Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The project had five major objectives:
1. To create a detailed sociological and demographic database on individual families for the period 1871-1910 for the town of Ipswich by linking information from marriage, birth and death registers, and the 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses.
2. To clarify the relationship between socio-economic status and fertility and mortality.
3. To illuminate the nature of the long-term transition in fertility and mortality that took place in Ipswich and in England between 1871 and 1910.
4. To analyse the relationship and interaction between fertility and mortality variables and how they changed over time.
5. To clarify the influence of local environment and geography on the structure of mortality, and to study patterns of geographical migration in the period between 1871 and 1910.


Main Topics:

The project transcribed a total of 85,611 births and 53,748 deaths registered for the period 1871-1910. Additionally, census entries were transcribed for 166,323 individuals enumerated in the 1871, 1891 and 1901 censuses, along with 1,707 Anglican marriages for 1871-1881.

Of the 51,677 individuals recorded in the censuses between 1871-1901, 76.4 per cent were linked to either a death record before the next census or to subsequent census. Of the 32,101 deaths that took place between 1871-1901, 74.0 per cent were accounted for either by a link to births or to the previous census, and it was possible to link 90.9 per cent of deaths under the age of one to a previous birth record. Of the 150,026 entries for individuals enumerated in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses, 83,934 − 55.9 percent − were accounted for either through linkage to the next census or to a death record before that census.