Individual and Family Life Courses in the Saguenay Region, Quebec, 1842-1911

Abstract

Because it embraces such a longperiod and a wide area, the computer ized reconstruction of families based on a regional population register opens up new perspectives for research into social reproduction, as well as geographic and social mobility. The study makes use of the Saguenay population register to study individual and family life courses over two generations. Focus is mostly upon the demographic and occupational factors that determine social conditions and reproduction of families. More specifically, discussion andfindings center upon theoretical and methodological issues raised by the study of social reproduction and family inheritance systems; a description of individual and family histories from a demographic and occupational standpoint; an account of the strategies that families adopt to establish children as farmers in a predominantly rural society.