Sufficient and Sustainable Livelihoods. A Life Course Study of the Cohort 1855 from Trøndelag and Their Parents, 1815-1910

The aim of this project was to contribute with knowledge on the life circles of those who struggled with providing livelihood for themselves and their family. What did they do, and how did they contribute to the development of the society? 4942 children were born in the two Trøndelag counties in 1855 - 2335 girls and 2607 boys. In this project a database was established with information about each individual selected from the parish registries - baptism, burials and confirmation, from the public censuses 1865, 1875, 1890, 1900 and 1910, and information about emigration overseas. The database also includes information about the cohort parents who were born in the years 1815-1835. This information makes it possible to carry out life course analysis of both generations and connections between them.

Both cohorts experienced economic growth combined with a demographic development with low and diminishing death rates, stable birth rates and a rapidly growing population. This development was combined with higher and more equal living standards, but in the 1860'ies a crisis was emerging with widening social differences and destitution among the most vulnerable. The emerging crisis was averted by mass emigration to America which continued for fifty years. In Norway these years were characterized by mobility and comprehensive modernization. Most of the 1855-cohort and others in their generation were mobile both geographically and socially until they settled down in their thirties - about one third of the men in America, one third in their home community, and one third other places in Norway. The careers of those settling in Norway show that geographic mobility to a large extent was combined with occupational mobility from farming to trade, industry and public service, and that social mobility was widespread also in farming as cotters became independent farmers. The mobility of the women followed the same pattern, but their geographical mobility was to a larger extent confined to Norway.

The cohort parents were followed individually from the baptism of the 1855 cohort to the census of 1865. Individual information about the 1855 cohort was collected from the baptismal lists 1855/56, the funeral lists 1855-65, and the confirmation lists 1869-71 in the church books of Trøndelag, from the censuses 1865, 1875, 1890, 1900, 1910, and from the emigration protocols for Trondheim harbor. The individual information about the parents were collected from the baptismal records of the church books when their children were baptized, and from the census of 1865 for those who then lived with their own cohort children. Eilert Sundt's investigations "Om dødeligheden i Norge" og "Om giftermål i Norge" were used as secondary literature. In order to follow the lifes individually, each individual is as far as possible identified from the baptism to the subsequent registration times. The period of time is from the end of the napoleon wars when most of the cohort parents were born, until 1910 when the Trønderkohorten-1855 were 55 years old. The study is mainly limited to Trøndelag, but relocations in Norway have been sought captivated to the extent that the digitization of the national censuses makes it possible. Emigrants were followed up to emigration. Data is initially sorted by municipality, but they are analyzed at the district, regional and national level.

The project was carried out as a Ph.D at the University of Oslo: "Sufficient and Sustainable Livelihoods. A Life Course Study of the Cohort 1855 from Trøndelag and Their Parents, 1815-1910". The project was started in 1976 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology with funding from the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities. After a break between 1980 and 2007 the project continued with own funding from the University of Oslo. Data collection, digitalizing, programming and analysis were carried out by Kari Lindbekk.

The data material consists of two main files: All collected data about Trøndere born in 1855 are collected in two sets of main files - one for women and one for men. Data concerning migrants from areas outside Trøndelag with the same birth year are collected in own files.

Data is freely available for download.