Migration and the Family in Colonial New England: the View From Genealogies

Abstract

This paper describes the migrations of the married men of six New England families from 1620 to 1850 using published genealogies as the data source. Their location at the time of vital events is used to investigate (1) per sistence rates; (2) distances between fathers, sons, and brothers during their life times ; and (3) the extent to which kin were found in the same community. Our data show more mobility than do town studies and reveal the importance of the nuclear family over more distant kin.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams, John W. and Alice B. Kasakoff 1973 "Factors Affecting Endogamous Group Size." In Moni Nag , ed., Population and Social Structure, 147-174. The Hague: Mouton.

1976 "Central Place Theory and Endogamy in China." In Carol Smith , ed., Regional Analysis, 175-187 . Vol. 2. New York: Academic Press.

1980 "Migration at Marriage in Colonial New England: A Comparison of Rates Derived from Genealogies with Rates from Vital Records." In Bennett Dyke and Warren Morrill , eds., Genealogical Demography, 115-138. New York: Academic Press.

Anderson, Michael 1971 Family Structure in Nineteenth Century Lancashire . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Anderson, Terry L. 1979 "Economic Growth in Colonial New England: 'Statistical Renaissance'." The Journal of Economic History 39:243-257.

Auwers, Linda (see also Bissell) 1978 "Fathers, Sons and Wealth in Colonial Windsor Connecticut." Journal of Family History 3:136-149.

Bailyn, Bernard 1960 Education in the Forming of American Society: Needs and Opportunities for Study. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Bissell, Linda Auwers (see also Auwers) 1974 "From One Generation to Another: Mobility in 17th Century Windsor, Connecticut." William and Mary Quarterly 31:79-110.

Breen, Timothy and Stephen Foster 1973 "Moving to the New World: The Character of Early Massachusetts Immigration." William and Mary Quarterly 30:189-222.

10.

Bushman, Richard L. 1982 "Family Security in the Transition from Farm to City, 1750-1850 ." Journal of Family History 6:238-256.

11.

Byers, Edward 1982 "Fertility Transition in a New England Commercial Center: Nantucket, Mass., 1680-1840." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 13:17-40.

12.

Chaffee, William 1909 The Chaffee Genealogy New York : The Grafton Press.

13.

Cole, Thomas Richard 1978 "Family Settlement and Migration in Southeastern Massachusetts, 1650-1805: The Case for Regional Analysis." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 132:171-186.

14.

Crackel, Theodore J. 1981 "Longitudinal Migration in America, 1780-1840: A Study of Revolutionary War Records." Historical Methods 14:133-137.

15.

Demos, John 1965 "Notes on Life in Plymouth Colony." William and Mary Quarterly 22:264-286.

16.

1970 A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony. New York: Oxford.

17.

Dublin, Thomas 1979 Women at Work. The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell Massachusetts, 1826-1860. New York: Columbia University Press.

18.

Earle, Carville 1977 "The First English Towns of North America." Geographical Review 67:34-50.

19.

Easterlin, Richard A. 1976a "Factors in the Decline of Farm Fertility in the United States: Some Preliminary Research Results." Journal of American History 63:600-614.

20.

1976b "Population Change and Farm Settlement in the Northern United States." Journal of Economic History 36:45-83.

21.

Easterlin, Richard , George Alter , and Gretchen A. Condran 1978 "Farms and Farm Families in Old and New Areas: The Northern States in 1860." In Tamara Hareven and Maris Vinovskis , eds., Family and Population in Nineteenth Century America, 22-84. Princeton : Princeton University Press.

22.

Elliot, Almer J. 1911 The Berkshire Vermont Chaffees and their Descendants, 1801-1911 . Richford, Vt.: Gilpin Printing Co.

23.

Farber, Bernard 1981 Conceptions of Kinship. New York : Elsevier.

24.

Farwell, J.D. 1929 The Farwell Family: The Records of John Dennis Farwell , Completed and Compiled by Jane Harter Abbott and Lillian M. Wilson. 2 vols. Orange, Texas: F. H. Farwell and Fanny Farwell.

25.

Fischer, Claude S. 1982 To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

26.

Gallman, Robert E. 1982 "Influences on the Distribution of Land Holdings in Early Colonial North Carolina." Journal of Economic History 42:549-575.

27.

Goodman, L.A. , N. Keyfitz , and T. Pullam 1974 "Family Formation and the Frequency of Various Kinship Relationships." Theoretical Population Biology 5:1-27.

28.

Grant, Charles 1961 Democracy in the Connecticut Frontier Town of Kent . New York: Columbia University Press.

29.

Greely, G.H. 1905 Genealogy of the Greely-Greeley Family. Boston: F. Ward.

30.

Greven, Philip J. , Jr. 1970 Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

31.

Grigg, D.B. 1977 " E.G. Ravenstein and the 'Laws of Migration'. " Journal of Historical Geography 3:41-54.

32.

Hammel, Eugene A. , K.W. Wachter , and C.K. McDaniel 1981 "The Kin of the Aged in the Year 2000: The Chickens Come Home to Roost." In Sara B. Kiesler , James N. Morgan , and Valerie K. Oppenheimer , eds., Aging: Social Change, 11-39. New York: Academic Press.

33.

Henretta, James A. 1965 "Economic Development and Social Structure in Colonial Boston." William and Mary Quarterly 22:75-92.

34.

1978 "Families and Farms: Mentalité in PreIndustrial America ." William and Mary Quarterly 35:3-32.

35.

Hill, Reuben 1970 Family Development in Three Generations Cambridge, Mass.: Schenckman.

36.

Holman, Mary Lovering 1928 Ancestors and Descendants of John Coney of Boston, England and Boston, Massachusetts. Concord, N. H.: The Rumford Press.

37.

Howell, Nancy 1979 Demography of the Dobe! Kung. New York : Academic Press.

38.

Jones, Douglas Lamar 1981 Village and Seaport: Migration and Society in Eighteenth Century Massachusetts. Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England.

39.

Kasakoff, Alice B. 1974 "How Many Relatives?" In Paul Ballonoff , ed., Genealogical Mathematics, 215-235. Paris : Mouton.

40.

Kearl, J.R. , Clayne Pope , and Larry Wimmer 1980 "Household Wealth in a Settlement Economy: Utah, 1850-1870 ." Journal of Economic History 40:477-496.

41.

Kellogg, Lucy M. , ed. 1975 Mayflower Families through Five Generations. Vol. 1. Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants .

42.

Klatzky, Sheila R. [1972?] Patterns of Contact with Relatives. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C.

43.

Kulikoff, Allan 1971 "The Progress of Inequality in Revolutionary Boston ." William and Mary Quarterly 28:375-412.

44.

Lee, Everett 1966 "A Theory of Migration." Demography 3: 47-57.

45.

Levy, Barry 1978 " 'Tender Plants': Quaker Farmers and Children in the Delaware Valley, 1681-1735." Journal of Family History 3: 116-135.

46.

Lockridge, Kenneth A. 1968 "The Population of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1736 ." Economic History Review Series 2, 19:318-344.

47.

1966 "Land, Population, and the Evolution of New England Society, 1630-1790." Past and Present 39:62-80.

48.

1970 A New England Town, the First Hundred Years: Dedham Massachusetts, 1636-1736. New York: Norton.

49.

Matthews, Lois Kimball 1962 The Expansion of New England. 1909. Reprint. New York: Russell and Russell.

50.

Mogey, John 1976 "Residence, Family, Kinship: Some Recent Research ." Journal of Family History 1: 95-105.

51.

Mueller, Eva 1976 "The Economic Value of Children in Peasant Agriculture ." In Ronald G. Ridker , ed., Development: The Search for Selective Interventions, 98-153. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.

52.

Parkerson, Donald H. 1982 "The Changing Pattern of Internal Migration of Americans ." Paper delivered at the seventh annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, Bloomington, Indiana, 5 November 1982.

53.

Perkins, Edwin J. 1980 The Economy of Colonial America New York: Columbia University Press.

54.

Plakans, Andrejs 1977 "Identifying Kinfolk beyond the Household." Journal of Family History 2:3-27.

55.

Postan, M.M. , John Hatcher , Patricia Croot , David Parker , and Heide Wunder 1978 "Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe." Past and Present 78:24-55.

56.

Pruitt, Bettye Hobbs , ed. 1978 The Massachusetts Tax Valuation List of 1771. Boston: G. K. Hall.

57.

Shanas, Ethel 1973 "Family Kin Networks and Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective ." Journal of Marriage and the Family 35:505-511.

58.

Shanas, Ethel et al., eds. 1968 Old People in Three Industrial Societies New York: Atherton.

59.

Siemaszko, Maria 1980 "Kin Relations of the Aged: Possible Consequences to Social Service Planning." In Christine L. Fry , ed., Aging in Culture and Society, 253-271. New York: J. F. Bergin.

60.

Sjaasted, L. 1962 "The Costs and Returns of Human Migration." Journal of Political Economy 70: 80-93.

61.

Smith, Daniel Blake 1982 "The Study of the Family in Early America: Trends, Problems, and Prospects." William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., 39:3-28.

62.

Smith, Daniel Scott 1973 "Parental Power and Marriage Patterns: An Analysis of Historical Trends in Hingham, Massachusetts." Journal of Marriage and the Family 35:419-428.

63.

Smith, Richard M. 1981 "Fertility, Economy, and Household Formation in England over Three Centuries." Population and Development Review 7: 595-622.

64.

Standing, Guy 1981 "Migration and Modes of Exploitation: Social Origins of Immobility and Mobility." Journal of Peasant Studies 8: 173-211.

65.

Stilwell, Lewis D. 1948 Migration from Vermont. Montpelier, Vt.: Vermont Historical Society.

66.

Swedlund, Alan C. 1978 "Historical Demography as Population Ecology." Annual Reviews in Anthropology 7:137-173.

67.

Villaflor, Georgia C. and Kenneth L. Sokoloff 1982 "Migration in Colonial America: Evidence from the Militia Muster Rolls." Social Science History 6:539-570.

68.

Vinovskis, Maris 1971 "American Historical Demography: A Review Essay ." Historical Methods 4: 141-148.

69.

Wachter, Kenneth W. 1978 "Ancestors at the Norman Conquest." In K. W. Wachter , E. A. Hammel , and Peter Laslett , eds., Statistical Studies of Historic Social Structures, 153-161. New York: Academic Press.

70.

Waters, John 1981 "The Connecticut Nexus of Nominal Linkages: A View from Early American Documents." Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, Nashville, Tennessee, 24 October.

71.

1982 "Family, Inheritance, and Migration in Colonial New England: The Evidence from Guilford, Connecticut." William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 39:64-86.

72.

Weissbach, Lee Shai 1982 "The Towns of Massachusetts: A Pilot Study in Genealogy and Family History." Essex Institute Historical Collections 118: 200-221.

73.

Wellman, Joshua Wyman 1918 Descendants of Thomas Wellman of Lynn, Massachusetts . Boston: privately printed.

74.

Wheaton, Robert 1975 "Family and Kinship in Western Europe: The Problem of the Joint Family Household." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 4:601-628.