to make and study large-scale reconstructions of populations and life courses. We introduce a web environment called CLAIR-HD that helps researchers to find vocabularies to standardize historical demographic data, and determine lacunae in the standardization of data within the field of historical demography.

In this contribution, we discuss from the perspective of historical demography how the corona pandemic has led to new research themes and different approaches to existing themes. Examples include the effect of pandemics on social inequalities in mortality and fertility in the short as well as the long run. The corona pandemic has given historical- demographic research additional legitimacy as research into infectious diseases has suddenly attained heightened social relevance. Many publications have focused on the Spanish Flu, overshadowing research into other infectious diseases and causes of death, despite endemic diseases accounting for the majority of deaths in the past. In addition, more attention should be given to how cause-specific mortality data are registered and produced. We argue that historical-demographic research not only provides valuable insights into the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath but also underscores the need to continue expanding and deepening our knowledge of infectious diseases in the past and the present.

Based on unique individual-level cause of death data, this article presents an analysis of the development of infant mortality and the underlying cause of death pattern in the city of Amsterdam in the period 1856–1904. We contribute to the discussion on the development of infant mortality and its determinants and test the newly-constructed ICD10h coding system. First, our results demonstrate that the ICD10h and groupings of causes worked quite well for our period and city data. Second, Amsterdam moved from being one of the most lethal cities in the country to one of the healthiest for infants. These improvements in the fate of infants were brought about despite faltering progress in the provision of piped water, and an absence of modern sewerage throughout the period. For the entire period air-borne diseases were a prominent cause of death category, peaking in the 1880s and still making up the major group of diseases by 1904. Water- and food related ailments were also dominating the epidemiological pattern after the 1870s. Vague or ill-defined disease terms were frequent at the start of the study period. These observations suggest that physicians were increasingly better able and more prepared to formulate more precise disease terms by the 1900s. The seasonality analysis of the different disease groups demonstrates strong summer effects on the group of water- and food related causes of death. It testifies to the shortcomings in the city’s hygienic situation and limited breastfeeding.

L’adoption a été historiquement une stratégie familiale importante en Asie de l’Est pour assurer la continuité de la famille. Cependant, l’adoption d’enfants hors du foyer peut également être considérée comme une stratégie pour faire face aux enfants en surnombre. Ce sujet est au centre de notre article, qui étudie qui est donné en adoption et pourquoi à Taiwan durant la période 1906-1945. La base de données historique des registres des ménages de Taïwan (THHRD), qui peut prendre en compte l’évolution de la composition des ménages dans le temps, est étudiée à l’aide d’analyses univariées et d’analyses de régression de Cox. Les résultats montrent que le sexe, la position à la naissance parmi les frères et sœurs du même sexe et la variation dans le temps et l’espace sont les facteurs les plus importants expliquant la probabilité d’être adopté pour tous les enfants. La position socio-économique joue également un rôle important et la présence d’un grand-père et d’une grand-mère diminue la probabilité d’être adopté, surtout pour les garçons, alors que seule la présence d’une grand-mère a le même effet pour les filles. En outre, si l’on examine plus spécifiquement les risques d’adoption pour les filles, l’âge, le sexe et le statut d’adoption des frères et sœurs dans le ménage semblent également avoir un rôle important dans la mesure où la présence de jeunes frères et sœurs d’âge similaire, augmentent la probabilité d’être adoptées pour les filles. Ces résultats soulignent que la prise de décision des ménages en matière d’adoption est plus complexe que le simple fait de donner des enfants nés tardivement et qu’il est important d’accorder également plus d’attention aux raisons et aux motivations des ménages qui donnent des enfants en adoption. Cette étude ouvre une perspective plus large sur les pratiques d’adoption et sur la manière dont les enfants circulaient des ménages qui en avaient trop vers ceux qui en avaient trop peu et comment cela profitait aux deux.

The complex relationship between the history of infectious diseases and social inequalities has recently attracted renewed attention. Smallpox has so far largely escaped this revived scholarly scrutiny, despite its century-long status as one of the deadliest and widespread of all infectious diseases. Literature has demonstrated that important differences between rural and urban communities, and between cities, but has so far failed to address disparities within cities due to varying living conditions and disease environments. This article examines the last nationwide upsurge of smallpox in the Netherlands through the lens of Amsterdam’s 50 neighbourhoods in the period 1870-1872. We use a mixed methods approach combining qualitative spatial analysis and OLS regression to investigate which part of the population was affected most by this epidemic in terms of age and sex, geographic distribution across the city, and underlying socio-demographic neighbourhood characteristics such as relative wealth, house density, crude death rate, and birth rate. Our analyses reveal a significant spatial patterning of smallpox mortality that can largely be explained by existing socio-demographic neighbourhood characteristics. The smallpox epidemic was not socially neutral, but lays bare some of the deep-seated social and health inequalities across the city.

BACKGROUND Many studies have observed that religion plays an important role in determining inequalities in mortality outcomes before the mortality decline in late 19th century Europe. Yet, it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly caused the mortality advantage observed for Jewish populations before the start of the demographic transition. OBJECTIVE To explore an alternative approach to the observed Jewish mortality advantage by comparing differences and similarities in various cause-specific mortality rates in Amsterdam's 50 neighbourhoods in the mid-19th century. RESULTS Jewish neighbourhoods had an overall mortality advantage, which was reflected in lower infant, respiratory, diarrhoeal, and smallpox death rates. Only in the cholera epidemic did the Jewish neighbourhoods not experience this health advantage. CONCLUSION Before the mortality decline, individual (and community) behaviours could already have been having an important impact on inequalities in health, although not for all diseases. CONTRIBUTION The neighbourhood approach is a useful alternative when individual-level data is not available to demonstrate how variation in social, economic, and disease environments may have resulted in health inequalities. In addition, the comparison of various cause-specific mortality rates in Jewish and non-Jewish neighbourhoods helps to disentangle which determinants might explain why Jewish mortality rates were lower.

The focus of this article is on how a newly created database on causes of death in Amsterdam (1854–1940) may offer innovative insights by combining it with the available information from the Historical Sample of the Netherlands (HSN). By doing so, it illustrates how future research can help to provide new perspectives on ongoing debates on historical and contemporary infectious diseases by combining information from several historical sources and databases.

The complex relationship between the history of infectious diseases and social inequalities has recently attracted renewed attention. Smallpox has so far largely escaped this revived scholarly scrutiny, despite its century-long status as one of the deadliest and widespread of all infectious diseases. Literature has demonstrated that important differences between rural and urban communities, and between cities, but has so far failed to address disparities within cities due to varying living conditions and disease environments. This article examines the last nationwide upsurge of smallpox in the Netherlands through the lens of Amsterdam’s 50 neighbourhoods in the period 1870-1872. We use a mixed methods approach combining qualitative spatial analysis and OLS regression to investigate which part of the population was affected most by this epidemic in terms of age and sex, geographic distribution across the city, and underlying socio-demographic neighbourhood characteristics such as relative wealth, house density, crude death rate, and birth rate. Our analyses reveal a significant spatial patterning of smallpox mortality that can largely be explained by existing socio-demographic neighbourhood characteristics. The smallpox epidemic was not socially neutral, but lays bare some of the deep-seated social and health inequalities across the city.

Background: Many studies have neglected family processes that take place in more complex households in non-Western societies, while the position in the sibling set of a given person in these societies may be an important factor for determining infant and child mortality risks. Objective: This article addresses the association of sibling composition with infant and child mortality between the ages of 0 and 5 in Taiwan in the period 1906-1945. Furthermore, the article takes into account regional differences that may affect the impact of the sibling composition on mortality risks. Methods: The Taiwan Historical Household Register Database (THHRD) is analysed by using univariate and Cox proportional hazard analyses. By doing so, the changing household composition over time is taken into account. Results: The presence of siblings close in age (younger or up to 5 years older) of either sex, and the presence of same-sex siblings in general, increased mortality risks for male and female infants and children. In addition, the presence of non-adopted and adopted sisters over the age of 5 decreased male infant mortality risks, while the presence of non-adopted brothers over the age of 5 decreased child mortality risks for girls. Limited regional differences in sibling effects are observed. Contribution: The presence and gender of siblings is not the only important factor in resource dilution in terms of how it influences mortality risks. The age and adoption status of siblings seems to be just as important in determining whether siblings compete for similar resources or are actually able to provide support.

TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis