Hingham, Massachusetts Family Reconstructions, 1635-1880

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.