Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dvmhs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-18T17:48:38.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Family Relations of Aged Colonial Jews: A Testamentary Analysis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Cary S. Kart  and
Carol Engler
Cary S. Kart
Affiliation:
Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, University of Toledo, College of Arts and Science, 2801 W Bancroft Street, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.
Carol Engler
Affiliation:
University of Toledo.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Content analysis of wills probated in New York State between 1704 and 1799 is used to reconstruct the family relations of aged colonial Jews. The modernisation theory of ageing provides a backdrop for this beginning effort to specify variations in family life in history. In general, regardless of marital status, aged Jewish colonial testators followed a familistic inheritance pattern. Individual wills contained articulated and vindictive bequests. It is suggested that while the Jewish family was an important mechanism for maintaining cultural cohesion and identity, it was also an important support structure in adapting to the realities of a Christian colonial America that was rapidly modernising. Future work in the history of the family relations of aged individuals will have to be comparative.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , September 1985 , pp. 289 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Achenbaum, W. A.Old Age in the New Land, The American Experience Since 1790. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1978.Google Scholar

2 Demos, J.Notes on life in Plymouth Colony. William and Mary Quarterly, 22 (1965), 264–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Demos, J.Families in colonial Bristol, Rhode Island: An exercise in historical demography. William and Mary Quarterly, 25 (1968), 40–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Demos, J.A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony. Oxford University Press, New York, 1970.Google Scholar

5 Fischer, D. H.Growing Old in America. Oxford University Press, New York, 1978.Google Scholar

6 Foner, A.Age stratification and changing family. American Journal of Sociology, 84 (1978), 340–365 (supplement).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Greven, P.Family structure in seventeenth-century Andover, Massachusetts. William and Mary Quarterly, 22 (1966), 234–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Greven, P.Historical demography and colonial America. William and Mary Quarterly, 24 (1967), 438–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Greven, P.Four Generations: Population, Land and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1970.Google Scholar

10 Hareven, T.The family as process: The historical study of the family cycle. Journal of Social History, 7 (1974), 322–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Hareven, T.The last stage:Historical adulthood and old age. Daedalus, 105 (1976), 13–27.Google ScholarPubMed

12 Hareven, T.The dynamics of kin in an industrial society. American Journal of Sociology, 84 (1978), 151–182 (supplement).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Cherlin, A. A sense of history: Recent research on aging and the family. In Riley, M., Hess, B., and Bond, K. (eds). Aging in Society: Selected Reviews of Recent Research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, N.J., 1983.Google Scholar

14 Demos, J.Old age in New England. American Journal of Sociology, 84 (1978), 248–287 (supplement).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Kent, D. Changing welfare to serve minority, In Minority Aged in America. Institute of Gerontology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1971.Google Scholar

16 Kent, D.The elderly in minority groups: Variant patterns of aging. Gerontologist, 11 (1971), 26–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Cowgill, D.The aging of populations and societies. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 415 (1974), 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Cowgill, D. Aging and modernization: A revision of the theory. In Gubrium, J. (ed.). Late Life: Communities and Environmental Policy. Charles C. Thomas, Spring field, Ill., 1974.Google Scholar

19 Cowgill, D. and Holmes, L.Aging and Modernization. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1972.Google Scholar

20 Grew, R.Modernization and its discontents. American Behavioral Scientist, 21 (1977), 289–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Achenbaum, W. A. and Stearns, P.Old age and modernization. Gerontologist, 18 (1978), 307–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

22 Quadagno, J.Aging in Early Industrial Society: Work, Family and Social Policy in Nineteenth-century England. Academic Press, New York, 1982.Google Scholar

23 Stearns, P.Modernization and social history, some suggestions and a mute cheer. Journal of Social History, 15 (1982), 189–209.Google Scholar

24 Gutmann, M. and LeBoutte, R.Rethinking protoindustrialization and the family. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 14, 3 (1984), 587–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Levine, D.Family Formation in an Age of Nascent Capitalism. Academic Press, New York, 1977.Google Scholar

26 Mendels, F.Protoindustrialization: The first phase of the industrialization process. Journal of Economic History, 32 (1972), 241–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 Narrett, D.Preparation for death and provision for the living: Notes on New York wills (1665–1760), New York History, 57 (1976), 417–437.Google Scholar

28 Deen, J.Patterns of testation: Four Tidewater counties in colonial America. American Journal of Legal History, 16 (1972), 154–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Friedman, L.Patterns of testation in the nineteenth century: A study of Essex County, New Jersey wills. American Journal of Legal History, 8 (1964), 34–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Sussman, M., Cates, J. and Smith, N.The Family and Inheritance. Russell Sage, New York, 1970.Google Scholar

31 Rosenfeld, J.The Legacy of Aging: Inheritance and Disinheritance in Social Perspective. Ablex Publishing Co., Norwood, N.J., 1979.Google Scholar

32 Bryant, C. and Snizek, W.The last will and testament: A neglected document in sociological research. Sociology and Social Research, 59 (1975), 219–230.Google Scholar

33 Hershkowitz, L.Wills of early New York Jews (1704–1740). American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 55 (1966), 319–363.Google Scholar

34 Hershkowitz, L.Wills of early New York Jews (1743–1774). American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 56 (1966), 62–122.Google Scholar

35 Hershkowitz, L.Wills of early New York Jews (1784–1799). American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 56 (1966), 163–207.Google Scholar

36 Daniels, D.Colonial Jewry: Religion, domestic and social relations. American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 66 (1977), 375–400.Google Scholar

37 Rosenwaike, I.An estimate and analysis of the Jewish population of the U.S. in 1790. Proceedings of the American Jewish Historical Society, 50 (1960), 31.Google Scholar

38 Dimont, M.The Jews in America. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1978.Google Scholar

39 Hershkowitz, L.Some aspects of the New York Jewish merchant community, 1654–1820. American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 66 (1976), 10–34.Google Scholar

40 Lantz, H. and O'Hara, M.The Jewish family in early America. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 7 (1977), 247–259.Google Scholar

41 Engler-Bowles, C. and Kart, C.Intergenerational relations and testamentary patterns: An exploration. Genntologist, 23 (1983), 167–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Ausubel, N.The Book of Jewish Knowledge. Crown Press, New York, 1964.Google Scholar

43 Dowd, J.Exchange rates and old people. Journal of Gerontology, 35 (1980), 596–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

44 Smith, D.Parental power and marriage patterns: An analysis of historical trends in Hingham, Massachusetts. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 35 (1973), 419–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Morris, R.Primogeniture and entailed estates in America. Columbia Law Review, 27 (1927), 24–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Hareven, T. The life course and aging in historical perspective. In Hareven, T., and Adams, K. (eds). Aging and Life Course Transitions: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Guilford Press, New York, 1982.Google Scholar

47 Moore, J.Situational factors affecting minority aged. Gerontologist, 11 (1971), 88–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 Cheng, E.The Elder Chinese. Campanile Press, San Diego, 1978.Google Scholar

49 Dancy, J.The Black Elderly: A Guide for Practitioners. Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1977.Google Scholar

50 Dowd, J. and Bengtson, V.Aging in minority populations: An examination of the double jeopardy hypothesis. Journal of Gerontology, 33 (1978), 427–436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

51 Fujii, R. Elderly Asian Americans and use of public services. Social Casework, 03 (1976), 202–206.Google Scholar

52 Ishizuka, K.The Elderly Japanese. Campanile Press, San Diego, 1978.Google Scholar

53 Jackson, J.Minorities and Aging. Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont, Calif., 1980.Google Scholar

54 Maldonado, D. The Chicano aged. Social Work, 05 (1975), 213–216.Google Scholar

55 Stanford, E.The Elder Black. Center on Aging, San Diego State University, San Diego, 1978.Google Scholar

56 United States Senate Special Committee on Aging. The Multiple Hazards of Age and Race. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1971.Google Scholar

57 Valle, R. and Mendoza, L.The Elder Latino. Center on Aging, San Diego State University, San Diego, 1978.Google Scholar

58 Scriven, M. Philosophical redirection of educational research: Objectivity and subjectivity in educational research. In National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook, Part 1, 1971.Google Scholar

59 Hareven, T. The history of the family as an interdisciplinary field. In Rabb, T., and Rotberg, R. (eds). The Family in History: Interdisciplinary Essays. Harper & Row, New York, 1973.Google Scholar