INFANT MORTALITY IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY SOUTHERN ONTARIO

Abstract

Parish records from the All Saint's Anglican Church (Stamford, Ontario) and St. James' Anglican Church (Dundas, Ontario) were analysed in order to determine whether parish records may be used to accurately reconstruct the health ofpre-census populations in mid-nineteenth century Southern Ontario. The records are analysed using a protocol developed by Drake (1974), and were found to have problems related to the small number ofindividuals recorded within both sets ofrecords. In addition, both sets ofrecords showed a lack of consistency in record keeping throughout the time period studied. The data from the All Saint's Church demonstrated greater continuity and homogeneity than the data from the St. James' Church. Quantitative analysis ofboth parishes indicated that the data from the St. James' Church was seriously biased due to missing records and gaps in the recorded data. In contrast to the results obtained from the St. James' parish, the results ofthe analyses ofthe All Saint's Church data were consistent with similar studies performed in parishes in Southern Ontario and the Northern United States for the same time period. The results ofthis study suggest that while parish records may be a useful source of data for providing insight into the health and well-being ofpre-census communities, it is important to be aware of possible biases in the data which may result from incomplete records, small sample sizes and under-registration