Through cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of two samples of families living in Indianapolis from 1860 to 1880 and from 1900 to 1920, I test several hypotheses on how families adjusted their use of three income-generating strategies (wives' employment, children's employment, and taking in boarders) to their social, economic and demographic milieu as well as to their changing needs and opportunities as they moved through the family life cycle. The bulk of families in both periods used at least one of these strategies at some point, relying on strategies of wives early in the life cycle and/or strategies of children later. Relative to families in the post-1860 period, families after the turn of the century relied more on the paid work of wives and daughters and less on boarding and sons' employment as sources of income.
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