Authors

• Heinänen, Ilkka (University of Eastern Finland)

Keywords

divorce, families, family members, genealogy, marriage, social class, social history, social mobility, social origin, social status, spouses, upper class, vital statistics

Abstract

The data contains information on marriages among the Swedish-speaking gentry in the province of Savo during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The data compiles information from parish records maintained by the clergy of Savo parishes on the marriages of members of the Swedish-speaking gentry, the backgrounds of their spouses, and the distribution of marriages across different social groups and geographical areas.

The data includes information on the age of the individuals entering into marriage, the order of the marriage (e.g. whether it was a first or subsequent marriage), the timing of the marriage, and age differences between spouses. In addition, the data contains information on the social status of spouses and whether marriages took place within the same estate group or crossed estate boundaries. Information is also provided on the fathers of the married couples, making it possible to examine the estate or social class into which the spouses were born. The data further contains information on the geographical scope of marriages and kinship relations between spouses. This includes information on the spouses' places of residence and whether marriages were contracted between individuals from the same parish or from different parishes. In addition, the data covers the prevalence of cousin marriages in different estate groups.