Kinship and Social Networks: A Regional Analysis of Sibling Relations in Twentieth-Century Netherlands

The History of the Family

2010

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This study investigates how community characteristics influenced the timing of marriage of men and women in nineteenth and early twentieth century Netherlands on the basis of a large scale database consisting of marriage certificates covering five provinces of the Netherlands between 1840 and 1922. The results show the significance of religious context for understanding marriage timing in the nineteenth century. Living in a predominantly Catholic community resulted in a later marriage for both men and women, while living in a community that was dominated by Orthodox Protestants resulted in an earlier marriage, particularly for men. In addition, residence in a municipality with a high mobility, a large population size and a high birth rate speeded up marriage timing among both men and women. The results indicate that religious restraint and the urbanization and openness of places are, next to parental social class, of vast importance for understanding marriage timing. As our study only addressed those who married, future research will have to show whether the same mechanisms were at work for those that experienced permanent celibacy.

Section: Inheritance Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the wedding place. Community context and marital timing in nineteenth and early twentieth century Netherlands

Suanet

The History of the Family

2010

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“…Information about the type of inheritance system in the municipality was also included. 33 In order to avoid computational problems 130 Journal of Family History 39 (2) due to the size of the data set and dependency at the level of the parental household, we randomly selected one research person from each parental household. This implies that the number of observations per birth order reflect their prevalence within the families that we study.…”

Section: Data Measurements and Methods Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sibling Position and Marriage Timing in the Netherlands, 1840–1922

Suanet

Journal of Family History

2013

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Research on the effects of sibling position on marriage timing has produced ambivalent findings, suggesting that birth order effects were contingent on social, local, and historical contexts. Based on a large database of marriage certificates from five Dutch provinces between 1840 and 1922, we examine the influence of birth order on marriage timing. Our main conclusion is that sibling position became less important for marriage timing during the nineteenth century. This trend can be considered part of the transition from the West-European marriage pattern to a marriage pattern characterized by more universal marriage in which personal preferences became more significant.

“…The particular composition of personal social networks might have been a reason for this discrepancy. A study of the social networks of Dutch farmers showed that in communities with impartible inheritance farmers' networks were closer-knit and contained more blood and affinal kin than in places where partible inheritance was practiced (Bras and Van Tilburg, 2007). Marriage to a deceased sibling's spouse seems neither to have been important as a means of religious group formation; it did not take place more often in communities with high proportions of orthodox Protestants.…”

Section: Marriage To a Deceased Spouse's Siblingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relatives as spouses: Preferences and opportunities for kin marriage in a Western society

Poppel

Mandemakers

2009

American J Hum Biol

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This article investigates the determinants of kin marriage on the basis of a large-scale database covering a major rural part of The Netherlands during the period 1840-1922. We studied three types of kin marriage: first cousin marriage, deceased spouse's sibling marriage, and sibling set exchange marriage. Almost 2% of all marriages were between first cousins, 0.85% concerned the sibling of a former spouse, while 4.14% were sibling set exchange marriages. While the first two types generally declined across the study period, sibling set exchange marriage reached a high point of almost 5% between 1890 and 1900. We found evidence for three mechanisms explaining the choice for relatives as spouses, centering both on preferences and on opportunities for kin marriage. Among the higher and middle strata and among farmers, kin marriages were commonly practiced and played an important role in the process of social class formation in the late nineteenth century. An increased choice for cousin marriage as a means of enculturation was observed among orthodox Protestants in the Bible Belt area of The Netherlands. Finally, all studied types of kin marriage took place more often in the relatively isolated, inland provinces of The Netherlands. Sibling set exchange marriages were a consequence of the enlarged supply of same-generation kin as a result of the demographic transition.