Stay or leave? Individual choice and family logic: The destinations of children born in the Valserine Valley (French Jura) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

To study inheritance, it is necessary in the first place to know the number of heirs in each family, how property was divided between them, and whether their inheritance was sufficient to enable them to maintain and support several children in the parish. This study examines the process by which the populations of the parishes of the Valserine Valley in France reproduce themselves from one generation to the next, by means of examining the “effective” progeny of couples to determine how many of them produce children (heirs) who continue to live in the Valley. The ultimate goal of these researches is to establish the characteristics of those who leave the Valley, and how these differ from those who choose to stay. The article examines whether it is possible to discern a family strategy in the way these decisions are made, and whether behavior of the persons in question is determined by individual choice.