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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

E. A. Wrigley
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
R. S. Davies
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
J. E. Oeppen
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
R. S. Schofield
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This book is intended as a complement to the Population history of England. The two books are offspring of the same overall research project: to make as full use as possible of Anglican parish registers to throw light on the population history of England during the period when the registers are the prime source available. When the project was instituted more than a quarter of a century ago, it seemed likely that family reconstitution, the technique used to produce the results presented in this book, would be the chief method for the whole enterprise. Family reconstitution had then recently been perfected by Louis Henry as a technique for articulating and analysing nominal data to produce demographic information, and he had shown in his pioneering study of the parish of Crulai in Normandy that, where suitable sources existed, it could sustain a very detailed and searching examination of many aspects of the population history of a community.

At that time, however, it was still not certain that English parish registers could be used for family reconstitution since the information routinely recorded in each entry was characteristically less complete than was true of the better French registers. To test the point was of crucial importance since family reconstitution is possible only if the life histories of individuals and families can be built up accurately from the records of their birth (baptism), marriage, and death (burial); and this in turn hinges on the quality and quantity of information routinely recorded in the registers.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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  • Introduction
  • E. A. Wrigley, University of Cambridge, R. S. Davies, University of Cambridge, J. E. Oeppen, University of Cambridge, R. S. Schofield, University of Cambridge
  • Book: English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660344.001
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  • Introduction
  • E. A. Wrigley, University of Cambridge, R. S. Davies, University of Cambridge, J. E. Oeppen, University of Cambridge, R. S. Schofield, University of Cambridge
  • Book: English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660344.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • E. A. Wrigley, University of Cambridge, R. S. Davies, University of Cambridge, J. E. Oeppen, University of Cambridge, R. S. Schofield, University of Cambridge
  • Book: English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660344.001
Available formats
×