Hingham, Massachusetts Family Reconstructions, 1635-1880 (ICPSR 34546)
Version Date: May 19, 2014 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Daniel Scott Smith, University of Illinois at Chicago
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34546.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The data are families in Hingham, Massachusetts, reconstituted by Daniel Scott Smith for his PhD dissertation from printed genealogies, vital, church and tax records, and censuses, along the lines of previous French and English work (e.g. Fleury, M. and L. Henry, Nouveau manuel de depouillement et d'exploitation de l'etat civil ancien (1965) and Wrigley, E.A, "Family Reconstitution," in E.A. Wrigley, ed. An Introduction to English Historical Demography (1966)). Family reconstitution is a method for studying demographic behavior in the absence of modern censuses and vital registration, providing for both observation of demographic events as well as the population and time at risk. In his dissertation, Population, Family and Society in Hingham, Massachusetts, 1635-1880 (University of California-Berkeley, 1973) Smith refers to the data as "statistical genealogy". The data were intended to be used to examine demographic patterns, family structure and social stratification in the past, and to generalize these patterns across the New England region. This dataset includes information on 1727 marriages. Variables include information about birth, death, marriage, fertility and wealth of husbands and wives, their parents and children. Naming practices are also represented in the data. There are no direct observations of children, but rather summary-type measures of characteristics of children and the couple's fertility history. A variable indicating the quality of the reconstitution is included. However, the meaning of the variable values has been lost.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
Town
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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There are discrepancies between the earliest and latest dates present in the data (husband's and wive's birth and death dates) and the study time periods and time frames provided by the data depositor. The dates indicated in the metadata fields "Study Time Periods and Time Frames" are those provided to ICPSR when the collection was deposited. No additional information was provided.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The data were intended to be used to examine demographic patterns, family structure and social stratification in the past, and to generalize these patterns across the New England region. Hingham was chosen because of its long and relatively complete set of records.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The data are families in Hingham, Massachusetts, reconstituted by Daniel Scott Smith for his PhD dissertation from printed genealogies, vital, church and tax records, and censuses, along the lines of previous French and English work (e.g. Fleury, M. and L. Henry, Nouveau manuel de depouillement et d'exploitation de l'etat civil ancien (1965) and Wrigley, E.A, "Family Reconstitution." In E.A. Wrigley, ed. An Introduction to English Historical Demography (1966)).
Sample View help for Sample
Marriages were included in the data only if the families could be reconstituted: that is, the wife's birth date, the marriage date, the birthdates of children, and the date of the end of the marriage were all known. The methodology and biases arising from family reconstitution are discussed in Chapter 2 of Daniel Scott Smith, "Population, family and society in Hingham, Massachusetts, 1635-1880," Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1973.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
The population of Hingham, Massachusetts.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2014-05-19
Version History View help for Version History
- Smith, Daniel Scott. Hingham, Massachusetts Family Reconstructions, 1635-1880. ICPSR34546-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-05-19. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34546.v1
2014-05-19 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.