Genealogical Sources in Economic History 2024

Many scholars have begun the interrogation of long existing but recently digitized large-scale historical genealogies in frontier research across many fields. For example, Kaplanis et al. on the heritability of longevity (Science, 2018), Clark on the heritability of social class, (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023), Shiue on human capital and fertility (Journal of Economic Growth, 2017), Cummins on Noble lifespan and violence (Journal of Economic History, 2017).

We think this is an excellent moment to invite interested scholars to come together to triangulate common methodological and data issues related to genealogies, across time and space.

A workshop on the "use of Genealogical Sources in Economic History" will be held on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th of June 2024 in London, at the London School of Economics. It will be hosted by the Historical Economic Demography Group, at the Economic History Dept.

We are here soliciting paper proposals for presentation at the workshop. Unfortunately we do not have funding to support travel or accommodation expenses so we are asking participants to self-fund their attendance. There is no registration fee.

Please submit an extended abstract of 500 words if you would like to be considered to present a paper. Email submissions to Neil Cummins (n.j.cummins@lse.ac.uk) by the 1st March 2024.

Neil Cummins, Professor of Economic History and Co-Director of the LSE Historical Economic Demography, (http://neilcummins.com/)

Eric Schneider Professor of Economic History and Co-Director of the LSE Historical Economic Demography, (https://www.ericbschneider.com/)

3rd June

10am-12noon: Migration

Guillaume Blanc, University of Manchester "Malthusian Migrations"

Andrea Colasurdo, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research "Long term trends in transnational kin networks in Europe and the US: 1700-1900"

Alex Newnham, Universite Paris-Saclay "Fields and Foreign Lands: Pre-industrial Climate Risk and International Migration"

Tianning Zhu, LSE "Kinship Networks and Persisting Outmigration Patterns: A Case Study of 19th and Early 20th Century Guangdong, China"

12.15-1.30pm: Inheritance

Tommaso D’Amelio, Université Libre de Bruxelles "Inheritance and Migration: Evidence from 19th Century Italy"

Matt Curtis, Southern Denmark University "Inheritance Customs, the European Marriage Pattern and Female Empowerment"

Xizi Luo, LSE "Ethnic Similarities and Disparities in Intergenerational Mobility during the Qing Dynasty, 1614-1854"

1.30-2.30pm: Lunch

12.30-4pm:Marriage and Wealth

Erling Häggström Gunfridssona, Umeå University "Detecting Inbreeding, Consanguinity and Endogamy using Swedish Registers"

Auke Rijpma, Utrecht "Family Trees and Taxes: Marriage and Wealth in the Cape Colony"

Felix Selgert, Universität Bonn and Daniel Göttlich, Oxford "The survival of the richest in early modern Germany"

4-4.30pm:Coffee Break

4.30-5.15pm:Keynote

Carol Shiue, University of Colorado "Long-run Longitudinal Data from Chinese Genealogies for Family Research"

5.15pm:Drinks at the White Horse followed by Dinner

4th June

10am-12noon: Sources and Bias

Sijie Hu, Renmin University of China "Unlocking Historical Insights: Exploring Chinese Demography with the Chinese Genealogy Database"

Stéphane Jettot, Sorbonne "The commercialisation of genealogical data in the 18th century book market"

Nathaniel Darling "The nature and magnitude of bias in complete crowd-sourced genealogies"

Jim Oeppen, Southern Denmark University "Ascendant Genealogies as a Source for Demographic and Genetic Studies: some estimates of bias and incompleteness"

2.15-1.30pm:US and UK

Adrian Haws, Cornell University "Breakthroughs in Historical Record Linking Using Genealogy Data: The Census Tree Project"

Alice Bee Kasakoffnot, University of South Carolina "Changing Spatial Connections in the US from 1779 to 1930: A genealogical view"

Aurelius Noble, LSE "The Persistence of the Aristocracy: Financial and Social Measures, England and Wales (1858-1907)"

1.30-2.30pm:Lunch

2.30pm-4pm:Health

Jan Kok, Radboud University "Genealogical explorations in anthropometric history, Texel island, The Netherlands, 1790-1940"

Thomas Baudin, IESEG School of Management "Historical life expectancy in Africa - new evidence on trends and major mortality crisis from online genealogies"

Saverio Minardi, University of Bologna "Historical Patterns in the Intergenerational Transmission of Lifespan and Longevity: A Research Note on the United States, 1700-1900"

4-4.30pm: Coffee Break

4.30-5.15pm: Keynote

Gregory Clark, Southern Denmark University "Genealogy as an instrument for Social Science investigation"

5.15pm:Drinks Reception