Effect of family rupture and recomposition on the children of New France

Using the biographies of nearly 10,000 children born in New France during the seventeenth century, this study looks at the phenomenon of single parenthood from the children's point of view. Since separation and divorce were uncommon during this period, marital disruptions only occurred through the death of one of the partners. In New France, half of all children witnessed the disruption of their parents' marriage before having reached emancipation. The article examines the impact on family characteristics (family size and number of emancipated children), as well as the contribution of age-ranking within the family to the likelihood that the children would live in a reconstituted family.     

From france to new france

The history of family names is directly linked to the history of populations. In the French-Canadian case, this history has two main features: a small number of founding members of a population, and a rapid increase due to a high reproduction rate, without any significant new influx of immigrants. Other factors intervened in the success of certain names: differential reproduction rates between regions, how early the name was established; and the use of surnames, which in some cases replaced the original name. With respect to names, France and New France were very different. Research in France on the names of a sample of pioneers going to the New World shows little expansion of several names, particularly in the immigrants' region of origin.     

From france to new france: Quebec family names,past and present

The history of family names is directly linked to the history of populations. In the French-Canadian case, this history has two main features: a small number of founding members of a population, and a rapid increase due to a high reproduction rate, without any significant new influx of immigrants. Other factors intervened in the success of certain names: differential reproduction rates between regions, how early the name was established; and the use of surnames, which in some cases replaced the original name. With respect to names, France and New France were very different. Research in France on the names of a sample of pioneers going to the New World shows little expansion of several names, particularly in the immigrants' region of origin.     

Coresidence of siblings,half-siblings,and step-siblings in Ancien régime France

A significant proportion of children in ancien régime France lived in broken homes or in blended families, and had to cope with the presence of half-siblings and stepsiblings in the same residence. Reconstructing the family experience with well-documented guardianship accounts, the article compares the lives of children with the experience of their siblings, half-siblings, and stepsiblings, concentrating particularly on the patterns of coresidence. Brothers and sisters were often separated during the guardianship period, some of them being raised in different places for most of their childhood. Half-siblings and stepsiblings lived together for rather short periods of time, because of their difference in age, their birth rank, or their gender. Finally, the lives of those children were closely linked to the administration of their heritage: when both their mothers and fathers were dead, another relative took charge of the guardianship, and often removed the children from a stepparent's home, thus separating half-siblings.     

Beyond adoption: Orphans and family strategies in pre-industrial France

There was no legal adoption of under-age children in France before 1923. After the collapse of the Roman Empire the customs of western European societies, including France, sought to find a new family framework for orphaned children and tried carefully to secure the transmission of the assets such children inherited. Relatives had duties towards the children, and the children in turn had to work and serve their substitute parents and to obey them. A child was a “person” in western Christian society as soon as he or she was baptized, and the parents were in charge. But an orphan or semi-orphan was controlled by a family council and his or her future was submitted to familial debate and was controlled by neighbors and relatives, often in front of public and judicial authorities. French society before the 1789 Revolution had devised numerous ways of meeting the needs of the many orphans created by the prevailing high mortality rate, and maternal or paternal kinship expressed itself in diverse ways in the lives of these children, according to the different regional cultures that in France strongly influenced the practice and modalities of family reproduction.     

Women''s marital difficulties: Requests of separation in New France

Using requests for separation by married couples in Canadian New France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this article explores the reasons behind the break-up of their marriages. The documents reveal that conjugal life with an alcoholic husband, who was violent or unconcerned with the well-being of his family, forced women to submit a request for separation. The study of marital separations during French administration provides valuable insights into the marriage norms, the duties and behaviors sanctioned by them, and the lines drawn between normality and marginality in that period.     

The other breadwinners: The mobilization of secondary wage earners in early twentieth-century black families

This study examines black families' reliance on secondary wage earners in Atlanta, GA during the early twentieth century (1900 and 1936). In periods of economic prosperity and decline, two-parent black families routinely relied on the employment of mothers, children, and extended kin to supplement the family income. These other breadwinners had different positions within the black family economy, and families' reliance on them was affected by diverse, albeit complementary factors. The employment of mothers and children was affected by economic need and the demands associated with the family life cycle. The presence of working relatives in extended family households was affected by the age of relatives, household size, and, to a limited degree, the ages of the host families' children.     

Houses,heirs, and non-heirs in the adour valley: Social and geographic mobility in the nineteenth-century

“Providing for the children's future” is a problem that parents should solve by the time children reach adulthood. In the case of a peasant family, the solution involved giving children part of the estate. In the Pyrénées, landownership as well as social status were bequathed to a single heir, while the other children had to leave the family house. What became of these others and where do they go? A small village from the Adour plain has been chosen to show how the system functioned during the nineteenth century, which was replete with economic crises. The study shows that roles and the duties connected with them changed during this century: internalization of local social norms was no longer going to be as successful as in the past. Also, the meaning of the family changed. Earlier, a simple domestic group working for the House, the family began to take on more autonomy as a production unit and started a long trend towards being a haven, a protector of the weak, old and unmarried members of the family.     

Godparents,witnesses, and social class in mid-nineteenth century sweden

“Providing for the children's future” is a problem that parents should solve by the time children reach adulthood. In the case of a peasant family, the solution involved giving children part of the estate. In the Pyrénées, landownership as well as social status were bequathed to a single heir, while the other children had to leave the family house. What became of these others and where do they go? A small village from the Adour plain has been chosen to show how the system functioned during the nineteenth century, which was replete with economic crises. The study shows that roles and the duties connected with them changed during this century: internalization of local social norms was no longer going to be as successful as in the past. Also, the meaning of the family changed. Earlier, a simple domestic group working for the House, the family began to take on more autonomy as a production unit and started a long trend towards being a haven, a protector of the weak, old and unmarried members of the family.     

The blended family in ancien régime France: A dynamic family form

High rates of remarriage in ancien régime France indicate that many children lived in stepfamilies, sometimes with half-siblings and step-siblings. Sociologists have developed the theory of the blended family to account for these kinds of family situations. With some adjustments, it is possible to use the theory to describe a particular familial form in early modern France. Using accounts of guardianship of orphans from Paris and Châlons-sur-Marne (Champagne region) in the period 1630–1790, this article explores the relationships between the individuals involved in such reconstituted families, in a society where divorce was illegal and patrimonial transmission was organized by customary law.     

New Labour’s communitarianism,supporting families and the ‘rationality mistake’: Part II

In Part I of this study, we argued that New Labour is keen to use legislation to promote what it sees as desirable family forms and to discourage other, less-favoured family practices. The codification of this approach in the 1998 Green Paper Supporting Families - and, in particular, the 'New Deal for Lone Parents' - was compared with recent empirical research on how people make decisions about their moral economies. We concluded that the government's approach is subject to a 'rationality mistake' - people do not make decisions in the way the government assumes and hence legislation can be inefficient or even oppressive. Here, we examine this contention further, this time focusing on chapter 4 of the Green Paper, indicatively entitled 'Strengthening marriage'. Using recent empirical research on mothers' views on marriage and cohabitation, we find further evidence of the 'rationality mistake', where the government has misunderstood the ways in which people make decisions about partnering and hence misplaces the role of family law. We conclude that supportive and flexible legislative frameworks are needed that recognize the varying ways in which people take moral economic decisions.     

EARLY INTERVENTION IN NEW ZEALAND FAMILY COURT CASES

In April 2010 the New Zealand Family Court introduced the National Early Intervention Process (NEIP) to diversify its previous unitary dispute resolution pathway into two tracks (standard and urgent). A “triage” model is now in use to assess and assign cases appropriately. This article outlines the key milestones in the Family Court's 30‐year history which have led to this new initiative to reduce delays and help avoid the escalation of family conflicts over the care of children into bitter and intractable disputes. NEIP represents the most overarching reform of the Family Court since the Court's inception in 1981.     

A Puzzling Paradox: Advancements in Reproductive Technology and New York's Ban on Commercial Surrogacy Agreements

With infertility on the rise in the United States and the legalization of same sex marriage, it has become increasingly difficult for many Americans to start a family. Advancements in modern medicine have addressed this issue and now couples can create their family through surrogacy. However, New York's current laws have not caught up to the changing times and surrogacy agreements are still invalid and unenforceable. This Note proposes the repeal of New York's surrogacy ban and the adoption of legislation to recognize and enforce surrogacy agreements in order to bring New York's laws within the purview of modern medicine.     

A three-year comparative longitudinal study of a school-based social work family service to reduce truancy,delinquency and school exclusions

New Labour is keen to use legislation to encourage what are seen as desirable family practices, and to discourage other, less-favoured, forms. What this means in policy terms has now been codified in its 1998 Green Paper, Supporting Families . In this paper, we examine the validity of this enterprise in terms of its underlying assumptions about social behaviour and economic decision making. We argue that the government implicitly assumes a universal model of 'rational economic man' and his close relative the 'rational legal subject', whereby people take individualistic, cost-benefit type decisions about how to maximize their own personal gain. Change the financial structure of costs and benefits, and the legal structure of rights and duties, in the appropriate way and people will modify their social behaviour in the desired direction. However, recent research suggests that people do not act like rational economic man in making decisions about their moral economy. Legislation based on this assumption might then be ineffectual and the proposals in Supporting Families seem to be one example. This is what we have labelled the 'rationality mistake'. In Part I of this work, we focus on the financial proposals in the Green Paper and on the New Deal for Lone Parents in particular. We then go on to counterpose this with the results of recent empirical work on how and why people actually do make family decisions. In Part II, to be published in the next issue, we focus on chapter four of Supporting Families , on strengthening marriage, and again compare New Labour's proposals with recent empirical work.     

A Need Not Being Met: Providing Paid Family and Medical Leave for All Americans

Many parents in the United States face the quandary of whether to take time off from work to care for themselves, their children, or other family member, understanding that their jobs may not be there upon return and they will receive no income during their leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act has not lifted this burden; it only provides for unpaid leave. Four states and several cities have implemented paid family and medical leave statutes with both employees and employers benefiting. This Note proposes a uniform paid family and medical leave statute based on other countries’ statutes; proposed federal legislation; and statutes in New York, California, and San Francisco.     

Assessing mothers' and fathers' violence toward children as a function of their involuntary participation in family work

This study examines the association between parents' violence toward children and their involuntary participation in family work. Involuntary participation in family work is conceptualized as a form of role strain measured by the disparity between the amount of responsibility husbands and wives would prefer to assume in the home and the amount of family work they actually perform. The prediction guiding this research is that differences of this kind are more associated with mothers' violence than fathers'. Regression analysis with a national sample of parents supports this hypothesis. Nonetheless, the association between such role strain and violence is quite weak, suggesting that additional research is required in formulating and measuring this relationship.     

Unique Role of the Court

The court is a unique and vital institution within the American system of government. The court's fundamental responsibility is to assure that all members of society are protected under law from harm by others. Juvenile and family courts have, within this system, the equally important responsibility to protect the best interests of children, families, and communities. These responsibilities convey to the courts a role vital to our anti-substance abuse efforts on behalf of society and especially on behalf of children and their families. Such efforts must recognize the existence of non-traditional, as well as traditional, family units within today's society.     

CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES:

Since 1984, all U.S. jurisdictions have established child support guidelines. Using computerized worksheets, we compared the guidelines of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut (which use the “Income Shares” model also employed by 30 other jurisdictions). We calculated how child care, alimony to a prior spouse, and subsequent children change the support obligation. We found that, generally, Connecticut requires the most child support, New York is second, and New Jersey third. However, if children require child care, New York requires the most support. In Connecticut, child care costs have virtually no impact. When a noncustodial parent is paying alimony to a prior spouse, support is dramatically greater in Connecticut than in New Jersey, with New York in between. Only New Jersey reduces the support paid by the noncustodial parent who has subsequent children. New York's and Connecticut's mathematical guidelines do not consider subsequent children.     

A ‘class of no political weight’? Interracial Marriage,Mixed Race Children and Land Rights in Southern New Zealand, 1840s-1880s

ABSTRACT

Interracial marriage was a defining feature of interaction between local Ngāi Tahu and newcomers in southern New Zealand from the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has explored the importance of such relationships to development of New Zealand’s early resource-based economies and to colonial assimilation policies. However, the experiences of cross-cultural households and families in colonial New Zealand are less well documented.

Using a body of writing produced by fathers and their mixed-race children in response to land claims investigations in the mid-nineteenth century, this article explores the political, economic and social world of interracial families in southern New Zealand. The correspondence over land rights reveals the ongoing importance of kinship ties through generations as colonial expansion impinged on these communities. Through petitioning and letter writing, fathers and children contested what marriage and family meant and strategically asserted their individual and collective identity in the face of increasing land dispossession and economic hardship.     

INVISIBLE PARTIES: LISTENING TO CHILDREN

This article discusses how children are involved in family court proceedings in New Zealand. On July 1, 2005, the Care of Children Act 2004 came into force. One of the changes brought about by this Act is an increased expectation that children will participate in proceedings involving them, by the court giving the child a reasonable opportunity to express his or her view. Children may participate in three ways, the primary mechanism being through the lawyer for the child. Children's views can also be elucidated through a specialist report, and direct participation can be achieved through judicial interviews. As each child is different, it is important that the unique circumstances of the case are accounted for. This article will discuss how each of the three methods can be combined to tailor an approach that gives every individual child a reasonable opportunity to express his or her view. There are a number of examples given of this approach in practice, showing how the court has adapted the process to accommodate the child's situation and personality.