Demography And Genealogies Research Paper

Academic Writing Service

Sample Demography And Genealogies Research Paper. Browse other research paper examples and check the list of research paper topics for more inspiration. iResearchNet offers academic assignment help for students all over the world: writing from scratch, editing, proofreading, problem solving, from essays to dissertations, from humanities to STEM. We offer full confidentiality, safe payment, originality, and money-back guarantee. Secure your academic success with our risk-free services.

Genealogy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is defined as an account of one’s descent from an ancestor or ancestors by enumeration of the intermediate persons; the investigation of family pedigrees as a department of study or knowledge; lineage, pedigree, family stock; and progeny. In this research paper, as indicated by its title, the term genealogy is particularly used to refer to the written record of family or lineage members and the discussion is focused on genealogical records as a data source for demographic research.

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% OFF with 24START discount code


1. Genealogies

Constructing genealogies has a long history. In the early days of civilization and before written records were made, oral transmission of genealogical information already existed, although this may include only a list of names and the relationships between these people.

The invention of writing and the improvement in keeping written records allowed genealogies to be easily made and better preserved. During early history, however, they were largely compiled for royal and noble lines. Surviving genealogies concerning past ruling and upper class families can still be found in many countries. This is related to the fact that in a society of hereditary monarchy or aristocracy, genealogies were frequently used in determining one’s inheritance of office or land, and in establishing a link to a superior social status.




In China, for example, compiling genealogies reached one of the high points of its development during Wei Jin Nan Bei Chao (220–589 AD), a period when genealogical information was widely consulted in recruiting government officials and arranging marriages. In addition to the genealogical activities of the individual family or lineage, government genealogical bureaus were set up and responsible for preserving, editing lineage registers, and constructing multilineage genealogies (Pan 1929).

This upper class practice, nonetheless, had a trickle-down effect. The number of genealogies compiled by or for ordinary families or lineages increased during the last few centuries. This was particularly the case in the society where lineage organizations formed an important social institution and the worship of ancestors was widely encouraged, and in the new frontier where a large number of migrants settled.

The twentieth century has witnessed a continuous increase in genealogical activities throughout the world. Many genealogical societies have been formed and numerous genealogies have been compiled. Recent development in computer technology has brought about a further surge in the study of family history. This has led to an explosion in the number of genealogical databases accessible through the Internet, with some of them providing biographical information for millions of people. Genealogies have increasingly become an important data source for scientific re-search.

2. Genealogies And Some Other Demographic Data Sources

Like population and vital registers, census and survey data, and church records, genealogies can also provide valuable information for demographic research. How-ever, they differ from the above data sources considerably.

People recorded in genealogies normally have common ancestry and are connected to each other through family relationships, while those included in other data sources are generally not. This gives genealogies a unique character and makes them extremely useful in the study of population genetics, heterogeneity, and social mobility of the family. Indeed, genealogies have already been used by historians, demographers, epidemiologists, and geneticists. Their endeavor has produced some very interesting results (Hollingsworth 1964, Knodel 1988, Bean 1990, Liu 1992).

Population and vital registers and census and survey data are often obtained from a precisely defined territory. Church records also tend to be concerned with religious groups of a certain area, whereas people recorded in genealogies are less, or not at all, restricted by their residence. Accordingly, genealogies can reveal geographic movements of family members and migration patterns. However, people listed in the genealogies may not be the total population of any given region.

Most available parish records, census and survey data, and vital registrations were produced in the last few centuries, and can be used only for the study of recent demographic history. Population counts of earlier periods have been found in some countries, but their reliability is difficult to assess because of the lack of original enumeration and other relevant materials. Furthermore, aggregate figures of this kind do not permit any detailed examination of past demographic regimes. In this context, genealogies covering a very long period may contain extremely useful information for the study of early population history. Some Chinese genealogies, for instance, consist of family or lineage members of more than 80 generations living over a period of more than 2000 years. This gives scholars a rare opportunity to investigate long-term demographic patterns.

Noticeable differences also exist in the process of producing these records. Vital registrations and parish registers are often made soon after certain demo-graphic events take place. Censuses and surveys are also conducted within a well-defined time frame. In collecting these data, rigid rules and instructions are usually followed. In contrast, constructing genealogies can be a series of activities undertaken by people of many generations under different circumstances over a long period. The rules of compiling genealogies or the implementation of such rules may change from time to time. The interval between the time when a certain social demographic event actually happens and when it is recorded by the genealogy compiler can be very long. These characteristics, though to some extent are shared by retrospective and longitudinal surveys, make the genealogies different from other demo-graphic data sources.

3. Descendant Genealogies And Ascendant Genealogies

Conceptually, genealogies can be constructed in two ways. Accordingly, they can be divided into descend-ant genealogies and ascendant genealogies (Oeppen 1999).

Constructing a descendant genealogy starts with a person (or a group of people) who may be regarded as the founder (or founders) of the family or lineage. Then, descendants of this person (or these people), if there are any, are added into the genealogy generation by generation. Compilation of the genealogy is not conditional on the availability and the survivorship of the members of the descendant generation. When genealogies are produced in this downward manner, the process of accumulating records can be very long. The genealogy may form a primary data source that is derived from direct enumeration.

In contrast, compiling an ascendant genealogy starts with a person of a later generation (the person is often the genealogy compiler). Then his or her ancestors are traced retrospectively generation by generation and entered into the genealogy. When genealogies are constructed in this upward fashion, the recorded family and lineage are those having survived to that later generation. The entries of the ancestors are most likely to be the outcome of genealogical research based on searching church records, vital registrations, or other data sources. The genealogies, therefore, can be viewed as secondary data sources.

Although such a distinction can be made and an ascendant genealogy can be easily identified, descend- ant genealogies recorded completely in a downward manner are less common. The majority of the genealogies are more likely to be a combination of the two. Whoever starts to construct a family or lineage genealogy, naturally, would like to trace his or her own family history and accordingly compiles an ascendant genealogy. Thereafter, the compiler may add his or her children, grandchildren, and descendants of the earliest identifiable family or lineage member into the record. Alternatively, the work may be continued by the future generation. As a result, the genealogy will increasingly become a descendant one.

The above distinction is important nevertheless. The extent to which a genealogy is retrospectively constructed and to which the lateral kin are included has a significant impact on whether the recorded family or lineage members can be regarded as an unbiased sample of the general population or a clearly defined substratum of the population.

4. Genealogies As A Data Source For Demographic Research

Genealogies have been used in population studies for many years, but they remain a data source of both promise and disappointment. On the one hand, the longtime coverage of the record, the richness of the information, and the great potential of integrating genealogical, demographic, and genetic studies make the genealogy a unique research source. On the other hand, biases and under-registration problems make it difficult to use conventional demographic techniques to analyze genealogical data (Willigan and Lynch 1982, Telford et al. 1983, Fogel 1993).

Whether a genealogy is biased for demographic research is affected by the manner of its construction. Descendant genealogies are generally free from the impact of selection. But ascendant genealogies, especially those including only family members of the direct line or the succession, tend to exhibit lower mortality and higher fertility than the general population (Oeppen 1999). This arises from the fact that an ascendant genealogy requires each generation to have at least one member surviving to adulthood and producing at least one child. It is biased towards demographically successful families or lineages, which have a better than average chance of extending their lines to the future generation. For the same reason, nuptiality can also be biased if marriage serves as a precondition for childbearing. Thus, although an ascendant genealogy can document the demographic history of a family well, it may not be an unbiased data source for investigating of the demographic experience of the entire population.

Another difficulty in using genealogies for demo-graphic research comes from under-registration. The amount of information contained in genealogies varies considerably. Some genealogies provide detailed records for all family or lineage members, while others show only names and the relationships between the recorded people. Even within the same genealogy, the completeness of the record can be very different.

One reason leading to such under-registration problems is that genealogies, regardless of the manner of their compilation, are usually constructed for purposes other than demographic research. Because of that, certain family members, for example, children who died young, female descendants who were often regarded as less important to the family in a patrilineal society, and those who brought disgrace to the family, are frequently excluded from the genealogies (Zhao 1994).

In addition to the deliberate omission of certain family members, genealogies suffer from distortions of other kinds. Genealogical records accumulated over a long period could have been affected by changes in the rules and practice of compiling genealogies. While some records may have been damaged or lost, other items and information could have been edited out. When records are gathered from other sources, they could inherit the biases existing in these data and the nominal linkage process is also subject to error. Producing complete and accurate genealogies, there- fore, becomes even more difficult.

Knowing where biases come from and what have been or may have been missing is the first step in estimating their impact and using incomplete data. Although these deficiencies create great difficulties in using genealogical data for demographic research, they do not make it impossible. Indeed, considerable progress has been made in recent years. Demographic analysis of genealogical records has and will continue to provide further insights into past demographic process and contemporary population changes.

Bibliography:

  1. Bean L L 1990 The Utah population database: Demographic and genetic convergence and divergence. In: Adams J, Lam D, Hermalin A, Smouse P (eds.) Convergent Issues in Genetics and Demography. Oxford University Press, New York
  2. Fogel R W 1993 New sources and new techniques for the study of secular trends in nutritional status, health, mortality, and the process of aging. Historical Methods 26: 5–43
  3. Hollingsworth T H 1964 Demography of the British Peerage. Supplement to Population Studies 18(2)
  4. Knodel J E 1988 Demographic Behavior in the Past. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
  5. Liu T 1992 Lineage Population and Socio-economic Changes in the Ming-Ch’ing Periods. The Institute of Economics Academia Sinica, Taipei
  6. Oeppen J 1999 Genealogies as a source for demographic studies: some estimates of bias. Paper presented at the Workshop on Genes, Genealogies and Longevity. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock
  7. Pan G 1929 Zhong guo jia pu xue lue shi [A brief history of Chinese genealogical studies]. Dong Fang Za Zhi [The Eastern Miscellany] 26(1): 107–20
  8. Telford T A, Thatcher M P, Yang B P N 1983 Chinese Genealogies at the Genealogical Society of Utah: An Annotated Bibliography:. Ch’eng Wen ch’u pan she, Taipei
  9. Willigan J D, Lynch K A 1982 Sources and Methods of Historical Demography. Academic Press, New York
  10. Zhao Z 1994 Demographic conditions and multigenerational households in Chinese history. Results from genealogical research and microsimulation. Population Studies 48: 413–25
Demography And Population Registers Research Paper

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER


Always on-time

Plagiarism-Free

100% Confidentiality
Special offer! Get 10% off with the 24START discount code!