Introduction

Abstract

The historical demographic study of family structure and kinship has experienced tremendous change over the last 20 years. While the focus in the past has been on the family and the household, including coresident kin, considerable resources have recently been devoted to delineating nonresident kin. This has been done not only in societies where kinship was a major organizing principle by which social groups maintained the security and well-being of their members, but also in Western societies, where the state played part of this role. The reason for the interest in family and kin networks also in Western societies is due to the fact that, while the state had the ultimate responsibility for the security and well-being of its citizens, this task was often devolved to families and employers, the state stepping in only if these agents failed. Thus, for most of the time, and for the majority of the population, the family and the household, and sometimes also the nonresident kin, were instrumental in securing living standards for their members in both the West and the East.