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Description & Citation--Study No. 9443

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:9443
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09443
 
Title:Inheritance Patterns in the United States, 1685-1980
 
Principal Investigator(s):Carole Shammas
 
Funding Agency:National Science Foundation. Law and Social Science Program
 
  National Endowment for the Humanities. Research Program
 
Grant Number:SES-8208620
 
  RO-20466-83
 
Bibliographic Citation:Shammas, Carole. INHERITANCE PATTERNS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1685-1980 [Computer file]. Milwaukee, WI: Carole Shammas, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Dept. of History [producer], 1990. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1990. doi:10.3886/ICPSR09443
 

Scope of Study

Summary:This data collection was designed to study changes in American inheritance patterns over three centuries. Major areas of investigation include equality of treatment among children, legacies to sons versus daughters, estate planning strategies, treatment of spouse in will, women's testamentary power, charitable bequests, bequests to extended kin and non-kin, legacies of chattel, realty, and financial assets, and the naming of executors and guardians.
 
Subject Term(s):eighteenth century, estate planning, financial assets, historical data, inheritance, legacies, nineteenth century, seventeenth century, twentieth century, wills
 
Geographic Coverage:United States
 
Time Period:1685 - 1980
 
Date(s) of Collection:1983 - 1985
 
Data Type:event/transaction data
 
Data Collection Notes:Marylynn Salmon, University of Maryland, Department of History, and Michel Dahlin, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Department of History, collaborated with Carole Shammas in the preparation of this data collection.
 

Methodology

Data Source:Probate records (wills, administrations, and inventories) for Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles County, California
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Original ICPSR Release:1990-12-04
 
Version History:The last update of this study occurred on 2006-01-12.
 
  2006-01-12 - All files were removed from dataset 11 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: Wills: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1685-1756
  • DS2: Wills: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1791-1801
  • DS3: Wills: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1891-1893
  • DS4: Wills: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1979
  • DS5: Intestate Administrations: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1685-1756
  • DS6: Intestate Administrations: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1791-1801
  • DS7: Intestate Administrations: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1891-1893
  • DS8: Intestate Administrations: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1979
  • DS9: Wills: Los Angeles County, California, 1898-1900
  • DS10: Wills: Los Angeles County, California, 1980