Samuel M Otterstrom
Biographic Data
| ID | 3758327 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Samuel M Otterstrom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Samuel M |
| FAMILY NAME | Otterstrom |
| SIGNATURE | OTTERSTROM S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Imported Toponymy and the FamilySearch Place Name Database: Mapping North American Communities with European Capital Namesakes
Place names lend themselves very easily to cartographic and geographic research, and they have been studied extensively from these perspectives. Recent technological advances have allowed for a more rapid geographical study of toponyms of many types. An additional, albeit less visible resource with a robust place name system is the FamilySearch genealogical database. FamilySearch is the world leader in open-source genealogical data and hosts a us…
New West and Old West in the Twenty-First Century: The Rich Get Richer
The rural U.S. West is increasingly valued for its unique natural beauty, tourism potential, and the outdoor recreational activities it provides rather than for its grazing potential, lumber mills, or extraction of valuable minerals. With this transition in mind, we examine demographic changes in the region within the context of selective migration. We build on research conducted in the late 1990s that studied the changing spatial patterns of mig…
Using Linked Census Records to Study Shrinking Cities in the United States from 1900 to 1940
We develop a data-driven method for linking people in cities over time that can be used in any country that has data tracking the locations of individuals across multiple periods. We apply this process to United States Census data from 1900 through 1940 and find that, of the 1,000 largest cities in 1900, 15 percent experienced a decline in population by 1940. We also use the large data set for this same time period, linking more than 45 million p…
Relative Concentrations and Diffusion of Covid-19 across the United States in 2020
Les auteurs étudient la propagation de la COVID-19 (maladie à coronavirus 2019) en termes de cas et de décès dans l’ensemble des États-Unis, à l’aide des données relatives aux comtés à différents niveaux de comparaison. Ils utilisent l’indice de Hoover et l’indice de différentiel géographique pour analyser l’évolution de la concentration de COVID-19 à l’échelle des grandes zones économiques ( city systems), de mai 2020 à décembre 2020. Les auteur…
The Uneven Landscape of California's Historical Landmarks
Historical markers help preserve and display history and communicate what a group deems important about a place's past. This paper analyzes the changing themes and landscape relevance of California's official historical landmarks. California's thousand‐plus markers are classified and mapped by themes, analyzed for changing topical emphasis over time, and evaluated for landscape presence. The thematic distribution and relative density of these lan…
Derek R. Everett. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands
Journal Article Derek R. Everett. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands. Get access Derek R. Everett. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Pp. xv, 302. $29.95. Samuel M. Otterstrom Samuel M. Otterstrom Brigham Young University [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 120, …
Genealogy, Migration, and the Intertwined Geographies of Personal Pasts
Genealogical data have tremendous potential to reveal the geographic web of past family connections. In this article we propose a genealogical geography paradigm that utilizes queries of a database containing more than 800 million names to analyze historical migration patterns. Our conceptual model considers hourglass-shaped community ancestry and descendancy hinterlands that spread out from a local place and incorporates the ideas of diaspora, g…
From Wilderness to Megalopolis: A Comparative Analysis of County Level Sex Ratios in the United States From 1790 to 1910 Using a Historical GIS
Using a historical Geographic Information System (GIS) and statistical measures, this research examines the sex ratios of the United States between 1790 and 1910 to determine whether men truly outnumbered women on the American Frontier. We used United States Census data combined with historical digital county maps to calculate male-to-female sex ratios by county and settlement density class. We analyzed these ratios using descriptive statistics, …
Income Migration and the Spatial Redistribution of Poverty and Income in the Mountain West Region during the 1990s
The purpose of this research is to understand how rapid population growth in the Mountain West region in the U.S. during the 1990s has affected the spatial distribution of income and poverty. Population growth in the Mountain West during the 1990s was principally through the mechanism of internal and international migration. In previous research we found that much of this growth, and the income growth that went along with it, was highly concentra…
Deserts and oases: The continuing concentration of population in the American Mountain West
Population concentration in United States city‐systems from 1790 to 2000: Historical trends and current phases
Among the industrialised nations of the world, the USA has a relatively short history of urbanisation. This fact and the ready availability of reliable historical data have made the USA a fertile place for studying the nature of urban and regional growth from its earliest beginnings. This paper analyses the patterns of city and hinterland, or city‐system, population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 2000. The Hoover index is employe…
Family transitions in Latin America: First intercourse, first union and first birth
This paper examines the initiation of sexual activity, first marriage and first birth as key steps in family formation. These events mark the transition to adulthood and generally occur in the late teens and early twenties in most Latin American countries. Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine the timing of these events across birth cohorts, comparing urban and rural areas, countries, cultural regions and educational groups. …
The Settlement of the United States from 1790 to 1990: Divergent Rates of Growth and the End of the Frontier
The timing of the American frontier's closing can be determined through an analysis of the patterns and rates of settlement growth in the United States-based on historical county boundaries, population data from U.S. censuses, and a minimum of two people per square mile to classify a region as settled. Trends in the settlement of the contiguous areas of the country indicate three periods of population settlement-1790 to 1840, 1840 to 1910, and 19…
Spatial Patterns of Migration and Income Change in the Mountain West: The Dominance of Service-Based, Amenity-Rich Counties
One of the most recognizable and important changes occurring in the West is rapid population growth. This article intends to address questions associated with whether patterns of population growth and income migration are associated with “new” and “old” West economies. Rural restructuring in the U.S. has created a group of counties with service-based economies. In the Mountain West, a number of counties with service-based economies are located in…
Trends in national and regional population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 1990: From the frontier to the urban transformation
The United States has undergone sizable changes in its population geography since 1790. A major component of these population shifts has been the rapid movement of the frontier westward as settled area increased. This research shows the population deconcentration effects of the great migration from relatively high densities along the eastern seaboard to the sparsely populated west. This dispersal was followed by concentration stemming from massiv…
Ethnic and economic regions in Slovakia: A statistical and visual exploration of contemporary patterns
Family transitions in Latin America: First intercourse, first union and first birth
This paper examines the initiation of sexual activity, first marriage and first birth as key steps in family formation. These events mark the transition to adulthood and generally occur in the late teens and early twenties in most Latin American countries. Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine the timing of these events across birth cohorts, comparing urban and rural areas, countries, cultural regions and educational groups. …
Deserts and oases: The continuing concentration of population in the American Mountain West
Trends in national and regional population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 1990: From the frontier to the urban transformation
The United States has undergone sizable changes in its population geography since 1790. A major component of these population shifts has been the rapid movement of the frontier westward as settled area increased. This research shows the population deconcentration effects of the great migration from relatively high densities along the eastern seaboard to the sparsely populated west. This dispersal was followed by concentration stemming from massiv…
Genealogy, Migration, and the Intertwined Geographies of Personal Pasts
Genealogical data have tremendous potential to reveal the geographic web of past family connections. In this article we propose a genealogical geography paradigm that utilizes queries of a database containing more than 800 million names to analyze historical migration patterns. Our conceptual model considers hourglass-shaped community ancestry and descendancy hinterlands that spread out from a local place and incorporates the ideas of diaspora, g…
The Settlement of the United States from 1790 to 1990: Divergent Rates of Growth and the End of the Frontier
The timing of the American frontier's closing can be determined through an analysis of the patterns and rates of settlement growth in the United States-based on historical county boundaries, population data from U.S. censuses, and a minimum of two people per square mile to classify a region as settled. Trends in the settlement of the contiguous areas of the country indicate three periods of population settlement-1790 to 1840, 1840 to 1910, and 19…
The Uneven Landscape of California's Historical Landmarks
Historical markers help preserve and display history and communicate what a group deems important about a place's past. This paper analyzes the changing themes and landscape relevance of California's official historical landmarks. California's thousand‐plus markers are classified and mapped by themes, analyzed for changing topical emphasis over time, and evaluated for landscape presence. The thematic distribution and relative density of these lan…
Population concentration in United States city‐systems from 1790 to 2000: Historical trends and current phases
Among the industrialised nations of the world, the USA has a relatively short history of urbanisation. This fact and the ready availability of reliable historical data have made the USA a fertile place for studying the nature of urban and regional growth from its earliest beginnings. This paper analyses the patterns of city and hinterland, or city‐system, population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 2000. The Hoover index is employe…
Ethnic and economic regions in Slovakia: A statistical and visual exploration of contemporary patterns
Spatial Patterns of Migration and Income Change in the Mountain West: The Dominance of Service-Based, Amenity-Rich Counties
One of the most recognizable and important changes occurring in the West is rapid population growth. This article intends to address questions associated with whether patterns of population growth and income migration are associated with “new” and “old” West economies. Rural restructuring in the U.S. has created a group of counties with service-based economies. In the Mountain West, a number of counties with service-based economies are located in…
Trends in national and regional population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 1990: From the frontier to the urban transformation
The United States has undergone sizable changes in its population geography since 1790. A major component of these population shifts has been the rapid movement of the frontier westward as settled area increased. This research shows the population deconcentration effects of the great migration from relatively high densities along the eastern seaboard to the sparsely populated west. This dispersal was followed by concentration stemming from massiv…
Family transitions in Latin America: First intercourse, first union and first birth
This paper examines the initiation of sexual activity, first marriage and first birth as key steps in family formation. These events mark the transition to adulthood and generally occur in the late teens and early twenties in most Latin American countries. Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine the timing of these events across birth cohorts, comparing urban and rural areas, countries, cultural regions and educational groups. …
The Settlement of the United States from 1790 to 1990: Divergent Rates of Growth and the End of the Frontier
The timing of the American frontier's closing can be determined through an analysis of the patterns and rates of settlement growth in the United States-based on historical county boundaries, population data from U.S. censuses, and a minimum of two people per square mile to classify a region as settled. Trends in the settlement of the contiguous areas of the country indicate three periods of population settlement-1790 to 1840, 1840 to 1910, and 19…
Income Migration and the Spatial Redistribution of Poverty and Income in the Mountain West Region during the 1990s
The purpose of this research is to understand how rapid population growth in the Mountain West region in the U.S. during the 1990s has affected the spatial distribution of income and poverty. Population growth in the Mountain West during the 1990s was principally through the mechanism of internal and international migration. In previous research we found that much of this growth, and the income growth that went along with it, was highly concentra…
Deserts and oases: The continuing concentration of population in the American Mountain West
Population concentration in United States city‐systems from 1790 to 2000: Historical trends and current phases
Among the industrialised nations of the world, the USA has a relatively short history of urbanisation. This fact and the ready availability of reliable historical data have made the USA a fertile place for studying the nature of urban and regional growth from its earliest beginnings. This paper analyses the patterns of city and hinterland, or city‐system, population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 2000. The Hoover index is employe…
From Wilderness to Megalopolis: A Comparative Analysis of County Level Sex Ratios in the United States From 1790 to 1910 Using a Historical GIS
Using a historical Geographic Information System (GIS) and statistical measures, this research examines the sex ratios of the United States between 1790 and 1910 to determine whether men truly outnumbered women on the American Frontier. We used United States Census data combined with historical digital county maps to calculate male-to-female sex ratios by county and settlement density class. We analyzed these ratios using descriptive statistics, …
Genealogy, Migration, and the Intertwined Geographies of Personal Pasts
Genealogical data have tremendous potential to reveal the geographic web of past family connections. In this article we propose a genealogical geography paradigm that utilizes queries of a database containing more than 800 million names to analyze historical migration patterns. Our conceptual model considers hourglass-shaped community ancestry and descendancy hinterlands that spread out from a local place and incorporates the ideas of diaspora, g…
Derek R. Everett. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands
Journal Article Derek R. Everett. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands. Get access Derek R. Everett. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Pp. xv, 302. $29.95. Samuel M. Otterstrom Samuel M. Otterstrom Brigham Young University [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 120, …
The Uneven Landscape of California's Historical Landmarks
Historical markers help preserve and display history and communicate what a group deems important about a place's past. This paper analyzes the changing themes and landscape relevance of California's official historical landmarks. California's thousand‐plus markers are classified and mapped by themes, analyzed for changing topical emphasis over time, and evaluated for landscape presence. The thematic distribution and relative density of these lan…
Relative Concentrations and Diffusion of Covid-19 across the United States in 2020
Les auteurs étudient la propagation de la COVID-19 (maladie à coronavirus 2019) en termes de cas et de décès dans l’ensemble des États-Unis, à l’aide des données relatives aux comtés à différents niveaux de comparaison. Ils utilisent l’indice de Hoover et l’indice de différentiel géographique pour analyser l’évolution de la concentration de COVID-19 à l’échelle des grandes zones économiques ( city systems), de mai 2020 à décembre 2020. Les auteur…
Using Linked Census Records to Study Shrinking Cities in the United States from 1900 to 1940
We develop a data-driven method for linking people in cities over time that can be used in any country that has data tracking the locations of individuals across multiple periods. We apply this process to United States Census data from 1900 through 1940 and find that, of the 1,000 largest cities in 1900, 15 percent experienced a decline in population by 1940. We also use the large data set for this same time period, linking more than 45 million p…
New West and Old West in the Twenty-First Century: The Rich Get Richer
The rural U.S. West is increasingly valued for its unique natural beauty, tourism potential, and the outdoor recreational activities it provides rather than for its grazing potential, lumber mills, or extraction of valuable minerals. With this transition in mind, we examine demographic changes in the region within the context of selective migration. We build on research conducted in the late 1990s that studied the changing spatial patterns of mig…
Imported Toponymy and the FamilySearch Place Name Database: Mapping North American Communities with European Capital Namesakes
Place names lend themselves very easily to cartographic and geographic research, and they have been studied extensively from these perspectives. Recent technological advances have allowed for a more rapid geographical study of toponyms of many types. An additional, albeit less visible resource with a robust place name system is the FamilySearch genealogical database. FamilySearch is the world leader in open-source genealogical data and hosts a us…
Geography (15 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Population (12 works) · Demography (11 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Economic geography (9 works) · Economics (9 works) · Census (7 works) · Political science (7 works)