Baptismal Registers Research Articles

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΕΣ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ (130Σ-190Σ ΑΙ.). ΜΟΡΦΕΣ ΑΥΤΟΔΙΟΙΚΗΣΗΣ, ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗ ΟΡΓΑΝΩΣΗ, ΣΥΓΚΡΟΤΗΣΗ ΤΑΥΤΟΤΗΤΩΝ»: ΜΙΑ ΕΡΕΥΝΗΤΙΚΗ ΠΡΟΤΑΣΗ

<p>This paper provides an overview of the above research programme, whichwas implemented as part of the PYTHAGORAS II programme administeredby the EU in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Education andReligious Matters and the University of Athens. Professors Olga Katsiardi-Hering and Anastasia Papadia-Lala and Assistant Professor Maria Efthymiou,members of the Department of History and Archaeology, undertook academicresponsibility for the project. The research team consisted of Ph.D. holders andcandidates and post-graduate students (Vassiliki Seirinidou and KaterinaKonstantinidou, as well as Dimitrios Kontogeorgis, Marina Koumanoudi,Sotiris Koutmanis, Ikaros Mantouvalos, Katerina Mousadakou, ChristinaPapacosta, Lambros Travlos), with the contribution of Professor ChryssaMaltezou, Director of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-ByzantineStudies of Venice, and Professor Olga Cicanci (Archival Studies at Bucharest).</p><p>The historical category of the community as a factor in the history of NewHellenism lies at the heart of the research, which explored various aspects ofthe phenomenon through an examination of numerous urban communities inGreek lands under Venetian rule (13th-18th centuries) on the one hand, and ofthe communities of the Diaspora on the other: the Greek Brotherhood ofVenice, Greek communities and commercial companies in the HabsburgMonarchy, Greek communities in the Trans-Danubian Principalities/ Romania.The two types of community are linked by their connection with Europe, theirsecularity and by their contribution to the emergence of the identity of theGreek populations in a complex politico-cultural environment. The moststudiedcommunity in the Ottoman Empire is used for purely comparativepurposes.</p><p>The main research axes were: a) the institutional framework of communityorganization, b) intra-community features, c) community activities.</p><p>The research was undertaken in Athens and various sites abroad and wasbacked up by archive material both published and unpublished (embassies,statutes, registers of marriages and baptisms, property registers, wills,commercial correspondence).</p><p>The results of the research include:</p><p>l.The compiling of academic reports detailing the research results;</p><p>2. Electronic processing (a. digital catalogues of archive material, b)electronic publications of transcribed archive material, c) electronic databases,now held at the University of Athens);</p><p>3. Academic papers presented at the One-day Conference held at theUniversity of Athens Historical Archive on February 27,2006;</p><p>4. The production of academic papers published in reputable academicseries and academic journals.</p><p>The historical material assembled and the conclusions drawn from thesubsequent research will contribute to the furtherance of academic researchand teaching at the university level.</p>

Malaria and deaths in the English marshes

There is convincing evidence that between the 16th and 19th centuries, individuals living in the coastal marshes of southern England were less healthy than those in inland areas. 1 Farr W Report on the mortality of cholera in England. W. Clownes, London1852 Google Scholar , 2 Dobson MJ Contours of death and disease in early modern England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge1997 Crossref Google Scholar , 3 Dobson M “Marsh Fever”—the geography of malaria in England. J Histor Geog. 1980; 6: 357-389 Crossref PubMed Scopus (35) Google Scholar , 4 Dobson M Malaria in England: a geographical and historical perspective. Parassitologia. 1994; 36: 35-60 PubMed Google Scholar , 5 Dobson MJ History of malaria in England. J R Soc Med. 1989; 82: 3-7 PubMed Google Scholar This evidence comes from two main sources. Historical records such as diaries, surveys, and travellers' accounts, provide anecdotal information about conditions in the marshes, 6 Hasted E The history and topographical survey of the County of Kent. W. Bristow, Canterbury1797–1801 Google Scholar , 7 Defoe D. A tour through the whole island of Great Britain. London: Penguin Classics, 1742–46. Google Scholar and Anglican parish registers of burials and baptisms provide data from which demographic trends can be identified. 8 Wrigley E Schofield R The population history of England, 1541–1871: a reconstruction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge1981 Google Scholar The insalubrious marshes were associated with a regularly occurring fever, known as ague, marsh fever, tertian fever, and intermittent fever. 9 Bruce-Chwatt LJ Ague as malaria, an essay on the history of two medical terms. J Trop Med Hyg. 1976; 79: 168-176 PubMed Google Scholar This ague is most likely to have been malaria because it was often characterised by typical symptoms of this infection, including splenomegaly and fevers every 48 h. 10 Boyd MF Malariology. A comprehensive survey of all aspects of this group of diseases from a global standpoint. Saunders WB, Philadelphia and London1949 Google Scholar , 11 Hunter M Gregory A An astrological diary of the seventeenth century. Samuel Jeake of Rye 1652–1699. Clarendon Press, Oxford1988 Google Scholar Most importantly, this fever of the marshes responded to treatment with quinine, 12 Sydenham T. The works of Thomas Sydenham. The Classics of Medicine Library: Adams Jr LB, 1848–50. Google Scholar , 13 Talbor R Pyretologia; a rational account of the cause and cure of agues, with a successful method for the cure of quartans. Robinson R, London1672 Google Scholar which is an effective antimalarial. The malaria parasite was probably Plasmodium vivax, rather than P falciparum, since vivax malaria always dominates in temperate climates 10 Boyd MF Malariology. A comprehensive survey of all aspects of this group of diseases from a global standpoint. Saunders WB, Philadelphia and London1949 Google Scholar and the UK climate is theoretically capable of supporting vivax transmission. 14 Lindsay SW Thomas CJ Global warming and risk of vivax malaria in Great Britain. Glob Change Hum Health. 2001; 2: 80-84 Crossref Google Scholar More compelling evidence comes from the identification of P vivax in bloodfilms obtained in 1917 from patients with the same symptoms as those described more than a century earlier. 15 James SP Malaria at home and abroad. Jonn Bale, Sons & Danielsson, London1920 Google Scholar We also know from feeding experiments with the mosquito Anopheles atroparvus—the only common vector species in the saltmarshes—that these mosquitoes could transmit vivax, but not falciparum malaria. 16 Ramsdale CD Coluzzi M Studies on the infectivity of tropical African strains of Plasmodium falciparum to some southern European vectors of malaria. Parassitologia. 1975; 17: 39-48 PubMed Google Scholar , 17 Shute PG Failure to infect English specimens of Anopheles maculipennis var. atroparvus with certain strains of Plasmodium falciparum of tropical origin. J Trop Med Hyg. 1940; 43: 175-178 Google Scholar

ESCRAVIDáƒO E LAá‡OS DE COMPADRIO: um estudo preliminar

Estudo sobre o ritual do batismo cristão na São Luá­s oitocentista, destacando os possá­veis significados que tal prática teria para as pessoas nela envolvidas. Nossas atenções estarão voltadas principalmente para os aspectos referentes a população cativa. Seguindo os indá­cios encontrados nos documentos que dispomos (registros de batismo) faremos também algumas considerações sobre as relações interpessoais que compunham aquele universo social, destacando não só o significado do compadrio para aquele segmento social, como também, as estruturas socioeconômicas que estariam influenciando ou mesmo impondo limites na escolha de seus parentes espirituais(compadres/comadres).

English population statistics before 1800

The first national census of the British population was organized in 1801; the civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths commenced in 1837; and the first tentative attempt by the state to compile statistics on migration was included in the census of 1841. Prior to 1801, the chief source of information on the demography of the country was provided by the clergy's registration of baptisms, marriages, and burials that had occurred in their parishes, supplemented by information on mortality in the Bills of Mortality that were published for certain large towns and by inferences drawn from various counts of taxpayers. The article focuses on the reliability of the parochial registration system and the way in which it was exploited by the state as measured against the state's objectives for establishing it in 1538. These objectives were rarely achieved. By the end of the 18th century, the parish registers were falling short of providing a national system of registration. Neither had the registers at any time provided the requisite detail to allow the verification of age, lineal descent, or right of inheritance. They had not been used as a way of raising revenue except briefly between 1694 and 1705. Moreover, the Anglican Church was extremely lax about the enforcement of its own regulations regarding the appropriate time for registering baptisms, burials, and marriages.

Aspectos particulares de Ia celebración del Bautismo

Francisco Navarro Ruiz, Particular aspects of the celebration of Baptism. The author tackles several particular aspects of the celebration of baptism, basically referring to the canonical regulation of the baptism of children, to what is established about the time and place of celebration, with special reference to the importance of the parish and the proof and registration of the baptism. The whole question which is raised by the baptism of children, is framed by the real pastoral situation of the Spanish ecclesial community, characterised by an increasing decline in religious belief and practice; as a consequence there is an ever greater phenomenon of parents who were baptised as infants but who are now unbelievers and, in their great majority, non-practicing, but who continue to ask for baptism for their children, to which they have a right according to c.96 and, in principle, an obligation according to c.867,1: the fictio iuris, legitimate in principle, which permits us to baptise children in the faith of the Church, looses its raison d'etre when the parents cannot bring their child up in a faith which they themselves lack. This is a problem which must be tackled pastorally with all honesty. Attention is also given to the conflict with civil legislation regarding parental legal competence and the canonical regulation of baptism of children over seven years of age or in danger of death; there is also a conflict over the public nature of registered data and the civil registration of religious freedom. The article therefore looks at the computerisation of baptismal registers and the documentary proof of formal abandonment of the Church, because of the canonical consequences it has that affect the validity of some acts. All of this demands an adequate particular legislation from the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

El padrino del Bautismo y su recuperación jurídico - pastoral

The article tackles the role which baptismal sponsors should fulfil in present circumstances, where the figure has lost its Christian character to the point of becoming, in not a few cases, a mere social convention. The author develops from a historical and canonical pint of view the relevance of this figure in Christian tradition from the earliest centuries, both with regard to the baptism of adults and of children, although with greater impact in the latter, and the whole problem involved. Given that the child is baptised in the faith of the Church and must be educated in that same faith by parents and god-parents so that in adult life he/she may desire to live out the commitments received at baptism, the Church must supply all necessary means to guarantee this later formation. The author, in order to clarify these aspects, treats the conditions for suitability which can be expected of a catholic who wishes to undertake this ecclesial ministry in accordance with what is established in current legislation; he proposes some means of revitalising the role of sponsor in the present circumstances. Along with these principal ones he deals with other secondary issues, which are not lacking in interest: number of sponsors, choice of name for the child, the presence of non-catholic witnesses in the celebration, sponsors by proxy, change of sponsors after the celebration ... which concludes the study. Francisco Navarro Ruiz, Particular aspects of the celebration of Baptism. The author tackles several particular aspects of the celebration of baptism, basically referring to the canonical regulation of the baptism of children, to what is established about the time and place of celebration, with special reference to the importance of the parish and the proof and registration of the baptism. The whole question which is raised by the baptism of children, is framed by the real pastoral situation of the Spanish ecclesial community, characterised by an increasing decline in religious belief and practice; as a consequence there is an ever greater phenomenon of parents who were baptised as infants but who are now unbelievers and, in their great majority, non-practicing, but who continue to ask for baptism for their children, to which they have a right according to c.96 and, in principle, an obligation according to c.867,1: the fictio iuris, legitimate in principle, which permits us to baptise children in the faith of the Church, looses its raison d'etre when the parents cannot bring their child up in a faith which they themselves lack. This is a problem which must be tackled pastorally with all honesty. Attention is also given to the conflict with civil legislation regarding parental legal competence and the canonical regulation of baptism of children over seven years of age or in danger of death; there is also a conflict over the public nature of registered data and the civil registration of religious freedom. The article therefore looks at the computerisation of baptismal registers and the documentary proof of formal abandonment of the Church, because of the canonical consequences it has that affect the validity of some acts. All of this demands an adequate particular legislation from the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

Kaskaskia Under the French Regime (review)

Reviewed by: Kaskaskia Under the French Regime Michael J. Sherfy Kaskaskia Under the French Regime. By Natalia Maree Belting with new Foreword by Carl J. Ekberg. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003. This work stands as a welcome addition to Southern Illinois University Press’s Shawnee Classics, an imprint which has gone far in recent years to ensure that venerable old books concerning the history of the American Midwest will remain available to readers for years to come. Completed in 1940 (but not published until 1948), Belting’s Kaskaskia Under the French Regime has long been regarded as one of the most readable accounts of the French colonial experience in the Illinois country. It warrants attention also as the first to emphasize the social and economic aspects of the time rather than focusing solely on political, military, and administrative topics. Clearly influenced by the Progressive historians of her day and-as Carl Ekberg points out in the Foreword to this new edition-unwilling to compete directly with Clarence Alvord’s politically-oriented The Illinois Country (1920), Belting approached her subject “from the bottom-up” and tried to capture the essence of daily life in an often overlooked part of France’s New World empire. Though her presentation often seems flippant and overly informal, the research that drives her description is thorough, meticulous, and nearly flawless by any standard. Belting consulted French sources from archives in Montreal and Paris as well as census data, official reports, and personal papers held in various American repositories. She translated many of these documents herself-making them available for the first time to an English-speaking audience and quoted from them extensively throughout her work. Belting also made extremely effective use of the still under-utilized “Kaskaskia Manuscripts”, a collection of over 3000 documents-including marriage contracts, records of property transactions (including the sale of African and Native American slaves), and estate inventories dating from the period between 1723 and 1780-discovered in an Illinois county courthouse in 1905. By reproducing many of these documents-in her text and in a 46-page appendix containing parish records of baptisms and marriages and a sizable abstract of the detailed 1752 census of the Illinois country-Belting not only adds weight, potency and “zest” to her statements, she also lays bare the methodology of the historian’s craft, making it accessible to an audience to whom it might be unfamiliar. While there is much about this book worthy of praise, there are also points upon which one can direct a certain level of criticism. Two issues strike me as especially problematic. The first of these is Belting’s failure to devote more attention to relationship between Kaskaskia’s French residents and their Indian neighbors. The village of Kaskaskia was, after all, named for a sub-tribe of the so-called Illinois Confederacy. Moreover, Belting’s own documents demonstrate that virtually every French habitant in Kaskaskia was involved-at least on a small scale-in the Indian trade. Many of the village’s residents were transient voyageurs who maintained a residence (and sometimes a family) in Kaskaskia but spent much of the year elsewhere-trading with various Native groups or delivering their goods downriver to market at New Orleans. But the relationship between the French and the Illinois Indians was considerably closer than that. In describing the situation during the first half of the eighteenth century, Susan Sleeper-Smith wrote, “Many histories…mistakenly identify Kaskaskia as a French settlement, even though during the first twenty years of its existence, only one Frenchwoman lived here. Of the twenty-one recorded baptisms, only one was the child of a Frenchwoman.” “The female French names that appear in marital and baptismal registers,” Sleeper-Smith continues, “testifies to the presence of Native women baptized by missionary priests.” While Belting does not ignore the role played by Native women altogether (She devotes a good deal of attention to Maria Rouensa, the daughter of a Kaskaskia chief who converted to Catholicism, married a Frenchmen, survived him and a second French husband, and accumulated a sizable estate. She also mentions the generally-ignored 1735 edict prohibiting French-Indian marriages without consent of the governor...

FAITH STREET, SOUTH KIRKBY -‘THAT TROUBLESOME PLACE’: INFANT MORTALITY IN A YORKSHIRE COAL-MINING COMMUNITY, 1894-1911

This paper is a case study of infant mortality in one street in South Kirkby between I894 and I9II: a street almost entirely occupied by coal-miners. The generally very high infant mortality rate amongst coal-miners was something of a paradox. They were comparatively well paid, their wives rarely went out to work and they often lived in rural surroundings-all of which were normally associated with relatively low infant mortality. Coal-miners, however, experienced high rates of migration, overcrowding brought about by large families (coal-miners also had one of the highest rates of fertility) and the presence of boarders. Such factors, it is suggested here, may have been critical for their mortality experience. The main source for this research is the vaccination register of births. Other sources include the I90I census enumerators’ books, South Kirkby parish registers of baptisms and burials, Moorthorpe Cemetery records and the minutes of the Sanitary Committee of Hemsworth Rural District Council.

Schiavi e figli di schiavi attraverso le registrazioni di battesimo medievali: Pisa, Gemona del Friuli, Lucca

Schiavi e figli di schiavi attraverso le registrazioni di battesimo medievali: Pisa, Gemona del Friuli, Lucca

Au sujet des prénoms de Tissot (1728-1797)

In different registers, dictionaries and publications the first names of the famous doctor Tissot are "David", "Auguste" or, absolutely wrong "Simon- André". After the baptismal Register of the village of Grancy, his birth place, his correct first names are Samuel, Auguste, André, David or - shortened - Samuel Auguste.

The Origins of Rural Calvinism in Aunis: The Sphere of Influence of La Rochelle

This article explores the origins of Protestantism in Aunis and suggests the reasons for its spread between 1520 and 1568. It examines the Reformed community through the vehicle of its religious and social structures. The Protestant baptismal, marriage, and church admission registers of La Rochelle and local notarial records are the primary sources. They reveal the demographic and social dynamics during the period prior to the Protestant coup d'etat of 1568 at La Rochelle: between 1559 (the date of the earliest baptismal act) and 9 January 1568. An estimate of the Protestant population of La Rochelle indicates that Protestants had been a majority at La Rochelle since the 1550s. But it is impossible to have an equally firm notion for Aunis. The sources do disclose that Calvinism spread from La Rochelle to the rest of the province even though the Rochelais and non-Rochelais were two distinct populations: one urban, the other rural. The diffusion can be traced through patterns of godparentage as well as through the activities of political figures, merchants, and artisans from La Rochelle. As members of the elite, they wanted proper education for their children who, in the process, came into contact with the Reformation. These people were members of the corps de ville and even lords of local seigneuries in the hinterland beyond La Rochelle. As such, they served as agents for the spread of Calvinism to the outlying region. Altogether, the Reformed churches of Aunis were situated near the city of La Rochelle, along the coast, and in the western part of the province where the population was concentrated.

Infant mortality and famine: a study in historical epidemiology in northern England.

To examine whether periodic variations in annual infant mortality were associated with malnutrition and the poor quality of the food supply available to the community. Retrospective study of historical epidemiology of infant mortality by time series analysis and family reconstitution of parish registers of burials and baptisms. Penrith, Cumbria, England, 1557-1812. A total of 17,500 births during 1557-1812. This community in the Eden Valley, Cumbria, close to the Scottish borders, was living under marginal conditions with high mortality and low fertility. Clear oscillations in infant mortality synchronise with the oscillations in the wheat price index which is regarded as a measure of the availability of food to the community, and to pregnant and nursing mothers in particular. Input-output analysis showed that the relationship between the wheat price index (input) and infant mortality (output) was highly significant (p < 0.001). Events during the famine of 1623 have been analysed in detail: high wheat prices during pregnancy caused subsequent severe infant mortality but did not have indirect effects on the subsequent mortality of the surviving children over the age of 1 year. Non-stationary oscillations in neonatal and post neonatal mortality were strongly coherent (p < 0.001) with the wheat price index throughout the period. Infant mortality is particularly sensitive to famine and also to the quality of the food supply available to pregnant and nursing mothers. The lags between neonatal and post-neonatal mortalities and wheat prices, together with the analysis of the famine of 1623, support the hypothesis that neonatal mortality was related to malnutrition in pregnancy whereas post-neonatal mortality was primarily directly dependent on exogenous causes in the first year of life.

Predictions from Time Series Analysis of the Oscillations in Parish Register Series

Parish registers provide invaluable data series for theoretical population biologists and historical demographers alike and previous studies with time-series analysis have shown how the population dynamics of these communities can be determined and modelled. However, many demographic parameters of the community have previously been determined only by the laborious technique of family reconstitution. It is suggested that some of these functions may be estimated by the application of conventional time-series analysis to the aggregative annual totals in the registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths: (i) age of mother at birth of median child; (ii) estimations of fertility function; (iii) mean age at marriage; (iv) estimations of mortality function; (v) factors governing the population boom; (vi) the patterns of population dynamics that might be found and the detection of steady-state conditions in communities in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These theoretical predictions have been verified in a parish where the demographic parameters have been determined by family reconstitution and excellent correspondence has been found.

Mortality in a rural South African mission, 1837-1909: an historical cohort study using church records.

Three decadal birth cohorts (1837-1846), 1870-1879 and 1900-1909) each of approximately 500 individuals, were constructed retrospectively through the parish records of the Moravian Mission at Mamre in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Nominative data collection techniques were used to determine the infant mortality rates (IMR), quinquennial mortality rates (QMR) and life expectancies of the three cohorts. The quality of the data was investigated, specifically non-registration and attrition. Overall, male registration coverage was substantially better than that for females. Birth registration was best for the 1837-1846 cohort for males and females, with the 1900-1909 registration being next best. Infant death registration was most complete for males in these two cohorts, but was poor for females. Based on these data, the IMR for the cohorts born in 1837-1846, 1870-1879 and 1900-1909 (196, 182 and 128 per 1000 respectively for males and 160, 172 and 97 per 1000 respectively for females) appeared to be underestimates. There was some evidence of a downward trend for the IMR with time for males, but this was not statistically significant. For the three cohorts QMR did not differ statistically for males, but for females the third cohort was consistently lower than the other cohorts. The difference was small (well within the 95% confidence interval) but the third cohort ranked consistently below the other two. The life expectancies did not differ significantly between cohorts. The life expectancies at birth (range 34-40 years for males and 32-45 years for females) were probably overestimates due to biased IMR. The life expectancies at age 1 (range 41-44 for males and 37-49 for females) were considered to be more representative figures. Life expectancies at age 20 (37-45 years) were fairly stable over time except for females in the 1900-1909 cohort whose life expectancies were substantially higher than the figures for the earlier cohorts. All mortality indices investigated in this study consistently showed a lighter burden of mortality in historical Mamre compared to 'coloureds' in the Cape Colony at the turn of the century. This is probably the result of the better housing, environmental, social, economic and educational conditions on the missions relative to the rest of the Colony in the century after the emancipation of slaves.

Religion, Revolution, and English Radicalism: Nonconformity in Eighteenth-Century Politics and Society

In the age of the American Revolution, the political issues surrounding John Wilkes, the colonies, and parliamentary reform agitated the nation, and recent studies of party ideology and voting behavior have shown how these national issues divided England. But subsequent work on the peerage and Anglican political theory has depicted a more placid, deferential populace. This book engages the discussion by drawing attention to the social and political activities of the English Dissenters. The Nonconformists' legal standing, social status, and political behavior help illumine a number of unexamined causes for both the social stability and the political stresses of Hanoverian England. Legal inequities provoked strong opposition to the government's American policy from the dissenting elite, and while the ministers' publications suggest the depth of popular discontent, previous accounts have been unable to show how popular sentiment was transformed into radical behavior. By comparing sermons, political pamphlets, and election ephemera to poll books, city directories, and baptismal registers, this book offers an integrated approach to the study of ideology and behavior.

Population of the french overseas territories in the pacific, past, present and projected

tions has rarely been applied to Oceanian populations.l The main reason for this is that baptism registers are incomplete. At the time of expanding Christianity, the population registered by the missionaries was increasing. Moreover, it was affected by many biases. Young people converted in order to participate in the new way of life and the new economy, but old people rarely changed their religion and they lived and died in the animism of their ancestors. This bias in age structure of the Christian population may be important until all the population was converted. Another bias occurs because not all baptised persons were newly born children, but sometimes older children or adults, and this was not always noted by the missionary. Death registration often began later than baptism registration and is usually less complete (some deaths are registered as baptism Hn articulo mortis').

Estimating the proportion of migrants from Anglican marriage registers

Anglican marriage registers are the only source to allow a comprehensive survey of migration rates in England from the sixteenth century to the present day. However, a comparison with estimates from annotated baptismal registers shows them consistently to underestimate the amount of migration. A method is proposed which may compensate for such bias in an observed matrix of migration.

Estimates of historical migration in County Durham.

Twelve parishes in Northumberland and County Durham were used to estimate the accuracy of Anglican marriage registers as indicators of migration between birthplace and marriage. We compared entries in the marriage registers with the annotated baptismal registers which exist for most Northumberland parishes from 1798-1812, and which explicitly document the birthplaces of the parents of the child baptised. By linking individual marriages and subsequent baptisms we showed that the marriage registers systematically underestimate the amount of migration, with values of f (predicted by Wright's Island model) estimated from marriage registers likely to be two to four times the size of those indicated by the baptism registers.

Slavery in Brazil: A Case Study of Diamantina, Minas Gerais

The study of slave mortality and morbidity in Brazil has been very difficult because of the extreme paucity of sources. Techniques which have been useful in studying the lives of free men and women seldom are useful for analyzing their slaves. The use of parish records such as baptism and death registers is not possible because of the custom of listing only the slave's first name and the unimaginative choice of names which resulted in large numbers of Joãos, Josés, Manuels, Antônios, Antonias, Joanas, and, of course, Marias. Equally important, the types of plantation records available to students of U.S. slavery have seldom been found for Brazil.This essay is an examination of an isolated slave register, which, for a series of idiosyncratic reasons, provides information permitting a glimpse at mortality and morbidity in a distinct and carefully controlled slave population. Because the slaves involved were used in diamond mining under horrendous conditions it is probable that the conclusions reached in this essay represent a worst case scenario. Rather than typical, this is a special case where work and living conditions were probably worse than in plantation zones and certainly worse than in urban areas. It is this situation which makes the conclusions of this essay quite startling.

The English Hospice Of St. George at Sanlucar De Barrameda

NOT FAR from Cadiz there is an English property that has remained Catholic for close on five hundred years. Its history goes back to pre-reformation days, indeed to the thirteenth century when the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda was recaptured from the Moors by the Guzman family who later became the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. Strategically Sanlucar was an important port because it was at the mouth of the Guadalquivir and as well as capturing the Seville trade it also commanded the traffic from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe and eventually it was the point of departure for ships leaving for the New World. Among the various nations using the port the English were conspicuous and their merchants were granted various privileges by the Dukes of Medina Sidonia during the fifteenth century. By the early sixteenth century there is evidence of a sizeable colony in the town; in fact the English were the largest single group of foreigners and many English names appear in the baptismal registers as both parents and godparents. At least one of them held high public office in the town. On the accession of Henry VIII to the throne of England, the situation further improved as he abandoned the neutrality of his father and allied himself with Spain against France. So it was that in 1517 a new charter of privileges for the English merchants in Sanlucar was drafted. A grant of land by the river was made so as to provide a chapel and a burial place for Englishmen. The chapel was dedicated to St. George and it was to be looked after by a confraternity. The chaplain was to be appointed by the Bishops of London, Winchester and Exeter, since it was from these dioceses that most of the merchants came. Although there have been rebuildings, this site has remained English ever since.