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Between 1825 and 1960 900,000 Norwegians emigrated. Before 1930 more than 95 per cent went to the United States. The rate of return to Norway was low in comparison to many other nations who sent large numbers to the US after 1880. High quality census enumerations in both countries, that are now available in electronic format, allow the possibility of reconstructing the lives and voyages of some of these migrants. Even with a low rate of return-migration there were more than 50,000 return migrants. Constructing a large sample of return migrants observed in both Norway and the US becomes more feasible with electronic search and matching strategies. This article gives an overview of available and soon forthcoming sources in the North Atlantic Population Project, the possibility of electronic linkages, and the challenges of this research strategy. Using a group of 448 Norwegian migrants matched between the 1900 American and 1910 Norwegian census, an empirical analysis shows that migration and marital transitions were likely to have been closely linked. Machine-linked records hold the promise of being able to trace several thousand Norwegians across the Atlantic and back again.

AbstractObesity is an increasing public health concern with important mortality consequences. Weight gain or maximum adult BMI, not BMI at one point in time, has been shown to be an important risk factor in cohorts studied recently during an era of rapid increase in population levels of overweight and obesity. However, there is limited evidence on individual weight trajectories from cohorts born before the mid-twentieth century. Archival world war military personnel files from New Zealand are freely available online, and identify service in both wars. A pilot study of 316 soldiers confirmed the files contain sufficient information to examine health trajectories and lifespan. Because this cohort are now entirely deceased, nearly the entire sample can be found in death records to estimate the impact of weight increases on lifespan. Weight change over 20–30 years and its relationship with lifespan is examined using ordinary least squares regression. The study demonstrates that military records are a feasible source for collecting data on adult weight and health trajectories in the first half of the twentieth century. Although this sample is likely to be composed of men fitter than average, there is a clear pattern of increasing weight from early to mid-adulthood. Weight gain from early adulthood to middle-age was found to be more strongly associated with mortality than weight in early adulthood. A one unit increase in BMI over the inter-war period was found to be associated with an 8 month decline in lifespan. These results confirm that weight gain in adulthood has an important impact on mortality in an earlier birth cohort than previously studied, and that data exist to measure any changes more precisely over time.

AbstractIndigenous people have experienced relatively high incarceration rates in British Columbia, as elsewhere in North America, since the 1940s. Archival prison records, however, show that the incidence of Indigenous incarceration was lower than for other people before 1910. This evidence implies the crucial period for increasing incarceration of Indigenous peoples in British Columbias was from 1910 to 1940. The pattern for Indigenous women differed from that of men. Large numbers of Indigenous women were imprisoned in the 1870s and 1880s. The British Columbia Indigenous pattern has important similarities to the New Zealand Māori in the same era. Neither Indigenous experience is easily explained by group threat theory used to understand rising incarceration for African‐Americans in this period. Indigenous incarceration in settler states prior to the 1950s needs additional comparative research and theoretical understanding.

De 1835 à 1935, la fécondité aux États-Unis a chuté de 7 enfants par femme à 2,1. Le dépouillement intégral du recensement américain réalisé par IPUMS pour les années 1850, 1880, 1910 et 1930 permet d'analyser très finement cette baisse. Pour cela, nous construisons des modèles inclusifs de la fécondité des couples qui prennent en compte une très large variété de facteurs économiques, sociaux, culturels et familiaux, y compris des mesures de la religiosité et de la disponibilité de membres de la famille résidant hors du ménage mais à proximité de celui-ci. Nos résultats mettent en évidence le rôle majeur dans la baisse de la fécondité joué par les pratiques et perceptions culturelles et religieuses, approchées par l'origine des parents – notamment le pays de naissance – et les choix de prénoms.

In this article, the authors examine classified advertising for employment in Los Angeles during World War II. There is no prior research on the role of classified advertising in wartime labor markets, despite the importance of World War II to narratives of change in women's work in the United States. In contrast to the iconic Rosie the Riveter advertisements, which promoted change in women's occupations, classified advertisements show important continuities with pre- and postwar labor markets. The majority of advertisements for women workers were for domestic service or clerical work, not defense production. Classified advertisements continued to be functional, emphasizing wages and working conditions, and made little explicit reference to the patriotic importance of the war.