What is an archive?

The essence of biohistorical research is the archive.  Despite the fact that the word archive tends to conjure up images of dusty, basement shelves filled with books and ledgers, the term can mean a great number of things for our research purposes.  Below, I have written a by no means exhaustive list of potential sources of archival data;

 

Government documents (censuses, marriage records, vital statistics, military anthropometric records)

Privately published documents (19^th century directories, phonebooks)

Personal records (family genealogies)

Unpublished data from previous anthropological fieldwork (including photographs, ethnographic data)

Compendiums of comparative ethnographic data (HRAF)

Online records of gene frequency data (ALFRED and HapMap)

Blood serum samples

Tissue samples

Archived cell lines

Flood and Earthquake

Taking a break from the usual posts today.  It is always a bit disconcerting when your hometown makes the national headlines due to a disaster, or even the potential for one.  This was the case in 2006, when the Susquehanna River crept to within about 6 blocks of my house.  Fortunately, for now the danger for flooding appears to receding.  Unfortunately, this has all been dwarfed by the horror of what is happening in Japan.  The 8.9 earthquake, the worst in recorded history for the nation, combined with 6.0 aftershocks.  CNN and the BBC have been running real-time coverage all day. 

For my part, I recommend supporting two organizations that have a proven track record in these situations, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Doctors without Borders.  Just spend five minutes looking at some of the devestation online and you will see what will be required in the comming weeks and months.

1000 year old canoe excavated in Florida

The Saint-Petersburg Times has a video of the excavation of a 1000 year old canoe on Weedon Island, Florida.  The fact that the canoe survived to the extent that it did in the salt-water environment of the island is quite remarkable.  The clip gives a respectable amount of screen time to the archaeologists, as well as the cultural context of the find.

The Binghamton Neighborhood Project

Today I wanted to quickly highlight a major project undertaken by my former advison, David Sloan Wilson.  The Binghamton Neighborhood Project is a multidisciplinary academic and community effort to understand the culture and ecology of urban living in the city of Binghamton, New York.  The goal is not just to study but to improve the quality of life within the city.  In many ways, my own research into the historical demography of the Southern Tier grew out of a desire to add a historical dimension to the project. 

More on diseases and surnames

As a follow-up on the previous post, here is another journal article using surnames as potential indicators of disease inheritance (in this case, chronic hypothyroidism).  What is interesting about this study is that Rocci employs two fairly novel methods for isonymy research.  One is the rarefaction method developed by Howard Sanders to measure species richness, and the other is a statistical randomization method. 

References

Rocchi, M.B. 2006. Surnames as markers of pathologies-two statistical techniques and their applications.  Coll. Antropol. 30: 383-385.

Surnames and cancer

After my first few postings introducing surname genetics (isonymy), I wanted to bring up a very important practical application of this research; the application of surname studies to cancer research.  In a 1992 study on the potential genetic influence on certain cancers, Holloway and Sofear compared the rates of various cancers identified in Scottish males with the coefficent of relatedness (Random Isonymy / 2) derived from surname data.  They were able to conclude that a strong genetic component underscores colon and prostate cancer, with a lesser genetic influence on stomach and rectal cancers.  This study underscores just how useful surnames can be as simple, readily available markers of kinship.

References

Holloway, S.M. and Sofaer, J.A. 1992. Coefficents of relationship by isonymy among registrations for five common cancers is Scottish Males.  Journal of Epidemiology and Comunity Health 46: 368-372.

Sources for Surname Data

Continuing from the previous post on surname studies, today I'll talk a bit about where to find surname data.  Historically, there have been three main sources of data:  marriage records, census data and directories (later phonebooks).  Marriage records are used for measuring non-random isonymy, which I will discus in a later post.

Census data is useful since state and federal censuses often contain additional demographic data, such as vital statistics (births, deaths, marriages), as well as state or country of origin, which can aid in immigration studies.  When using census data it is generally accepted practice to utilize a single generational component, usually the heads of households only.  

Another source of data are town directories.  Throughout the 19^th century, directories of town residents were often produced, though somewhat irregularly.  These directories essentially functioned like phonebooks without the phone number, giving the name of the head of household and address.  Directories have the advantage of being typed records, rather than handwritten census records.  With the advent of the telephone, naturally the phonebook took the place of directories.  Phonebooks have been used extensively in isonymy studies, particularly when the information is available via CD-ROM.

Beyond the three major sources listed above, data sources are only limited to the creativity of the researcher.  Indeed, any specific record of individuals may represent a biological sample of some population.  For example, Gabriel Lasker utilized militia roles from the Revolutionary War as random samples of males from bounded populations.  Another possible source of data are cemeteries.  Many cemeteries include grave markers listing married couples, which would constitute a source of marital isonymy data.

One of the most significant developments for surname research is the fact that many of these data sources are now becoming available online.  Historical societies and genealogical websites are beginning to transcribe census and historical directory data on to the internet.  Of course, you are taking a risk of sorts when utilizing transcribed data alone since you are relying on the accuracy of the transcriber.  This may be especially problematic when the information was originally hand-written.  Then again, much of this work is being done by dedicated volunteers, who can be quite adept at both translating hand-writing and identifying alternate spellings of words.  When in doubt, check out the hard copies yourself at the county offices or local historical society.