10 - Selection criteria used in compiling the tables in chapters 5 to 7

Summary

The purpose of this appendix is to provide fuller specification of the tabular reconstitution material than can conveniently be presented in the main body of the book. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 contain the chief empirical findings of this book. The data were derived from information contained on family reconstitution forms, and the chapters deal respectively with nuptiality, mortality, and fertility. The tables which appear in the other chapters were simple counts of totals of events, or are fully described in the accompanying text, or were obtained from tabulations which parallel those used for the tables in chapters 5 to 7. Accordingly, the table specifications given below refer exclusively to tables in these three chapters.

The three main types of criteria which are reflected in the listed specifications relate to the degree of precision required in the data; to the wish to avoid truncation and censoring bias; and to conventions which reflect biological realities. An example of the first type is the requirement in the fertility chapter that the date of birth of the wife must be accurate to within a month. This rule ensures that, in the study of marital fertility, age is known with adequate precision. The requirement in tables 5.1 to 5.11 that the date of marriage should be at least 50 years after the start of the reconstitution is an example of the second type.