FAMILY HISTORY

Family history Western society since medieval times has been characterized by a great diversity of family organization. This diversity has had several often interrelated aspects, including geographic region, occupation, social class, and whether the family in question was rural or urban. Historically, there were considerable differences between different regions of Europe and even between different areas in the same country. Aristocrats and commoners established family customs and social institutions peculiar to their respective social classes, as did merchants and peasants. In addition, ethnic and religious minorities frequently established their own unique patterns of family life in accord with traditions and moral values that were often at variance with the rest of society. Approaches to family history The task of interpreting and explaining the diversity of family organization in historical times has fallen to the field of family history. Family history emerged in the 1960s as a major focus of interest within the broader field of economic and social history. Because family history draws on the methods and theories of several social sciences, it has developed its own diversity of approaches to the understanding of its subject. Three major areas of interest are relevant here; the British family historian Michael Anderson labeled them the sentiments approach, the demographic approach, and the household economics approach.