"Searching for a Needle in a Haystack". The Intricacies of Sources on Causes of Death, Their Interpretation, and the Construction of a Database for the City of Poznań, 1830–1900
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19488683 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Grażyna Liczbińska (0000-0002-0922-4612, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Patryk Pankowski (0000-0001-7404-4362, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Szymon Antosik (0000-0003-4609-3313, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Karolina Kowalska (0009-0009-1097-8698, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Pages | 146-160 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-28 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Historical Life Course Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2352-6343 • E-ISSN: 2352-6343 |
| Publisher | International Institute of Social History (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.52024/hlcs25008 |
| OpenAlex | W7162698179 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
The administrative regulations introduced by the partitioning powers were enforced in the Polish lands under Prussian, Russian, and Austrian rule. These regulations included the methods of vital statistics registration, the language in which entries were recorded, and the types of data collected. Differences in registration pose significant challenges for contemporary researchers attempting to unify these records. Additionally, questions arise regarding the credibility and reliability of the registrations, which varied across the territories of the three partitions. Prussia had by far the most advanced statistical system. Strict adherence to deadlines for reporting marriages, births, and deaths, by both officials and ordinary citizens, undoubtedly contributed to the high quality of records maintained in Prussian-controlled territories. This paper aims to characterize the sources relating to causes of death in Poznań, then the capital of the Poznań Province in the 19th century, and to examine the diversity and validity of these sources, the quality and reliability of medical statistics, the development of the Poznań Historical Population Database, and, finally, the research opportunities this database enables. The study highlights the importance of a critical methodological approach to historical cause-of-death data. It demonstrates that, although imperfect, such sources can provide valuable insights into past health patterns and administrative practices when interpreted with linguistic, medical, and contextual sensitivity. The resulting database offers a foundation for further interdisciplinary research on historical epidemiology and urban demography
Capital (architecture) · Credibility · Diversity (politics) · Population · Quality (philosophy) · Reliability (semiconductor) · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management
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Cholera in the City of Poznań
Did cholera kill selectively by sex ? Sex differences in mortality caused by 1866 cholera epidemic in Poznań
Body mass index values of conscripts in the Polish lands under Prussian rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Love in the time of cholera. Cholera epidemics and changes in the marriage market in nineteenth-century Poznań
Urbanization and GDP per capita
Urban and rural differences in mortality and causes of death in historical Poland
Marital Choices in the 19th-Century Poznań
Ecological Conditions vs. Religious Denomination. Mortality Among Catholics and Lutherans in Nineteenth-Century Poznań
On the Need to Intensify the Research on the Demographic Structures of Families in Polish Lands until the Beginning of the 20th Century
| Highly cited | No |
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