Related projects

Doctors, deaths, diagnoses and data: a comparative study of the medical certification of cause of death in nineteenth century Scotland.

This project examines death certificates for individuals in the light of knowledge about the certifying doctors' backgrounds, to improve knowledge of the local and particular circumstances of death and disease in urban and rural Scotland. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of the historic relationship between doctors, their diagnoses of cause of death, and the data created from these which has informed previous interpretations of changes over time and of social and spatial differentials in health and medical provision.

Family Patterns, Welfare Provision and Childhood Survival in Scotland: A Comparative Analysis of Two Rural Regions from 1850 to the 1930s

This project compared demographic and household behaviour in Northeast and Southwest Scotland, using Rothiemay and Torthorwald as study parishes. It extended the nominal linkage to Poor Law applications and registers to create sample biographies and included the collection of comprehensive data for Torthorwald (civil certificates and census enumerators' books). Carried out by Andrew Blaikie during1997/8 and funded by a Nuffield Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship and University Research Fellowship. This material is presently being computerized and analysed as part of the current project.

The historical demography of Jura, 1851-1891

The feasibility of the present study was tested by linking the censuses and civil registers of the small Hebridean island of Jura. This project was carried out by Eilidh Garrett and Ros Davies, and funded by a small grant from the Population Investigation Committee.

The historical demography of Skye, 1881-1891

The feasibility of the current project for a larger island was tested using one decade of Skye, 1881-1891. Funded by a British Academy Small Grant: SG 30087.

The Sociological Study of Fertility and Mortality in Ipswich 1872-1910

This ESRC funded project is based at the University of Essex under the leadership of Peter Razzell, and also worked on by Eilidh Garrett and Ros Davies of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. Its aim is to link copies of the civil birth and death registers (unusually available at the time) with census data. It therefore provides a similar data set to the Scottish data sets being created, and a rare English comparator.

The New Poor Law: disability and destitution; applicants and recipients. A Scottish-English comparative study (PROJECT PROPOSAL)

This proposed project is a comparative study of the links between health status and welfare provision in Scotland, where out-door relief, but only for the sick and disabled, was the norm and England, where recourse to the workhouse was frequent. It will provide an in-depth analysis of two urban communities (Kilmarnock and Ipswich) by linking individuals and households in existing longitudinal demographic databases to biographical case details from Poor Law records (including information on sickness and disability, dependents, residential mobility, and relief awarded) from 1860 to 1901. These locations have been selected because the availability of detailed demographic and socio-economic information for the populations from which the poor are drawn will enable applicants and recipients to be compared to the general populations, and one-to-one linkages will allow assessment of the bias inherent in each source. The project will involve computerisation of the poor law records, linkage of these records to the existing demographic data, and investigation into aspects of health status, disability, poverty and relief, addressing questions such as: who considered themselves/was considered in need of relief and on what grounds; how official eligibility criteria were interpreted and used locally by inspectors and overseers; routes into and out of poverty.