Full Citation
Title: Which Sons Lived Closest to their Elderly Fathers? Sibling Differences Among Native Born Families in the US North in 1850
Citation Type: Book, Section
Publication Year: 2010
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Abstract: This article describes the residence patterns of native born families in the US North in 1850, paying special attention to whether elderly men were living with their adult sons. Co residence of family members can be overestimated if only cases where both members of a dyad were found on the census are used so the analysis includes cases where only one of the dyad had been located in 1850 as well. Also, descriptive statistics will usually give the appearance of ultimogeniture because these patterns are affected by the departure of sons as they grew older. Therefore a multivariate model which controls for age was used. 71% of fathers 60 or older had a son 15 or older in his town; 49% in his household. Patterns of coresidence varied according to the size of the family: only sons were far more likely to remain at home than were sons in larger families. In families with two sons, the youngest stayed at home while in those with five or more sons, it was the eldest. The smaller families illustrate the desire to have at least one child living near the elderly parent if at all possible. Even in this rapidly growing population, demography was a significant obstacle in these smaller families: most of the man who did not have a son close by were living in the areas that had been settled early where a fertility decline had already begun. In virtually all the larger families, at least one adult son was near his elderly parents and usually more than one. These patterns reflect the different economic contexts of the families as they moved out of the region that had been settled earliest and in 1850 was changing to a non farm economy compared with regions that had been settled later whose economies were still based upon farming.
Url: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241880083
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Authors: Kasakoff, Alice Bee
Editors: Arrizabalaga, Marie-Pierre; Bolovan, Ioan; Kok, Marius Eppel Jan; Nagata, Mary Louise
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Volume Title: Many Paths to Happiness? Studies in Population and Family History. A Festschrift for Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux
Publisher: Aksant Academic Publishers
Publisher Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Family and Marriage, Other
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