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This thesis investigates the relationship between success and access to children, slaves, and kin as labor sources during the period of 1833 to 1865 in northeast Mississippi. The theoretical concepts of agricultural intensification and relative intensity were used to measure variability among the households. Artifacts from seven archaeological sites were used to establish mean dates. These sites were tied to their original occupants through historic records. A historic document search revealed the number of slaves and children each family had, and whether they had kin living nearby. Agricultural census records showed the productivity of each farm during the study period. Families were considered successful if they stayed in the study area until death, increased the number of slaves or land owned, or increased their agricultural output. This thesis concluded that the relationship between success and the availability of labor is complex with no one strategy ensuring success.

This dissertation studies the establishment and demographic development of the sawmill communities that emerged in the Sundsvall district during the latter half of the 19th century.  The intention is to highlight the importance of the sawmill communities and their resident populations by discussing community construction from a demographic perspective as well as socially and symbolically. Based on church registers, this is a longitudinal study that includes information from 31 individual sawmill communities. This study has shown that the establishment and demographic development of the sawmill communities was not an instant process that necessarily followed the construction of the sawmill industries. The prerequisites of the geographical locations and year of establishment influenced population development, but the speed and size of the settlements were individual to each mill site. More prosperous times for the industry during the 1870s resulted in that migration increased consequently leading to quickly populated communities and larger registered core populations in residence. Migration to the sawmill communities from within the parishes was infrequent and the geographical backgrounds revealed that an extremely small proportion of the populations had been born within the district, implying a migratory hesitation among locally born. The sawmill populations were male-dominated due to the large groups of temporary workers inhabiting the communities, although, adult males barely made up one-third of the registered populations. The largest demographic group was children aged 0-14 years. The strong presence of children and high proportions of married individuals suggests that the sawmill communities were family oriented communities, more so than non-sawmill areas. Long-time settled families had usually formed kinship networks with other residents. This dissertation concludes that while time was important for the development of the sawmill communities, so were the registered populations residing in these communities. Residency would have been key in claiming belonging to the sawmill communities and to be considered as a real sawmill worker. Residency, family and kin therefore contributed to the construction of community structures, geographically, socially and symbolically.

Les prétentions généalogiques sont un phénomène vieux comme le monde, et l'historien actuel a souvent le réflexe de les écarter comme une simple expression de vanité sans fondement. La tentation est d'autant plus forte dans certains cas où l'hiatus social, culturel ou chronologique est particulièrement marqué. Or, on constate que le nombre de ces prétentions augmente considérablement à certaines époques charnières, ce qui est souvent interprété a contrario comme l'illustration de la vanité d'homines noui sans ancêtres. Je me propose ici de nuancer cet a priori en examinant le cas de prétentions formulées par des notables athéniens à l'époque impériale romaine. L'étude prosopographique détaillée des réseaux familiaux auxquels appartenaient ces notables montre que ce qui pourrait sembler au départ n'être qu'une invention triviale est susceptible de recouvrir une réalité soigneusement conservée. Plus généralement, cette étude amène à repenser le phénomène des prétentions généalogiques dans sa totalité. L'expression englobe des réalités multiples et fort diverses qu'on ne peut traiter de la même façon. Par exemple pour les parvenus notoires ou les très anciennes familles aristocratiques. Il faut également distinguer les prétentions qui renvoient à des ancêtres mythologiques et celles qui renvoient à des personnages historiques, sans pour autant les opposer. L'influence des Romains sur les prétentions formulées à Athènes au temps de leur domination apparaît clairement mais il convient d'examiner son poids réel sur une société au passé aristocratique fort ancien. L'étude généalogique sera menée à partir des recueils prosopographiques récents (Persons of Ancient Athens, Lexicon of Greek Personal Names) mais en reprenant l'ensemble du corpus de textes et d'inscriptions dont certaines récemment exhumées. Cette étude mettra en lumière que les Athéniens disposaient de supports suffisants pour véhiculer une mémoire généalogique lointaine. Dans un certain nombre de cas, la reconstruction de filiations détaillées permet même de reconstituer un cheminement précis de la prétention. / Genealogical claims are a phenomenon as old as the hills, but modern historians very often tend to exclude them as a simple expression of pride without any grounds. Temptation is stronger under certain circumstances where the social, cultural or chronological hiatus is very important. We notice that the number of these claims increase considerably during certain transition periods, which is often seen a contrario like the illustration of the pride of homines noui without ancestors. I am proposing here to moderate this a priori by studying claims made by notable Athenians under the Roman Empire. The detailed prosopographic study of the family networks, to which these notables belonged, shows that what seems to be at first stance a trivial invention, is likely to uncover a long hidden reality. Generally speaking, this study intends to fully reconsider the phenomenon of the genealogical claims. The term includes multiple and extremely various findings which cannot be investigated in the same way, for example, the famous parvenus or the very old aristocratic families. It is also necessary to separate the claims from mythological ancestors and those from historical individuals, without contracting them. The influence of the Romans on the claims made in Athens at the time of their domination on the city appears clearly but it is advisable to check its real weight on a society with extremely old aristocratic history. The genealogical study will be conducted based on late prosopographical writings (Persons of Ancient Athens, Lexicon of Greek Personal Names) but will also include the full text corpus and inscriptions, some of witch only recently exavated.This study will highlight the fact that the Athenians had enough support to maintain a genealogical memory going a long way. In a certain number of cases, the reconstruction of detailed filiations even makes it possible to retrace precisely one path of the claim.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2008. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-193).

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