Matrilineal and Patrilineal Kinship Networks of Ever-Married Women in the United States, 1850-1940

Matt A. Nelson, University of Minnesota

Geographic proximity between parents and children has been studied extensively in modern U.S. survey data, but is understudied in historical contexts prior to the 1960s. This paper leverages three linked census datasets to estimate the extent, structure, and prevalence of parents and children geographic proximity with an emphasis on ever-married women. Ever-married women’s kinship networks are often lost because of changing surnames upon marriage. New linking techniques and the use of administrative records, vital records, and genealogical family trees within census linking identifies 20-40% of birth surnames for ever-married women in the linked census data between 1900 and 1940 depending on the census year and method of record linkage. This represents over 33 million ever-married women. Comparisons over the life course, marital status, and geographic proximity will be the primary focus. Geographic proximity will be identified by different levels such as the same enumeration district, place, county, state, and region, and I plan to investigate incorporating distance between kin links for cases that do not reside in the same place. The final step will incorporate an indirect measure of kin propinquity to identify potential patri- and matrikin networks within the same enumeration district.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 105. Kinship Dynamics and Effects: Historical Insights